Since the previous election in 1970, the main African nationalist groups had changed their strategy and gone into exile in Zambia (and to a lesser extent Mozambique and Botswana), launching a war to overthrow white minority rule by force. The main African groups, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (FROLIZI), formed the African National Council under Bishop Abel Muzorewa to act as a collective political leadership and undertake any negotiations with the Rhodesian government.