The Sunday Mail
Leroy Dzenga and Isau Njereka
THE struggle for Independence was prosecuted on many fronts.
Beyond fighting, there was a battle for the heart and soul of the people — their collective consciousness.
Rhodesians used propaganda, while nationalists used teachings.
This saw the birth of the revolutionary parlance “vasingazive, ngavadzidziswe”, emphasising the need to teach those who are not knowledgeable.
During the liberation struggle, learning how to operate weapons was not enough, as the mind had been turned into a battlefield as well.
In camps, freedom fighters were taught core concepts and principles which guided the Chimurenga.
These would instruct their actions and conduct at the front.
Straying from the widely accepted ideology was deemed as selling out.
War veteran, academic and liberation war historian Cde Fay Chung, in her book “Re-living the Second Chimurenga: Memories from the Liberation Struggle in Zimbabwe”, explained how mid-way through the war, strategists decided to recommend orientation for youths who had taken up arms.
“To win the minds and hearts of the people, ZANLA had to be a politicised army that identified with the aspirations of the people. This was the lesson of the relatively unsuccessful years of the 1960s, when local people would betray the guerrillas to the colonial authorities. ZANLA began to build up a cadre of political commissars whose weapons were not the arms of war but concepts, values and ideology,” Cde Chung writes.
Some of the schools which minted conscious cadres include Chindunduma High School in Madziva, Mavudzi High School in Nyazura and Rusununguko near Marondera.
They were later converted into conventional learning institutions.
This left a gap in the political space.
Rhodesians may have surrendered militarily, but this does not mean imperialism is dead.
Warfare simply changed form from bullets to ideas, and for Zimbabwe, the only defence against neo-colonialism is a ideological superstructure in the post-colonial state.
The ruling party, ZANU PF, identified this threat and established the Chitepo School of Ideology in 2016.
According to Colonel George Nare (Retired), the institution’s director for administration, about 10 000 people have been trained countrywide.
Lyton Limbo, ZANU PF secretary for administration in Batanai District, Headlands, the school of ideology gave him a better view of the world.
“l learnt a lot through the Chitepo School of Ideology. You really get to understand your country better. Because of this school, I have become a better person in terms of understanding the values of Independence,” said Limbo.
Seeing the success of the school, ZANU PF has committed long-term investments to ensure its growth.
A state-of-the-art campus is currently being built at the corner of Simon Muzenda and Samora Machel.
According to artistic impressions seen by The Sunday Mail, the four-storey building is set to become one of the easily identifiable structures in that area of the city centre.
Principal of the Chitepo School of Ideology Cde Munyaradzi Machacha said the building will be ready for use by year-end.
“The school is operating at ZANU PF Headquarters but there is no adequate space. We recently purchased land in Harare and started to construct the school’s headquarters. The building is being constructed in phases. The first phase is expected to be completed in July 2022. We will start to use the building in December 2022 soon after the completion of the first phase of the ground floor,” said Cde Machacha.
“In the post-Independence Zimbabwe, every party cadre is obliged to go through the school for an orientation course to make sure he/she does not go against party values and ethics and to be taught how the party is structured from the cell to the central committee. When party members are ideologically trained, they will appreciate the party. This makes it impossible for them to be hoodwinked by any form of colonialism.”
The school was originally established on the philosophies of Marxism and Leninism during the height of the liberation struggle in 1977 with the intention of decolonising the mind of liberation fighters and the masses.
Col Nare (Rtd) indicated that the school is going to have two big lecture rooms that accommodate 150 students each, a big office for lecturers and staff, as well as a kitchen and dining room for students and staff.
The institution presently offers basic orientation course on several modules, which include party affairs, leaders and management, ZANU PF ideology, defence and security, and media and communication.
Other areas of studies include the Zimbabwe economy, international relations, current affairs, national history (including First and Second Chimurenga), among other modules.
“The school is not limited to party cadres only. If you have your company, we can come to teach your workers,” he said.
Plans are underway to recruit more lecturers.
“Very soon we are going to recruit more lecturers and we intend to be accredited with the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education. After completing the school’s headquarters, we intend to build other branches at constituency level and district level.”
He said they are opening the school to members of the public who may be interested in becoming ideologically sound.
Through its train-the-trainer programme, the school has decentralised into provinces and districts across the country.
The concept of ideological schools is not peculiar to Zimbabwe.
In Tanzania, there is the Julius Mwalimu Nyerere Leadership School.
It caters for all former liberation movements sending their cadres for political and ideological courses.
China, South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique and all former liberation movements in Southern Africa have adopted the school of ideology concept.
