The Sunday Mail
A lot has been said about Gonakudzingwa by some people who have heard stories about it and by those who were there.
What I write here is personal, original and touching and has never been made known or talked about.
I thank God for keeping me alive and allowing me to reveal my innermost experiences with the revolutionary icon, Father Zimbabwe.
If I had decided against revealing my trials and tribulations with Dr Joshua Nkomo, this information might have ended up buried with my bones, depriving present and future generations their heritage.
In 1963 in Bulawayo, Dr Nkomo told me that our struggle at home and outside needed to be intensified following the split in Zapu leading to Zanu’s formation.
Dr Nkomo said, “Whatever you do, do not get arrested. Ungazibophisi.”
I became commander of an underground demolition squad, going by the pseudonym “General Hokoyo”.
This group consisted of Joshua Dube, Abednego Mpofu, Canaan Ncube, Lensgina, Mlotshwa and Fletcher Dulini Kambonje Mayisa.
I trained them in urban guerilla warfare and to make petrol bombs.
We bombed Winston Field – the then Prime Minister’s podium at White City Stadium, hence he was removed for being weak and replaced by Ian Smith. We also bombed railways and Mpopoma Train Station.
This sabotage was subsequently linked to Dr Nkomo, who was being encouraged by Front Line States to form a government in exile in order to get more resources to prosecute the armed struggle.
Soon afterwards, Dr Nkomo, Josiah Chinamano and Dan Madzimbamuto were arrested and detained at Wha Wha; but Nkomo was later to be transferred to a new detention camp known as Gonakudzingwa.
Cdes Robert Mugabe, Enos Nkala and Marembo – Stanslus Marembo’s younger brother – were transferred to Sikombela, Gokwe. Gonakudzingwa – a place where “undesirable” people were banished to – was created at Villa Salazar Railway Station and Police Camp on the border with Mozambique. Salazar was the Portuguese president then and his regime had trained an army of assimilados – Africans who were brainwashed to think, talk, fight and kill like the Portuguese.
These assimilados were deployed to kill any detainee who dared escape through the Mozambique border.
On the other side of the Rhodesian fence were lions and elephants; themselves major deterrents. On the Western side of the camp was Sengwe Tribal Community.
The Shangani people there were told that the detainees were insane and should, therefore, not talk to them. As such, they looked aside and ran away whenever they came across detainees.
In 1964, Dr Nkomo was flown in a helicopter to Gonakudzingwa. A dark cloud appeared to cover the camp, making it impossible for the helicopter to land. The pilot returned to Wha Wha and only landed at Gonakudzingwa the following day.
Back in Bulawayo, the Rhodesian regime discovered I was General Hokoyo.
Armed police pounced on my house in Mpopoma at midnight, arresting me and leaving my wife, Rose, and three-year-old son Mandla.
On the day of my departure, I said to my mother : “Bye bye, ini ndava kuenda kuhondo. Vakandibata, hatichaonani but vakasandibata, tinoonana. Muchengete mwana (son Mandla was 3 years old). Kana ndafa musandicheme, ropa rangu richava pamureza weZimbabwe.”
I was locked up at Fife Street Prison where they said I would soon join Nkomo at Gonakudzingwa. I was taken by a Land Rover at night to Zvishavane to board a train to Villa Salazar. The following morning, I was at Villa Salazar Police Station and then taken to Nkomo, Chinamano, Joseph Msika, Madzimbamuto and CCG Ngcebetsha.
Dr Nkomo said, “I told you to be careful as not to be arrested. If we are all detained, ngubani ozoqhuba ngomsebenzi?”
I said, “Bangithengisile Mdala.”
As the days progressed, more and more detainees were brought into Camp 1: Willy Dzawanda Musarurwa, Jane Ngwenya, Ruth Chinamano, Chief Mangwende, Nevison Mkanganga Nyashanu, Jean Ntutha, Samuel Munodawafa (our Zapu Chairman), Maluleke Senior, Makhathini Guduza, Mukarati Senior and Mukarati Junior, Stanslus Marembo and Munyangatire.
When Nkomo’s Camp 1 had close to 1 000 detainees, Camp 2 was created; followed by camps 3, 4, 5.
Camp 5 was for coloureds and Indians; that is where Naik and Suman Mehta were detained.
Dr Nkomo decided, though under police guard, to address all Camp 1 detainees on Fridays under water drums. I was assigned to assemble everyone for such addresses.
Before each meeting, I delivered poetry to motivate them.
Dr Nkomo would jovially start his address, stressing that it was a blessing that we the detainees were from all corners of Zimbabwe as it gave us an opportunity to know each other.
This also enabled us to unite, even when Independence comes, he would say. The Sengwe people had now realised that we were not mad and joined us at such meetings.
Maluleke was our interpreter.
Cde Willy Musarurwa was tasked with producing Gonakudzingwa news, telling our detention story to the nation and outside world.
I decided to start the Gonakudzingwa Education Programme and Dr Nkomo became the school board’s chair, Chinamano its secretary, deputised by CCG Ngcebetsha. I was the organising secretary, deputised by Nevison Mkanganga Nyashanu.
During the day, we hid our typewriter in a hole near a tree and only retrieved it to type lesson material and correspondence seeking support for the education programme from the outside world.
This typewriter had been smuggled to me in Camp 1.
The Methodist Church and Fabien Society supported us. Ranch House College in Harare, Sir Garfield Todd and his daughter, Judy, also supported us. In the US, Andrews University provided distance teaching for Nevison Mkanganga.
Willy Musarurwa studied Sociology using some of my Union College correspondence material. Boyson Mguni did his BA with Unisa, Jane Ngwenya passed her O-Levels. Many other detainees became political prison graduates.
Impolompolo
One night, dark ants known as poisonous impolompolo in SiNdebele feasted on my body while I slept. I could not breathe properly when I awoke, and Jean Ntutha and Trynos Makombe rushed to tell Dr Nkomo, Chinamano and others that I was dying. Dr Nkomo was the first to arrive. He held my chest and said, “Phila Mfana, asikalithathi ilizwe.”
He sent word to the police who took me to the clinic.
I became a “promoted” detainee as I would sleep in the police cell. But the cell was worse than the detainee barrack. I could not sleep because I thought the medicine I got was to finish me off. So, I jumped and sat at intervals to avoid falling asleep. The following morning, Nkomo and Chinamano visted me and I asked them to take me back to the camps.
Baba sesiphelile
Josiah Chinamano said to Nkomo “Baba tapera” when he saw elephants invading the camp. Nkomo ran to the police camp; Chinamano and Msika followed.
Ruth Chinamano remained behind as she threatened to beat the elephants with fists, saying, “Amadoda la angamagwala (These men are cowards!)” One day, some detainees who were out looking for firewood saw elephants and threw stones at them. The giant mammals chased them to the fence from where these fellows shouted, “Ndlovu, your animals are going to kill us!”
I told them to stand still.
I then walked slowly towards the elephants, stood still and said, “Salibonani lina oBabomkhulu, buyelani ekhaya ngingumntwanenu, ngiyabonga.”
All of a sudden the elephants turned away. (Ndlovu is SiNdebele for elephants.)
University of Crime and Communism
Police confiscated our school books and alleged Nkomo had assigned me to run a “University of Crime and Communism”. Chinamano responded in the Central African Examiner magazine in April 1965 defending the education programme at the camp.
Dr Nkomo intervened at Villa Salazar Police Station.
We removed some fence poles and fashioned them into spears as we prepared to fight. Again, Nkomo said, “Hatshi bo! Sikhanyiso kakwenziwa lokho (Oh no! Sikhanyiso, you cannot do that.) In a week’s time, our books were returned and teaching resumed, while our spears remained close, though concealed.
Just a smile from Dr Nkomo would make you feel good the whole day. Dr Nkomo liked playing draft and sharing jokes with Stanslus Marembo and Chinamano. He had his team of consultants, but would never reveal implementation of a plan after discussions: you would just be told to go and do it.
“You have sent yourself; don’t say nguNkomo okuthumileyo. Uma intwala ikuluma uyabuza ukuthi ngenzeni ngayo?”
Dr Nkomo – being a social worker trained at Jan Hofmeyer School of Social Work in Johannesburg – and a trade unionist empathised with all detainees. He counselled them and advised on familial matters.
The regime used political detention to break families to get them to give up the liberation struggle.
In order to destroy a person’s zeal, take away what the person loves most: family, love, food, warmth and a sense of belonging. Dr Nkomo had no time for gossip. If you gossipped, he would call the concerned person and ask you to repeat what you said in his/her presence.
Release from detention
One day, I received notice that I was wanted at the police station. I went with Nevson Nyashanu.
The member-in-charge said, “If you are released, will you continue with politics?”
I asked what he meant by politics to which he responded, “The noise and fighting against the laws of the country.”
I told him I would continue fighting for freedom. The MIC then made it clear that I would be under house arrest if I continued political activities; detained for life. I reported this to Dr Nkomo and Chinamano. Their instructions were that I should avoid being sent back to detention, and to leave the country so as to tell the outside world about detention conflictions and the urgent need to relocate Dr Nkomo, Mugabe and all other political detainees.
My most critical assignment was to cross into Zambia to meet and inform James Chikerema, Jason Ziyapapa Moyo, George Silundika and others to intensify the armed struggle.
Friends organised a get-away car at the back of my house in Mpopoma.
Police officers who were guarding my car in front of the house searched for me and asked my wife where I was, but she said she was also looking for me.
My father-in-law, Dr Ebenezer Malie, had just arrived from Lesotho and accompanied me to Victoria Falls where I crossed the border. I delivered Dr Nkomo’s message to the leadership at Zimbabwe House.
◆ Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu is a veteran nationalist and educationist and Zanu-PF Politburo member.
