The Sunday Mail
CDE SONNY SHAMBIRA (SS) continues recounting his exploits during the liberation struggle. This week, he focuses on how he and thousands of other cadres were sent to foreign lands for further training as the war morphed into a new phase of conventional fighting. He also tells our Deputy News Editor, LINCOLN TOWINDO (LT), how he narrowly escaped a deadly aviation incident.
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LT: You concluded your narration last week by telling us how you survived the Chimoio massacre against all the odds. What then happened when you made it out of the camp during the attack?
SS: After making my way out of the camp, along with a fellow cadre who was also fleeing from Rhodesian fire, we made our way through dense woodlands into the unknown.
Along the way, we met other survivors who were desperately looking for refuge.
It was then decided that we go to a base called Gondola, which was quite some distance from where we were.
To my surprise, the back pain that had been troubling me suddenly ceased.
I was walking normally as we made our way to Gondola.
We did not stay that long at Gondola because the commanders directed that we be transferred to Mudzingadzi Camp.
I made my full recovery while at Mudzingadzi and I was ready for more battles.
On noticing that I had recovered fully, the commanders then selected me among hundreds of other fighters to go to Beira, where we were to receive further instructions.
In Beira, there were thousands of comrades from different stations who were also waiting for instructions from the commanders.
When the orders finally came, I was told that I was going to be sent on a mission to Nigeria for further training.
The Nigerians and many other African countries that had attained freedom were offering different training courses to the liberation movements.
However, I never made it on the mission to Nigeria.
I don’t know what happened but I was told that instead of going to Nigeria, I was going to be sent to Ethiopia.
I was eventually sent to Ethiopia for further training.
LT: What sort of training were you set to undergo in Ethiopia?
SS: So, what was happening during that time was that the war was transitioning from using guerrilla tactics to conventional ones.
Now we were being sent for that sort of training.
This would enable us to fight using conventional methods, as opposed to just deploying guerrilla tactics in battle.
We were in Ethiopia during the time they were fighting the Somalis.
So, we were there during what was a challenging time for that country.
We stayed there for about five months.
In no time, we had completed our training.
I remember that Fidel Castro and former President Robert Mugabe attended our passing-out parade as the guests of honour.
After the parade, we were now ready to come back home and take the war effort to a new level.
We were being flown home from Ethiopia in different groups.
I was booked to fly back with the fourth group.
I will always remember that flight because it was a terrifying experience for us.
What happened was that, as the plane left Ethiopian airspace and was entering Kenya, one of the plane engines caught fire.
The pilots communicated with Kenyan aviation authorities and told them that our plane was on fire and asked for permission to land in Kenya.
But the Kenyan authorities turned down that request, saying our plane was carrying unwelcome persons and that, if we landed in Kenya, we would all be arrested.
The captain communicated this devastating message to everyone in the cabin.
We knew that we were doomed.
The plane then made a sharp turn in order to go back into Ethiopian airspace.
The flames were now so intense and everyone panicked.
We all realised that the situation was very bad.
But God made a way for us.
The plane made it safely back into Ethiopian airspace and landed without further incident.
We then disembarked; no one was injured.
We waited for about seven days for the plane to be fixed so that we would continue with our mission back to Mozambique.
As soon as we arrived in Mozambique, orders came that we were to be deployed to the front without delay.
LT: This was going to be your second deployment to the front. Where were you deployed this time around and how did you feel going back to the front?
SS : I was again deployed to Manica province, where I was operating in areas close to the Zimbabwe Ruins (now Great Zimbabwe).
Later on, I was deployed to Chivi, where I operated from for a while.
I ended up operating in Zone Three in Shurugwi.
Because Shurugwi has very sparse vegetation such as woodlands, we had very little to use as cover.
As a result, we stayed in people’s homesteads.
We were fighting battles against the enemy from inside people’s homes.
LT: Can you recount some of the major battles you were involved in during your time there?
SS : We were involved in many battles there.
The first battle took place in Zaka, while we were on our way to Zimbabwe Ruins.
As we passed through Zaka, we noticed a group of Apostolic sect members who were on their way to church.
But the comrades operating in that particular zone did not allow people to gather in public places for worship because the war was intense.
So, the comrades caught up with them and asked why they were disobeying the rules.
A commotion ensued. As a result, the Rhodesians learnt of our presence in the area.
After realising that the Rhodesians had located our position, we ran off for cover at a nearby homestead.
After taking cover, we were told that the Rhodesian soldiers were nearby.
We got into fighting positions on a nearby hill.
As the Rhodesians got closer to our position, we launched our attack.
This was a brutal battle.
A comrade who was by my side was the first one to get shot.
After a short while, I was shot as well.
After being shot, we ran off.
However, as we ran off, I sprained my right leg badly and it began swelling.
I was struggling to walk.
Luckily, we soon found a place to hide from the enemy.
We had with us a comrade who was a medic.
He was so handy that he would perform an on-field operation to remove bullets lodged into one’s body without much of a fuss.
So, he did the operation and we soon recovered and continued with our trek to Zimbabwe Ruins.
Next week, Cde Shambira concludes his account by recounting the many other battles he fought around the Shurugwi area, including how he survived a brutal ambush by the Rhodesian army. Twitter: kuntowaz
