The Sunday Mail
IN this, the second instalment of a conversation between GARIKAI MAZARA and Cde Pepukai, born Nyembesi Judith Tsodzo, she goes through the death of Zanu chairman Herbert Chitepo, the détente period, the disturbances at Mboroma and the fast-track training at Chimbichimbi. Read on . . .
Q: Any highlights from your stay at Chifombo?
A: This was the place where we first met Teurai Ropa Nhongo (Joice Mujuru) and her group in December 1974 when they were coming from Nachingwea, Tanzania. This was probably the first group of women to be trained under Zanu.
Then as fate would have it, in March 1975 we woke up to the news that Cde Herbert Chitepo had died in a bomb blast. This we got through the political commissars, because it was part of their duties to monitor news, follow up on what was happening at the front and then inform us. Cde Chitepo’s death was a blow, it was felt across the camp.
But before I get there, before I talk much about Cde Chitepo’s death, when I went to war the slogan was, “Pamberi naCde Ndabaningi Sithole”, for he was the leader of Zanu. By this time it was just Zanu, without the PF, there was Zapu, there was NDP and there was Frolizi. So I joined the liberation under the leadership of Cde Sithole. When we received the news of Cde Chitepo’s demise, Kenneth Kaunda, then a very powerful and influential Frontline states leader, ordered that the liberation struggle had to stop to allow investigations into who killed Cde Chitepo.
Then one morning, a convoy of buses came to take us to Mboroma, a game park on the Mchinga range. But we were not alone as ZIPRA, NDP and Frolizi forces were also there. Only Zanu or Zanla had female combatants, as for NDP and Frolizi, these were very small groups. We stayed there for about nine months. The male combatants were mixed and they stayed on well and female ones were staying on their own.
Q: Approximately how many Zanla female combatants were there?
A: Plus or minus 500 female combatants. Men, there were plenty of them. Mboroma also doubled up as a rehabilitation centre for those who were injured at the front. We were not allowed to communicate with male combatants, let alone those from either ZIPRA, Frolizi or NDP.
Q: How did you tell this one was from ZIPRA, Frolizi or NDP?
A: Our fellow comrades, those whom we had travelled with from Chifombo, we knew them very well. Plus most of the ZIPRA comrades were Ndebele speakers. Also ZIPRA, Florizi and NDP comrades stayed in well-established camps but Zanla cadres stayed in the bush, so it was very easy to tell them apart.
So on this other day, as we used to get fresh rations from the Zambian government, the rations came very late. The sadza had been prepared already and the meat came late. But as I mentioned earlier, we had our spirit mediums — Sekuru Chipfeni, Chidyamauyu and Chiodzamera —that we stayed and travelled with. They had foreseen trouble and word had been spread that we should not take any beef rations, which they said could have been poisoned. But because we were hungry we went to take the poisoned meat, which we took to our tents. Luckily I am one of those who did not take poisoned meat as my uncle had come to me and stressed to me not to eat any beef.
Q: Who did the poisoning at Mboroma?
A: I am not sure but since the poisoning only occurred at the female combatants’ base, we can only assume that our colleagues who did not have female combatants were responsible for the poisoning. All the male combatants ate from the same pot of sadza and same pot of meat so that it would have been difficult to selectively poison them. Only zanla had female combatants, and we were poisoned.
Because of this poisoning, our commanders decided that we leave that camp, for another area, though still within Mboroma. As we were running away, the Zambian forces fired into the air but that did not scare us, we ran away all the same. So when we got to the GP (gathering point), we made a roll call and found out that some of our comrades were missing, that they had been captured. A mission was dispatched to go and get those who had been detained. This time the Zambians didn’t fire into the air but into our comrades and we lost a number of comrades, including Cde Paradzai Mazorodze, from one of the pioneering groups of women who had trained at Nachingwea. I am sure that if that woman had come to independent Zimbabwe, she would be one of the top women leaders today. Her death pained us a lot.
Q: How many comrades were killed in that disturbance?
A: As for numbers I am not sure but there is a mass grave in Lusaka, because the Zambian government came and took the bodies to Lusaka.
Q: So you mean in the nine months you were at Mboroma, there was no training whatsoever?
A: There wasn’t any training except for just feeding and political orientation classes by the commissariat. This was during the Mozambican ceasefire and even that country’s first independence celebrations, Vinte e Cinco de Junho (June 25), we celebrated it at Mboroma.
Before I leave the Mboroma issue. Remember Cde Sithole was the leader of Zanu and he was the only leader available as Cde Chitepo had died. Cde Sithole, and that time we called him comrade, had received a telegraph that his daughter was not well in America. But he came to Zambia and saw the bodies of the dead comrades and then he flew to America. To me, what Cde Sithole did was all he could do — he came as a leader and saw what had happened and he proceeded to see his daughter.
But the chorus changed, “pasi naSithole”, became the new slogan but honestly, what more could he have done? All known leaders were in jail, and Solomon Mujuru was at the front. By the way, Mujuru was one real fighter. Cdes Mupanzarima and Mayor Urimbo were at the front and all those who were in Lusaka had been locked up.
Then in December, things somehow normalised as it had been agreed that all the parties were to fight the war as one. That there won’t be any Zanu, Zapu, Frolizi or NDP, going back to war, that we were all going to be one, as we were fighting for one country. But that slogan, “pasi naSithole”, did not change. Maybe because we were still young, but I don’t see anything he could have done differently. The territory where the comrades had been killed was not his and he could not even take the bodies back to Rhodesia, so what could he have done. Anyway, that is how Cde Sithole was removed as leader of Zanu.
We then returned to Chifombo. After Mai Mujuru’s first group, which was about 50, I think the next batch of women to be trained must have been us, at Chimbichimbi, a base which was established in Zambia. It was at about this time as well when Tembue was established. After training, I started off as an instructor, that is now at Tembue, then moved to stores, overseeing the supplies of food and clothes to the front.
By this time, the inflow of recruits was intense and we would cook non-stop from around 4pm till the next morning. The arrivals were so heavy it was as if people were being chased away from home. This forced the training period to be reduced to three months as the demand at the front also increased.
Q: So you never went to the front, to fight?
A: I went to the front several times, escorting those who were carrying weapons. Medics, stores, signals and commanders did not carry weapons but escorted. The commissariat would go, at times in advance, and find suitable places where we would arrive and leave weapons and the other supplies we would be carrying.
Q: Since you were there at the beginning, maybe you can shed some light on the Badza rebellion, maybe your interpretation of the events surrounding those events?
A: What have you heard about Badza? It was a leadership issue. The Badza issue happened soon after the Chitepo assassination. Badza was a good fighter, just like Rex Nhongo, Perrance Shiri, Makasha, etc. Some of our leaders were just politicians and were not familiar with the challenges that were happening at the front. Mai Mujuru, Cde Revai, Cde Takawira, and many others were part of the Badza rebellion. In fact, it wasn’t a rebellion as such but an honest assessment of what was happening at the front.
In my opinion, Badza did not rebel, he never sold out. He was very intelligent and could see in the future. But his foresight disturbed some people.
Q: What were the issues that he was raising?
A: Like if you ask a child to use fire, rather hold an ember, and you don’t even know how the ember feels like but you want it held all the same. This idea of issuing instructions whilst not on the ground. But Badza would command, from the front to the rear. So he wanted to show some of the comrades that what they were demanding was not practical. And he was a good speaker as well, so maybe some might have felt uncomfortable having him around. He was a commander, probably as good as Tongogara.
Q: OK, back to Tembue: instructor, storesperson, what next?
A: That was 1976 now. We came to the front often and your gun was your friend. There was this slogan, “comrade, usarase chombo chemass”, the weapon didn’t belong to you but to the people. So we would walk, from Zambia (Chifombo), to Terresera, then onto the border between Mozambique and Zimbabwe, up to Mazowe Bridge or Centenary. There were several ambushes along the way. Part of the survival skills was to know the do’s and don’ts of the operating areas, especially traditionally and spiritually.
There are many times when we would take off clothes and bathe, with male comrades giving us guard, and there would be no feelings between us. Maybe we were too afraid of the traditional rituals, as any sexual activity was forbidden at the front. Up to ceasefire, that is how we would always operate, into and out of the front, on different missions to deliver weapons. And one would not choose which province to ferry weapons or supplies to, as such assignments were done at the rear.
At the front, we didn’t know the word “death”, but that a comrade has been injured. We would also carry small shovels with us, the ones that are used by de-miners, and if an ambush wasn’t severe, we would bury any of our “injured” comrades. And there are some comrades who died at the front, even if you knew where that comrade had come from, even up to now, it has not been easy to disclose some of their identities or to mention to their families where they are buried.
In the third and final episode, Cde Pepukai re-lives the 1977 Chimoio attack, where she recalls being mesmerised by falling Rhodesian parachutes, this being her first sight of a parachute. Somehow she survived that attack to come to a liberated Zimbabwe and tell her story.
