The Sunday Mail
WOMEN and girls, just like their male counterparts, played important roles during the war of liberation. Apart from carrying war material from the rear to the front, women also took active roles in combat situations. This week, we feature CDE LINGIWE CHIMBUYA, a former ZANLA cadre who, like many other young girls and women, left behind a comfortable life and crossed the border to fight for the country’s liberation. CDE CHIMBUYA, whose Chimurenga name was Sifikile Masocha went to Mozambique via Botswana and stayed, for some time, at refugee camps in Zambia before finally crossing to Mozambique. In Botswana and Zambia, CDE CHIMBUYA stayed at camps where ZANLA and ZIPRA cadres co-existed. She will therefore give us an insight into the goings-on at some of the camps, highlighting strained and cordial relations that existed between ZANLA and ZIPRA. CDE CHIMBUYA (LC) speaks to our Senior Reporter TENDAI CHARA (TC).
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TC: Cde, if you can kindly introduce yourself to our readers.
LC : My name is Lingiwe Chimbuya and I was born in Mbare, Harare, in 1957. I attended Shingirayi Primary School and Mbare Community School. I went up to Form Two and then dropped out of school since my parents could not afford the fees. In 1974, I was with my older friends who were aware of the then political situation in the country.
I was young and did not know much about the finer details of politics of the time. I however, had a close friend of mine, Marko Vheremu, who was older and more politically conscious. One day, he decided, with his friends, to join the liberation war.
Together with his friends, he went to a local beerhall called The Blue Bar. The bar served as a recruitment venue for those that were going to join the liberation war. I remember Cde Webster Shamhu was in charge of the coordination of the recruitment exercise at Blue Bar. He recruited a large number of people from Mbare.
When Vheremu returned from the Blue Bar, he found out that the Rhodesian police were looking for him. Vheremu was a pick-pocket and was always in trouble with the authorities because of his criminal activities. During this period, habitual criminals could end up being banished from Harare.
The Rhodesian called such people “vagrants” and they were not welcome in urban areas. Such people were banished to the rural areas. So when Vheremu saw the police van at his home, he panicked. He hurried to our house and told me he could not remain in the country. He had decided to skip the country and become a freedom fighter.
He went to Mozambique and became a freedom fighter. Before he left for Mozambique, he told his friends to come with me. Vheremu’s friends, Davie Chitsike and Nkululeko Musekiwa decided to join him in Mozambique. So when they were planning their trip, they invited me to join them since Vheremu had instructed them to come with me.
I had two friends —Chipo and Gladys — who were also my neighbours. We decided to go to Mozambique but as we were planning the trip, Gladys’ mother got wind of our plans. She came to our house and made a lot of noise. She told me not to include her daughter in our plans.
As a result of her mother’s intervention, Gladys could not travel with us. We went to Mozambique through Botswana. Like I said before, I was not politically conscious. I went to war due to peer pressure. I was 17 at the time. Davie and Nkululeko had done their homework and they had a rough idea of how we can get to Mozambique. They decided to go to Mozambique via Botswana.
TC: Where did you get the money to go to Bulawayo?
LC : Davie and Nkululeko had the money. They even sponsored us. We took a train to Bulawayo and from there, we proceeded to Plumtree, again by train. Although the train was proceeding to Gaborone, Botswana, we dropped off in Plumtree so that we could skip the border. We proceeded to Tegwane and spent the night at Tegwane High School, where Davie had a friend.
We woke up very early and Davie’s friend showed us the way into Botswana. We crossed the border through an area called Dombodema. We walked for a long distance and it was now getting darker. We then slept by the roadside and proceeded with our journey the following morning. Our aim was to reach Francistown. We thought it was very near. As we were asking for directions to Francistown, we told the locals of our mission and were directed to a local businessman who accommodated those that were on their way to become freedom fighters. We were welcomed by the businessman and we slept at his house.
The following day, the businessman took us to Francistown. In Francistown, there were representatives of ZIPRA and ZANLA. Since we were young, we didn’t understand much about the politics of the time. Davie told us that wherever we were going, we needed to identify ourselves as ZANU members.
When we got to Francistown, we were met by a ZIPRA representative who, after asking us about our political affiliation, took us to the ZANU representatives. We were heartily welcomed by the ZANU representatives and then vetted. The ZANU representative in Botswana was Cde Dick Moyo. We spent two nights in Francistown before we were flown to Lusaka, Zambia.
TC: You can continue….
LC : From Francistown, we were flown to Lusaka International airport where we were met by ZIPRA representatives. We told them that we were ZANU members and were escorted to the ZANLA representatives. Among the ZANLA representatives that were in Zambia were the late Cdes Mayor Urimbo and General Vitalis Zvinavashe. From the airport, we were taken to a farm where all the new recruits would assemble. The farm would later on be known as Nampundu.
Nampundu used to be a ZANLA base before it was taken over by ZIPRA. Nampundu was a transit camp for those cadres that were on their way to Tanzania for military training. We stayed there for a long time. The camp commanders first sent our male counterparts for training. Female cadres would spend most of their duties doing some simple duties and other chores. I think we were about 200 female recruits.
TC: Tell us about the living conditions at Nampundu.
LC : The conditions were not that bad. Here and there, we could have dried fish. We were also preparing our own samp. These were the early days and the camp was not as overcrowded as it later became.
TC : You earlier on mentioned that the ZANLA base at Nampundu was later on taken over by ZIPRA. Can you describe to us the events that led to that take-over of the base?
LC : A serious misunderstanding between the two political parties led to the death of 11 ZANLA cadres who were shot dead by the Zambian army. I will give you the details of this sad chapter later in our discussion.
Don’t miss next week’s edition, as Cde Chimbuya will give us sordid details regarding this misunderstanding.
