In his 1967 鈥楳essage to the Tricontinental鈥, Che Guevara called for 鈥渁uthentic revolutionary struggle鈥 in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), while warning of the threat of neo-imperialism to Africa. From that point, guerrilla activity accelerated, with independence finally won in 1980. This paper will use two key strands of evidence to explore how the Zimbabwean revolution became weakened, ultimately leading to an incompletely liberated new country. Spanning the mid-1970s to 1987, and drawing from interviews with former ZANLA guerrillas and archival sources, the research weaves together combatants鈥 testimonies with a critical reading of the influences on militants from a birds鈥 eye view. First, it grapples with the construction and subsequent dismantling of the Marxist-Leninist 鈥榃ampua鈥 ideological college developed by ZANLA guerrillas in Mozambique. It then goes on to analyse shifts in narrative on the revolutionary role of soldiers and masses pre-and post-independence by comparing ZANLA鈥檚 magazine 鈥楾he Zimbabwe News鈥, with the Zimbabwe National Army鈥檚 鈥榋NA Magazine鈥. The research argues that combatants literate in radical leftist ideology posed a threat to aspirant nationalist leadership, and measures taken to depoliticise and deradicalise the forces鈥 vision ultimately affected the new state of Zimbabwe by undermining systems of accountability, failing to instil a robust ideological defence to neo-imperial overtures, and rebranding the military as an enforcing arm of the state.