The capture of Yvonne Mulligan

21 Mar, 2021 - 00:03 0 Views
The capture of Yvonne Mulligan

The Sunday Mail

 

CDE No Doubt Magorira, born Loice Nyandoro, left school in 1976 aged 15 to join the liberation struggle. In celebrating Women’s Month, Cde No Doubt narrates how for her and girls her age, the struggle was no stroll in the park in this continuing discussion with GARIKAI MAZARA. She recounts the several challenges she overcame at the war front, which saw her injured severely the painful part being that she was not at home in 1980 when everyone else celebrated the dawn of an independent country.

********

Q: Did you spend the struggle ferrying arms from the rear to the front, or at some stage you were fully deployed?

A: By 1979 we were now experienced comrades and we did not continue ferrying arms to the front, we were deployed to different sectors. I joined Nehanda sector in the Dande valley. In one instance, six of us were chosen to travel to Bhora, Murehwa, on a mission to capture Yvonne Mulligan. Her husband was in the habit of capturing black children and forcing them to join the Rhodesian army so it was decided that we retaliate and capture the wife. So we captured her in the family’s garden and travelled with her back to Nyakapiviri base in Mozambique. It was one hell of a journey, as we went through Pfungwe, but we were under constant Rhodesian attacks.

The journey was so tough for her that she developed sores on her feet and at some point we had to carry her in a wheelbarrow. Out of 12 comrades who had gone on the mission, six from Nehanda and another six from Takawira, only three of us made it to Nyakapiriviri as we lost some of the comrades to the Rhodesian attacks as they tried to rescue the white woman. But by the time we got to the base, she had a guerilla name, was able to speak some basic Shona and had been taught how to use a gun. We arrived at night and the following morning we never saw her as we were told she had been taken to Maputo. At independence, I hear she came back and was speaking good of the country.

Q: So she was not killed? What was the point of capturing her and losing those many comrades in the process?

A: No, she was not killed. We had rules of engagement that we waged the war with, for instance, we did not kill wantonly. We did not torture our prisoners of war, unlike the Rhodesians who tortured our comrades they would have captured. We treated our prisoners like children of Zimbabwe. I am told when she came in 1980 she even looked for me,  but I was not yet back in the country, I only came back in 1981.

Q: As the war reached its peak in 1979, do you recall any battles that give you goosebumps even today?

A: Yes, the Dotito one. That one will take a lifetime to forget. It was around 6pm. Rhodesians were camped on top of a mountain and the villagers used to bring us food around that time. The women were carrying buckets, as if going to a borehole or well, that is how they were spotted by the Rhodesians. Previously we used to eat around 10pm but the Rhodesians had somehow infiltrated the villagers and were poisoning our food so we shifted to eating during daylight, in order to minimise chances of being poisoned. Also, we were now sleeping with our shoes on because if you didn’t, they would put poison in your shoes.

So an attack ensued and we lost a number of our comrades and equally a number of villagers. I was shot in the chest, and on the ankle (up to now I have never worn high heel shoes). I had to be taken to Maputo for surgery, that is how I survived. I spent three months in hospital. I crawled out of the war zone as I could not walk. Cdes Makaza, Chapewa Masande and Sarudzai Chamakananga are the ones who carried me from the front to the border, from where I was taken back to Nyakapiriviri and then to Maputo for treatment. Up to now I have difficulties in breathing, especially when it is cold.

The other incident that I still vividly remember was when Rhodesian forces burnt several villages, as they accused the villagers of harbouring terrorists. As these attacks were done at night, some children were burnt in huts. Up to now I don’t know what got over me, but I just slept like a baby that night at our base as the villages were burning. As the Rhodesians were burning the villages, my comrades disappeared into the night, but I remained behind, sleeping. The following morning, I woke up to a deserted base.

We had been taught some communication skills, like how to send a distress note. You would take a white piece of paper and write with charcoal and the message was only legible when one put ash on the paper. So I sent some youths with a note to where my comrades were and a team was sent to take me.

One of the reasons why I think I survived most of these battles is because my ancestral roots are from Mashonaland Central, where I operated in. I think they were my spirit mediums looking after me. There were many times when you arrived at a place and checked the environs for any danger, and satisfied that the place was clean and safe, only to wake up to find yourself next to a python, a large one for that matter. Then you would know they were your spirits looking after you.

Q: We have heard so many tales of sexual abuse during the liberation struggle, maybe you can give us an insight?

A: Sexual abuse, I never witnessed it at the front. At the front, there were many traditions to be observed and because of the stress of war, some did not even go for monthly periods, so where did the sexual desire come from? For one to survive at the front, one was not supposed to have any sexual relations, these were the customs and traditions that were set by spirit mediums. If there were any cases of sexual abuse these should have been at refugee camps like Mavhudzi and I would not say for sure because I never got to Mavhudzi.

Q: But we had some comrades who came back with children from the war?

A: Yes. Like I said, those who were at refugee camps or in Maputo, are the ones who had the time to do that, not at the front. In our Nehanda sector, the traditions were so strong. By 1979, some male comrades were sleeping with the chimbwidos and most of those who did that did not survive. Mind you, even among ourselves, some were spirit mediums and they would tell you point-blank that you had sinned.

Q: When the ceasefire was declared, where were you?

A: I was in Mozambique. During ceasefire when others were coming back home, I was sent to Inyamhinga and Samakweza for regular war training. One day I was sent to clean the room for Cde Tsuro, he is late, and then he came in, and touched my breasts. I slapped him. But a commander was not supposed to be slapped so I was sent for training with recruits as punishment for six months.

Our group at Samakweza was like back-up, that in case the ceasefire failed to hold, we would resume the struggle. There were many of us, maybe around 7 000. I am a fully trained soldier, I did six months training guerilla warfare, six months regular warfare at Inyamhinga and Samakweza and another six months at Mbalabala when I was attested into the national army.

I only came back in 1981 and went to NOP Assembly Point in Chitungwiza.

Read the full interview on www.sundaymail.co.zw

 

 

 

 

 

I was supposed to have gone to Hoya because that is where I operated. Then one day Cde Solomon Mujuru came and announced that those who could write were wanted to join the army, that is how I was selected to join the army.

But there was something that had been bothering me all along. I desperately wanted to meet my mother and by the time I returned I just had a vague recollection of her. I couldn’t remember her name or her face. Before my father died, he had separated with my mother and there were four of us, three girls and one boy. My brother Ephraim even followed to Mozambique in 1978, but I never met him as he was in a different operating area. So when our parents separated, my father said he didn’t want his children to stay with his wife or her relatives, so I was sent to stay with my uncle, my father’s brother. My siblings were sent to his other aunts.

One weekend we were given two weeks off, from the assembly point, to go and meet with relatives. What I remembered was that my uncle used to stay in Mabvuku and had gone there once or twice from Chikwaka. I remember they stayed near a school. So I went to Mabvuku and with the help of the man who had given me a lift tried to look for my uncle’s place. We failed to locate it and that man took me in and I stayed with his family for almost a whole week. Then one day he came with the good news that he had found my uncle’s place. It is only when I had moved to my uncle’s place that I got to know that the man who had given me shelter for that whole week was a Rhodesian policeman! Imagine a Rhodesian policeman looking after a guerilla for a whole week? But then the war was over.

So I went to my uncle’s, stayed there for the remainder of my off days but I told my uncle of my desire to meet my mother who I had last seen before going to war. In fact, before my father died in 1972. So this was like almost 10 years and I had not seen her. My uncle promised me that he would look for information on where my mother could be found.

After going back to NOP, I was attested into the army and posted to Josiah Magama Tongogara Barracks, then we used to call them King George. One weekend I went back home to Mabvuku and sure enough, my uncle had found where my mother was. She was working for a white family in Newlands. When she saw me, because she had been told that I had died during the war, she fainted.

After joining the Zimbabwe National Army, Cde No Doubt Magorira went onto serve in different capacities before retiring in 1999. She briefly left the country the same year for the United Kingdom, but could not stomach working for the same people she spent her youth fighting so she came back in 2000. During the land reform exercise, she got a plot where she currently stays with her husband, Charles Mugadzaweta.

 

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds