The Sunday Mail
War veteran and one of the pioneer producers at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) Cde Nyika Bara was yesterday laid to rest at Glen Forest Cemetery in Harare.
Cde Bara (63) died last Thursday after battling prostate cancer.
Speaking at his burial yesterday, Cde Bara’s young brother, Dr Manasseh Bara, described him as a decorated liberation fighter who famously escaped death by a whisker during the liberation struggle.
“He left us to join the war at a very young age. He was one of the comrades who survived in Mutoko after his camp was attacked by the Rhodesian forces.
“His survival was nothing short of a miracle because 16 other comrades died during an attack by the Rhodesia Air Force.
“After the attack he was severely injured, but somehow he and his colleague navigated their way to Mozambique to reconcile with other comrades.”
Dr Bara said as a result of the severity of his injuries, Cde Bara was redeployed to the Herbert Chitepo Ideological School at Chimoio where he served as political commissar, a post he held until the end of the war.
Cde Bara’s niece, Ms Tariro Bara, said his uncle was an inspiration to the family.
“He was a reservoir of knowledge in articulating the ideology of Zanu-PF and he is one of the reasons why I quit my job in the United Kingdom to come back home and work for Zanu-PF,” she said.
After independence, Cde Bara worked for the Mass Media Trust, the Zimbabwe Inter Africa News Agency and ZBC.
At ZBC, he gained fame as a producer and presenter before his retirement in 2002.After his retirement from ZBC, he went into farming until the time of his death.
