The Mamba was designed in Rhodesia in 1976 and was initially intended to be manufactured there, in anticipation of a domestic military or police contract. The Rhodesian Security Forces were then fighting a long and bitter counter-insurgency campaign against two rival insurgent armies; however, much of their small arms were well-worn and obsolete due to an arms embargo imposed on the country by the United Nations. The embargo had severely limited Rhodesia's ability to acquire new weapons, forcing the country to source most of its materiel from a sympathetic South Africa and from international arms dealers willing to violate the embargo. However, Rhodesian engineers also showed great resourcefulness in utilising the country's limited industrial capacity to manufacture 9×19mm Parabellum ammunition, and a number of small arms chambered for that round. The Mamba was one of several such designs; its Rhodesian developers envisioned it as a combat pistol which combined all the most desirable features of preexisting 9x19mm semi-automatic handguns in widespread military use, with the added feature of being manufactured entirely of stainless steel. Instrumental in the design process was Joe Hale, an American expatriate who was also involved in a number of other independent small arms projects in Rhodesia. Hale claimed he helped design the Mamba in concert with a multi-national team which included Swiss, British, and other American expatriates then living in Rhodesia.