Manicaland luminaries who illuminated the liberation path

Ranga Mataire

Group Political Editor

MANICALAND province has always been the citadel of revolutionary political activism dating back to the days of the formation of the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress (ANC), the National Democratic Party (NDP), ZAPU, ZANU and now ZANU-PF.

The province has provided the bulk of its sons and daughters to the service of the country and continues to do so in the post-independence period.

Notable political luminaries from Manicaland include Chief Rekayi Tangwena, Cdes Maurice Nyagumbo, Benjamin Burombo, Herbert Chitepo, Ndabaningi Sithole, Edgar Tekere, Didymus Mutasa, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, Kenneth Manyonda, Kumbirai Kangai, William Ndangana, Lazarus Nzarayebani, Moven Mahachi, Mike Nyambuya, Monica Mutsvangwa, Irene Zindi, Vivian Mwashita, Ellen Gwaradzimba and Washington Malianga.

Chief Tangwena was born in 1910 in Nyanga among the proud Tangwena people.

He is one of Zimbabwe’s iconic heroes of the liberation struggle, who resisted colonial repression with tenacity.

He is known for assisting the late President Robert Mugabe and Cde Tekere cross into Mozambique undetected by Rhodesian forces.

The chief is notably known for refusing eviction from his people’s native land by colonial authorities.

Trouble started when Chief Tangwena returned to his home in 1963 after working in hotels, mines and at the Rhodesia National Railways.

He was made Chief Tangwena in 1966, whereupon he went to inform the district office to notify the native commissioner that he was now chief of the Tangwena people.

The district officer responded by refusing to acknowledge his chieftainship, saying the Tangwena people were squatters on a farm owned by William Hanmer.

He was told that the Tangwena people were actually registered labourers.

On many occasions, the Tangwena people resisted evictions from their ancestral lands.

After being taken to court by the then-home affairs ministry, Chief Tangwena won the ruling and was allowed to live on the land.

Rhodesian authorities continued to harass them, including crafting a dubious law that allowed them to evict the Tangwena people.

On September 18, 1969, the Tangwena people were forcibly evicted from their land, with several people being injured.

Chief Tangwena continued to demonstrate at the Nyanga police station with his people despite the brutal reaction of the Rhodesian authorities.

After seeking refuge in the nearby mountains, Chief Tangwena decided to trek to Mozambique with his people to join the liberation struggle.

At independence, Chief Tangwena became a senator.

He died on June 11, 1984, and was declared a national hero. He was laid to rest at the National Heroes Acre in Harare.

His legacy is today still etched in the collective memory of Zimbabweans.

He is remembered as a beacon of hope for those facing adversities and a reminder of the power of unity and determination.

Cde Maurice Nyagumbo was born in 1924 in Makoni district near Rusape.

He attended St Faith’s Anglican Mission and St Augustine’s Penhalonga.

He went to South Africa in search of work and did some odd jobs before being introduced to the South African Communist Party (SACP).

His political activism led to his deportation from South Africa and upon his arrival in Rhodesia, he joined hands with the likes of Cde James Chikerema to form the African National Youth League (ANYL).

In 1959, Cde Nyagumbo joined the Zimbabwe African National Congress and was later that year detained by the Rhodesian authorities.

He spent almost two decades in prison until December 12, 1979, when he was released.

During his detention, Cde Nyagumbo wrote a book titled “With the People: An Autobiography from the Zimbabwe Struggle”, published soon after independence.

He served as Minister of Mines and Senior Minister of State for Political Affairs until his demise in April 1989.

Cde Benjamin Burombo

Another Manicaland stalwart, Cde Benjamin Burombo, was born in 1909 in Buhera.

He was one of the earliest African nationalists to advocate black emancipation when national consciousness among Africans was still dormant.

After working in South Africa and later in Bulawayo, Cde Burombo formed the British African National Voice Association in 1947.

The association’s notable achievements were to call for a general strike in 1948 and to campaign against the 1951 Native Land Husbandry Act.

The Act was intended to privatise communal lands.

He was just 50 years when he died, but his deeds inspired later generations of nationalists who demanded majority rule through one man, one vote.

Cde Herbert Chitepo

From Watsomba village in the Mutasa district came Cde Herbert Chitepo.

Born on June 15, 1923, Cde Chitepo was educated at St David’s Mission School, Bonda, St Augustine’s Penhalonga and later went to South Africa to further his education at Adams College, where he qualified as a teacher in 1945.

This was where he met his wife Cde Victoria Mahamba-Sithole, whom he married in 1955.

He attended Fort Hare University College from 1947 to 1949, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1949.

After graduation, he went to London where he worked as a research assistant in Shona at the London School of Oriental and African Studies.

He then studied at King’s College and at the Inns of Court, becoming a barrister in 1954.

Upon his return to Rhodesia, Cde Chitepo became the first African in Southern Rhodesia to qualify as a barrister.

Another feat attained by Cde Chitepo was that of becoming Rhodesia’s second black lawyer after Prince Nguboyenja Khumalo, son of King Lobengula.

He defended African nationalists such as Ndabaningi Sithole in court.

His first shot at active national politics was in 1960, when he joined the National Democratic Party (NDP).

In December of the same year, he was invited by Southern Rhodesia Prime Minister Sir Edgar Whitehead to join the Southern Rhodesia delegation attending the Federal Review Conference but declined on the grounds that he could only attend as a representative of NDP.

When NDP was banned in December 1961, Cde Chitepo joined ZAPU and in June 1962, he left for Tanzania, where he was appointed the first African director of public prosecutions of that country.

But he would not stay long in that position.

After joining Cde Ndabaningi Sithole in forming ZANU in August 1963, he was to move to Lusaka two years later to organise and mobilise military incursions into Rhodesia.

He toured world capitals rallying support for ZANU and earned for the party international acknowledgement and veneration.

Cde Sithole and others prepared a detailed document that gave powers to Cde Chitepo to lead ZANU as most leaders were in detention.

Cde Chitepo was able to coordinate war operations with FRELIMO and opened up the north-eastern region as a new and effective war front around 1972.

Cde Chitepo was killed by a car bomb placed in his Volkswagen Beetle on March 18, 1975 in Lusaka.

He and one of his bodyguards, Silas Shamiso, were instantly killed while the other bodyguard, Sada Kufa Mazuba, was injured.

Cde Chitepo was regarded by his contemporaries as a highly intelligent man with considerable strength of character.

Cde Edgar Zivanai Tekere

Mutare also gave birth to a son of the soil by the name of Cde Edgar Zivanai Tekere on April 1, 1937.

His father was an Anglican priest and the young Cde Tekere attended various mission schools in Manicaland before trekking to the then-Salisbury (now Harare), where he secured employment in a bookshop.

Before he had fully settled in Salisbury, Cde Tekere found himself being swayed by the political verve at the time.

In February 1959, Cde Tekere was detained for two months following declaration of a state of emergency.

In 1960, he joined the NDP as an ordinary member.

After the banning of the NDP, he joined ZAPU and was elected secretary of Salisbury district.

When ZAPU split, he joined the Ndabaningi Sithole group to form ZANU and became the chairman of the Mkoba branch in the then-Gwelo (now Gweru).

By May 1964, he had been appointed deputy secretary for youth and culture and chairman of the Gwelo district council.

His political activism attracted the ire of colonial authorities, who arrested and detained him at Salisbury Prison from 1965 until May 1974.

Upon his release, Cde Tekere became Secretary for ZANU’s Central Committee.

In early 1975, he went to Lusaka, Zambia, where he was actively involved in the recruitment of young black cadres who underwent military training, before being posted on the war front in Rhodesia.

In mid-1975, Cde Tekere and founding Zimbabwean leader, Cde Mugabe, decided to cross into Mozambique through the treacherous Gairezi River trail.

They were led by Chief Tangwena.

The idea was to regain control of the leadership of ZANU and its military wing of ZANLA following the arrest of most leaders after the murder of chairman Chitepo.

Having arrived at Saguranza Camp in Mozambique, Cde Tekere had to be introduced to combatants’ leaders.

In 1977, he assumed the position of Secretary-General of ZANU.

He was a delegate at the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference negotiations that ushered in elections and majority rule.

At independence, Cde Tekere became a legislator for Mashonaland Central and was the Minister of Manpower, Planning and Development.

Cde Didymus Mutasa

Cde Tekere’s contemporaries included nationalists like Cde Didymus Noel Edwin Mutasa, who comes from Rusape and was born on July 27, 1935.

He was the sixth child of a devout Christian family.

In his early years, the young Cde Mutasa attended schools in Manicaland and later at Goromonzi High School between 1950 and 1956.

He furthered his education in England, where he was a student at Fircroft College of Adult Education in Birmingham.

He also studied at Birmingham University on a British Council scholarship.

Cde Mutasa joined politics as a member of the African National Congress (ANC) in 1957 before joining ZANU at its formation in 1963.

He worked with Swedish missionaries and is said to have travelled around Sweden, sourcing clothing and other supplies for Zimbabwean refugees in Mozambique.

His political activism resulted in him being arrested by the colonial authorities and was put in solitary confinement between 1970 and 1972.

He was transferred from Chinhoyi to Salisbury Remand Prison, where he met Cdes Mugabe and Tekere.

Before his incarceration, Cde Mutasa was the chairman of the Cold Comfort Society, a non-racial cooperative community on the margins of the then-Salisbury.

At independence, Cde Mutasa became the first black Speaker of Parliament and held that post for 10 years until 1990.

He later held various ministerial portfolios, including Minister of State for State Security, and Minister of State for Presidential Affairs.

At party level, Cde Mutasa once served as ZANU PF Secretary for External Affairs and also as Secretary for Administration.

Hailing from the same area as Cde Mutasa is a daughter of the Zongoro communal area in Mutasa district, Cde Oppah Chamu Zvipange Muchinguri-Kashiri.

Born on December 14, 1958, Cde Muchinguri-Kashiri is among Zimbabwe’s prominent female ex-combatants. She joined the liberation war at a tender age.

She received her primary education at St James Zongoro, and secondary education at Hartzell High School.

Cde Muchinguri underwent military training in Mozambique and participated in combat under the ZANLA command.

At independence, Cde Muchinguri was appointed Private Secretary to the President in 1980 and occupied the position until  1981.

She was later appointed Deputy Minister of State for External Affairs between 1989 and 1993, and Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism between 1993 and 1997.

Her first ministerial post was when she was appointed Minister of State in the President’s Office in 1997.

In 2005, she was appointed Minister of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development.

She also served as the Minister of Higher Education; and Water, Environment and Climate.

She is currently the Minister of Defence and chairperson of ZANU PF.

It is clear that Manicaland province has provided a large share of its sons and daughters to the service of Zimbabwe.

As the country gears towards commemoration of independence, to be hosted by Manicaland province at Murambinda in Buhera, it is critical that citizens reflect and pay homage to those who sacrificed all for the freedom of the majority.