Feigning death saved us

11 Sep, 2022 - 00:09 0 Views
Feigning death saved us

The Sunday Mail

This is a continuation of our discussion with Cde Baxton Mupotaringa (BM), a former ZANLA freedom fighter who crossed into Mozambique after leaving his job to join the liberation struggle. Last week, he chronicled his experiences with white racists. In the latest instalment, he narrates to our Senior Reporter TENDAI CHARA (TC) how he survived the Nyadzonia Camp massacre.

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TC: Cde, in our previous discussion, you talked about being at Nyadzonia when the camp was attacked by Rhodesian forces. If you can kindly continue with your narration.

BM: Thank you. Previously, I talked about acute food shortages at Nyadzonia and how the arrival of food was always punctuated by scenes of wild jubilation.

TC: Were you not tempted to return home before you received training?

BM: I never entertained those thoughts.

I knew that Nyadzonia was only a transit camp. We were given political lessons that gave me the resolve to stay put.

During our stay at the camp, we were taught Chinese and Russian political ideologies.

I remember we had lessons where it was explained to us how the Chinese liberated themselves from Japanese occupation.

We were also taught about the Russian revolution and were confident that we would free ourselves from colonial bondage.

TC: Tell us about the leadership at Nyadzonia.

BM: The majority of leaders were not trained cadres. Trained cadres often visited the camp, but few were actually based at this camp. Some of the untrained cadres who had leadership positions were Cdes Mavhera and Kickstone.

The former Deputy Chief Secretary to the President (and Cabinet), Cde Justin Mupamhanga, was also one of the leaders.

When I arrived at the camp, I was relieved to see Cde Mupamhanga. We come from the same rural area and our mothers are related.

They are from the Makurumure clan.

Cde Mupamhanga was a bit older than me and his presence at the camp gave me assurance that at least I had a big brother nearby.

We also had Cde Makarudo.

I met him recently during a war veterans vetting exercise.

There was also Cde Bombadiana, Cde Felix and many others.

TC: Tell us about the Nyadzonia massacre. How did it happen?

BM: On the day of the attack, we were supposed to have a commemoration of some sort.

I think we were supposed to commemorate the day ZANU was formed.

I am not sure which commemoration it was. At the camp, we had what we called Quaritera News.

This was unofficial and unconfirmed news that often spread throughout the camp like veld fire. This type of news, which was more of rumours, was equivalent to today’s social media.

That week, the news that was doing the rounds was that a Tanzanian ship — The Chama Cha Mapinduzi — had docked in the port of Beira. The ship, according to rumours, had come to ferry us to Tanzania for military training. So, there was excitement at the camp as we anticipated the long journey to Tanzania.

Like I said earlier, there was an acute shortage of food at the camp.

So, as a way to have easy access to food, I performed some odd jobs that other refugees were unwilling to do.

I was doing the odd jobs so that I remain in good books with the leadership and those who were responsible for sharing food.

On the day of the attack, I was making some reed mats that I wanted to give to some of our camp commanders. We did not have beds at the camp.

The majority of the refugees were congregated at a central place that we called Centraliao.

Together with two other cadres, we were making the reed mats at a place a bit far from others. We were seated at a place that was previously used by FRELIMO fighters.

We called this Handaki YeMakamaradha.

Since I was making the reed mats, I did not attend the morning parade.

From the place that we were, we could, however, see what was happening at the assembly point.

From our position, we saw Morrison Nyathi arrive with a convoy of armoured cars.

That time, I was still a rookie and could not differentiate between an armoured car and vehicles that usually took cadres for military training. When the armoured vehicles arrived, they parked at a place not very far from where the three of us were. The vehicles were parked in battle formation.

During that time, I didn’t know what a battle formation was.

I kept wondering how we were going to fit into those vehicles since there was hardly any space. I desperately wanted to go for military training.  Something inside me told me that something was very wrong somewhere.

As I was wondering what this was all about, I heard a white man giving orders to open fire.

All hell broke loose.

Bullets rang from the armoured vehicles and when we realised that we were under attack, we began to crawl away from the vehicles. We had been trained to crawl away if we were under attack.

When Nyathi realised that the volleys from the armoured cars were missing the crawling targets, he instructed the Rhodesian soldiers to lower the barrels of their guns so that they could hit those that were on the ground.

Fortunately for me, I was not in the killing bag.

As the shots rang, I crawled and slid into a bunker that was previously used by FRELIMO soldiers.

Two other cadres, Pedro and Mabhunu, joined me and we huddled in the bunker.

From our position, we could hear Rhodesian soldiers fire volleys on the panicking and fleeing refugees.

Smoke billowed as the grass-thatched barracks were being set alight.

Since the armoured vehicles were not far from where we were, we were often hit by shrapnel from the blazing guns.

As we were in the bunker, we were then joined by a badly injured cadre, who was bleeding profusely.

The injured cadre fell on us and smeared us with blood.

This injured cadre, who later on died as we watched, was our saviour.

After some time, he told us that we were hiding in an unsafe place.  He advised us to abandon this hiding place and run to safety.

We refused.

He then decided to come out of the bunker and tried to run to a safer place.

The cadre was subsequently captured and taken to a place where some of the other captured cadres were being held at gunpoint.

I think about 200 people were being held.

As we were in the bunker, we heard some footsteps coming towards us and we feigned death.

The Rhodesian soldiers thought that we were dead and one of the Rhodesian soldiers asked his superior what he was supposed to do with us.

The superior told the soldier that we were already dead and there was no reason for him to waste bullets on dead people.

That is how I survived.

We remained in the bunker as the Rhodesian soldiers went for a complete assault, shooting and bayoneting those who lay injured.

After the massacre, the Rhodesian soldiers even had the temerity of enjoying their food amid the thousands of dead men, women and children.

When the Rhodesian soldiers were done with the massacre, we then crawled out of the bunker.

What I saw that day has haunted me ever since.

 

Next week, Cde Mupotaranga will give an account of the cruelty exhibited by Rhodesian soldiers during the massacre.

 

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