Selous Scouts

The Selous Scouts was a special forces regiment of the Rhodesian Army, that operated from 1973 until the reconstitution of the country as Zimbabwe in 1980. Named after the British explorer Frederick Courteney Selous (1851–1917), its motto was pamwe chete—a Shona phrase roughly meaning "all together", "together only" or "forward together".

The charter of the Selous Scouts directed them to "the clandestine elimination of terrorists/terrorism both within and without the country."

Historical context

The period during which the Selous Scouts were most active was during the Rhodesian Bush War (or Second Chimurenga). This was a war of annihilation through terrorism and insurgency waged by black guerrillas (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA)/Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA)/Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU)) with the goal of ending white minority rule in Rhodesia, a nation led by Prime Minister Ian Smith. Rhodesia at the time had the highest levels of wealth and one of the highest gross domestic product of any nation in Africa, and its white minority citizens enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the world.