The Sunday Mail
Like most African political leaders of his time, Zimbabwe’s legendary guerrilla war hero, General Josiah Magama Tongogara, popularly known as “Tongo”, had humble origins.
He was born on February 4, 1940 and raised in Nhema Communal Lands near Shurugwi, the fourth in a family of six.
His father was Magama Tongogara, popularly known as “VaChivi”, and with his two brothers and three sisters, young Josiah lived a rural life, ploughing the fields, herding cattle and attending local schools.
He did his primary education at Jovoringo School where he was a very bright student who always came first in his class and sang in the choir.
He showed exceptional talent as a soccer player. The fans called him “Nyenganyenga” (the swallow bird), to denote his speed and dexterity on the football field.
He had ambitions to pursue further studies and to become an accountant, but his parents were in no position to finance his education any further. Instead, he had to help them educate the younger siblings as he studied elementary bookkeeping privately.
As with thousands of other African families, Josiah’s father and mother worked on a white man’s farm.
By some historical coincidence, their bosses were the Smith family of Shurugwi whose son, Ian, was to become prime minister of the illegal regime in Southern Rhodesia and who was to make the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965 in the name of white supremacy.
In order to supplement the family income, young Josiah used to pick up tennis balls for Smith and his friends.
It was here that Josiah witnessed firsthand the injustice of the racial system that deprived not only his family, but all Africans of their land and opportunity for education.
Land and education for Africans became the driving force in Tongo’s life.
He swore to his brother Michael that he was going to fight and liberate Zimbabwe.
In 1960, at the age of 20 years, he trekked to Zambia and found work as a bar tender at the Royal Air Force bar in Lusaka, and later at Chainama Hills Golf Club where he learned to play golf.
But Tongo’s mind was set on loftier matters.
Friends of the young Tongo recall his intensity, his ambition, and a growing political awareness of the rising nationalist movement, not only in Zimbabwe but in Zambia and other parts of Africa.
In 1961, three years before Zambia’s independence, Tongo became an active member of Zambia’s United National Independence Party, led by Kenneth Kaunda, who was to become the first president of the country.
In a real sense, for three years, Josiah Tongogara worked for the independence of Zambia like a Zambian, as he later fought side by side with Frelimo for the liberation of Mozambique, with his sights always set on the need to liberate his own country.
He attended ZANU’s first Congress in Gweru in 1963 and became the first chairman of the Lusaka branch of ZANU.
His main task was to recruit young Zimbabweans in Zambia into ZANU and select some for military training.
As the number of recruits increased, Tongogara was given the responsibility to transport the recruits to friendly countries in Africa, Asia and Europe for military training.
In 1965, Tongogara himself went for military training at Itumbi Camp in Tanzania.
Early in 1966, he led a group of eleven cadres, including William Ndangana, to Nanking Academy in China, where they had training in mass mobilisation, military intelligence, political science, mass media, guerrilla war strategies and tactics.
The lessons that Tongogara learnt at Nanking, adapted to the Zimbabwean realities, became the foundation of the victory of the armed struggle of the 1970s known as the Second Chimurenga.
Tongogara returned to Tanzania in November 1966 to assume the new role of military instructor.
His approach was to “win people’s hearts before launching an attack on the enemy”.
He began organising and equipping ZANU infiltration groups and establishing forward bases across the Zambezi River.
He negotiated joint operations with FRELIMO in Mozambique, with the main objective of opening rear bases in areas the enemy did not suspect. General Tongogara’s military genius became apparent to all after the opening of the North-Eastern Campaign in 1970-71.
Under Tongo’s direction, ZANLA spent several months preparing for the opening of the new war front.
He organised routes and camps from Zambia through Mozambique into the Mt Darwin area of what is now Mashonaland Central.
Resisting pressure for an early attack on the enemy, Tongogara’s band of new fighters spent months educating the people, infiltrating and gathering supplies, and preparing for a sustained campaign different from the hit-and-run tactics of the past.
The first shots of the decisive phase of the war were fired on Altena Farm, just over 12 months after ZANLA forces had established themselves in the Centenary and Mt Darwin districts.
Ian Smith, admitted that the security position was “far more serious than appeared on the surface”.
A new type of guerrilla warfare had taken root and the enemy could not separate the guerrillas from the local people.
Tongo had given practical meaning to Mao Tse Tung’s teachings translated into ChiShona as “simba rehove riri mumvura” (a fish has its strength in water): the guerrilla must live with the people as the fish swims in the water.
That philosophy was destined to lead to victory.
The strategy and tactics which had proved successful in the north-eastern campaign were applied to many more zones along the length of the Mozambique border and in districts further inland.
The whole country was set ablaze with revolutionary fever and the name “Tongogara” became a household one.
When the final peace talks convened at Lancaster House in London, in September 1979, Tongogara represented the military in the ZANU-PF delegation.
At the negotiations, he commanded immense respect, especially among the military advisors of various delegations.
Tongogara saw a constitutional conference as the “second front” of the liberation war and he proved to be a shrewd and formidable negotiator.
Between conference sessions, he was consulted by all sides and chatted freely, even with members of the opposition, and with Ian Smith at a coffee break.
The success of the Lancaster House Conference was in large measure due to Tongogara’s confidence that the time had arrived to turn political mobilisation by the military into electoral votes for ZANU-PF.
To him, victory was assured, whatever the machinations of the enemy.
General Tongogara left London determined to implement the ceasefire agreement that had been reached at Lancaster House.
He briefed commanders who were in Maputo about the ceasefire arrangements.
The next day, December 26, 1979, Tongogara set out by road to brief other ZANLA commanders at their bush headquarters near Chimoio in Mozambique.
The vehicle in which he was travelling crashed into the rear of a lorry and he was killed on the spot.
The ZANU leadership and the Mozambique government, as well as the commanders of both ZANLA and ZIPRA, were shocked by the sudden loss of a highly-respected comrade.
As General Tongogara had predicted, ZANU-PF went on to win the elections that followed the ceasefire.
Cde Tongogara was declared a national hero and was buried at the National Heroes Acre in a moving ceremony attended by thousands of Zimbabweans.
Tongogara’s name is synonymous with Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.
Like Che Guevara, Tongogara was an internationalist revolutionary. Like Samora Machel, Comrade Tongo was a Pan-African soldier.
In General Tongogara, leadership, confidence and humility were combined with humanity and compassion.
Some of us were privileged to have known Cde Tongogara; there are still many amongst us today who lived and worked with him.
Future generations who will only learn about him from history books and films may wonder whether such a superhero was ever truly flesh and blood and walked on Earth.
Yes, Cde Tongo is not just a legend, but he was a country boy who rose to greatness through sheer determination and self-sacrifice, virtues that young men and women can emulate and achieve in their own walks of life.
Ambassador (Professor) Simbi V Mubako was Minister of Justice in the first Cabinet of independent Zimbabwe. He held other Cabinet posts and served as a High Court Judge. Most recently, he was Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to the US. He worked closely with Gen Tongogara during the liberation struggle and is chair of the Josiah Magama Tongogara Legacy Foundation.
