Heroes Day Special: How education won the liberation struggle

06 Aug, 2017 - 00:08 0 Views
Heroes Day Special: How education won the liberation struggle

The Sunday Mail

Ephraim Chitofu
Born on November 22, 1944, I grew up in Manicaland. I was educated in Chipinge and Chimanimani; and trained as a teacher at Mt Selinda.

I was later to teach at Biriiri Primary School in Chimanimani for a number of years before becoming the learning institution’s headmaster.

In 1975, I left teaching to join the liberation struggle. This was after a friend, Cde Obert Dhliwayo, had convinced me to “fight for your country”.

I crossed into Mozambique through Espunga-Beira, heading straight to Machazi Transit Camp where I met many comrades.

Zanu’s leadership would come to address us on a number of occasions. I remember coming across one of the most eloquent speakers I have ever come across.

There was clarity in his message. His mannerisms compelled one to pay attention. Robert Mugabe was the party’s secretary-general at that time.

He often visited to talk to the cadres. It was always a pleasure to have him around. After Machazi, we proceeded to Chibawawa Camp along Buzi River in Sofala Province.

There I met many comrades as this was a huge camp with roughly 15 000 people. A lot of children were in that multitude. Some of them had dropped out of school and needed to continue with their education.

Realising this need, the leadership decided that we establish a school at the camp. I was among those chosen to drive the initiative.

Initially, it was difficult to convince the young to attend classes. They had come to the bush geared for war and books were the least of their concerns. They reasoned that education would distract them from their core mandate — fighting the enemy.

The school began with an enrolment of Grades 1 to 7 pupils. We used makeshift learning materials: Charcoal as chalk and cardboard boxes as exercise books.

At times, the students would write on the floor. I was one of the five trained teachers. We recruited those who had gone up to Form Three or Four to help us teach.

Later, the United Nations chipped in with learning materials, resulting in more pupils coming to the school.

Around May/June 1976, the leadership directed teachers to go for military training so that we would include the ideals of the liberation struggle in our curriculum.

That, in my view, was one of the greatest ideas ever crafted by our leadership. I received military training at Chimoio from June to September 1976.

Afterwards, we established a new learning centre at Chimoio. It was known as Chindunduma and was part of the camps at Chimoio.

Other camps focused on health and security, among other areas. We also had the Whampoa Ideological College which later evolved into the Chitepo Ideological Centre.

The centre was for political orientation. Some of the comrades who passed through this school during my time there include Cdes Christopher Mutsvangwa, Dzinashe Machingura, Sam Geza, Oppah Muchinguri, Irene Zindi, and Ambassador Yowe.

In 1977, I was appointed Chief Research Officer in charge of producing learning materials, syllabuses and the curriculum for the students at the school.

I will never forget November 23, 1977. It was around 7:45 am when the entire Chimoio camp was bombed by Ian Smith’s forces.

The bombing occurred a day after my birthday. I recall waking up on that horrific morning with an intuition that something terrible was going to happen.

I did not eat breakfast or go to the parade square. I was teaching when I heard a loud sound. Some students who had dashed out to investigate reported having seen a spotter plane. Immediately, I knew we were in danger.

I told the students to run for cover; to run as far away from the camp as possible.

It is sad that I lost a good number of my students. The episode still haunts me. I can still see their frightened faces. Those innocent. It will take a lot to erase those memories.

It was the rain season, so many children were sheltering in military tents. Little did everyone know that the tents were the enemy’s targets.

Smith’s forces had been tracking the tents assuming that a force that had been trained in Tanzania was at Chimoio in those tents.

Some of the tents had been pitched at Chindunduma School, and the settler forces mercilessly went for them, directing missiles at them.

So, we lost many children who had sheltered in those tents. A dreaded chemical weapon known as Napalm was also used in the attack. Napalm was a flammable liquid that burnt the skin.

It had been banned internationally, but the ruthless Rhodesians used it on defenceless people. The massacre decimated the school and the entire education system.

We had to make a fresh start. We needed a lot of strength.

Fortunately, we gathered the resolve to go on educating young refugees and comrades, even in that dark hour.

Through the efforts of Secretary for Education Cde Ernest Kadungure and his deputy, Cde Sheiba Tawarwisa, we continued to fight to start another school.

Our team remained determined and gathered survivors to establish another learning centre at Gondola Camp.

Cdes Dzingai Mutumbuka, Fay Chung and Sam Geza were lecturers at Zambia University. They, therefore, led in setting up that school at Gondola.

We later moved from Gondola because its location made us susceptible to another attack. The next location was Mudzingadzi Camp, which we made our home in February 1978.

It was not long, though, before the enemy struck again. Unlike the Chimoio attack, most of us were better prepared.

A plan was in place to move the children from the base in the event of a raid. Four children died in that raid while the rest escaped unharmed. Cdes Fay Chung, Irene Mahamba and Tawarwisa sustained injuries.

We later relocated to Mavhudzi where we set up two schools and established a research unit that was headed by Cde Fay Chung.

We also set up Matenje Teachers College — a pioneering structure whose training model is still being used at teacher training colleges today.

Our education curriculum at the time was anchored on the principle of “education with production”. Students were taught not only theory, but practical life-skills.

I took a critical lesson from the liberation struggle: Education is important. Combatants got a lot of schooling. They were drilled militarily and academically.

I believe the combined skills they acquired contributed to Ian Smith’s defeat and our marching into a free Zimbabwe.

It was all to do with the philosophy of education with production as the combatants applied what they learnt to win the war. I believe education with production should be adopted as a policy.

It served us remarkably during the liberation struggle. After Independence, I was Member of Parliament for Manicaland before joining the Ex-Combatants and Ex-Refugees Scholarship Programme in the Education Ministry.

That department was responsible for paying school fees for ex-combatants and; former refugees and their children. A lot of ex-combatants got an education under this programme.

We then proceeded to start schools to help beneficiaries complete their studies as some of the available learning institutions refused to enrol ex-combatants and refugees.

Some of the schools established for ex-refugees and ex-combatants include Rusunungoko High, Mavhudzi, Chindunduma, Fatima High, George Silundika and JZ Moyo.

I am the Director of the Zimbabwe Foundation for Education with Production (Zimfep). We run Mupfure College in Chegutu, which adopted the education with production system.

Cde Chitofu was speaking to The Sunday Mail’s Chief Reporter Kuda Bwititi in Harare on August 4, 2017.

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