The Sunday Mail
Plaxedes Chikerema —
My husband, Charles Chikerema, a nationalist and former Editor of The Sunday Mail and The Herald, was moulded by Cde Fidel Castro in a very big way. He studied and received military training in Cuba for six years, and acquired a great deal of El Comandante’s traits.
It took me 10 years to accept Charles’ love proposal. We first met at St Paul’s Musami Mission School in Murewa where we were both students. He proposed in 1959, but I spurned his advances as I didn’t believe in dating at the time.
Besides, I was only a teenager trying to acquire education. After graduating from secondary school, he went to study political science in Cuba, combining this with military training. He kept writing me love letters during his stay abroad.
It was only in 1969 that my heart felt lighter. My countenance lit up each time I read his letters. I soon realised that love was creeping up on me, methodically, stealthily. I was in love and married Charles that year.
I had an ectopic pregnancy soon after our marriage, meaning I could not fall pregnant anymore. It was difficult at that time for any man to accept that but Charles loved me all the same.
We lived together for 29 years until his death in 1998. We never had children, but he never complained as he had long accepted the situation. It takes a special man to live with that reality. I was later to learn that his character plus his Cuban socialist grounding had imbued him with so much unconditional love to share with those around him.
Even the “revolutionary romantic” he proved to be with his relentless love proposal has always drawn me to reflect on Cuba and Cde Castro’s influence on him. He was groomed to be a principled man who stuck to his beliefs. He believed in socialism, reasoning that the world could be a better place if people lived for one another.
I never got to ask him about his experiences in Cuba, but it was easy to see that his time there had moulded him into the man he was. An introvert, Charles never spoke much about Havana; save occasionally when he felt giddy. He loved Cuban cigars, though he later quit smoking.
One of my proudest moments was when I received the Gold Medal of Friendship from the Cuban Government on his behalf. This was a few weeks after his passing. It remains a great honour because the award was signed by the then President Fidel Castro himself.
The award also brings me lots of sadness as Charles died while he was preparing to travel to Cuba to receive that honour from President Castro. He had also scheduled to interview some Cuban comrades he knew from his time in Cuba. I ended up receiving the award from the then Cuban Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Cde Rodolfo Sarracino.
I was not aware of many of Charles’ achievements in Cuba, I was humbled that the Government of Cuba held him in such high esteem. Ambassador Sarracino said Charles was among the first Africans to study in Cuba and carry out important political missions there.
He commended my husband for volunteering to join the Cuban people in defending the Carribean island during the 1962 missile crisis which left Cuba in danger of a nuclear attack. The Ambassador also said Charles was part of a group that volunteered to fight when another threat of war loomed on Cuba in 1964.
Charles met Cde Castro several times, I was told, and helped coordinate Cuban assistance for Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. I was touched, lost for words. There was, however, an underlying pride of my husband’s accomplishments, a pride only my heart can comprehend. I wrote to Cde Castro thanking him for the award.
I told him how Charles’ love for Cuba had rubbed off on me, and that Charles and I wept with the Cuban people when Western sanctions were imposed on them. Charles remained convinced that Cuba’s social system was the best remedy as it would result in equitable wealth distribution.
He was once suspended for his forthright views during his stint as editor of The Sunday Mail. He created lots of enemies because of his ideology, with some labelling him anti-white and a black racist. Some powerful businesspeople wanted him fired. He confided to me about how his love for the word “comrade” had landed him in trouble at work as it was associated with communism.
It was amazing, though, that his subordinates would always defend him whenever he raffled his bosses’ feathers. The reporters and other staff loved him and understood his character. Charles saw a lot of similarities between Cuba and Palestine. He always related the comparison passionately.
He also shared a great relationship with Yasar Arafat. Cde Fidel Castro is no more, gone to another world. I wonder what Charles would say to him after such a long time.
Mrs Plaxedes Chikerema shared these views with The Sunday Mail Chief Reporter Kuda Bwititi in Harare on December 1, 2016.
