The Sunday Mail
WOMEN and girls took active and important roles during the liberation struggle. Some contributed to the war effort as chimbwidos, while many others took part in the actual fighting. Others were couriers of war materials, transporting arms of war and other essentials through landmine-infested areas. This week we interview CDE EVELYN GOTAKOTA (eg), a gallant freedom fighter who abandoned the comfort of her family’s home to join the liberation struggle. In this first instalment of our discussion, Cde Gotakota discusses with our Senior Reporter TENDAI CHARA (TC) how and why she elected to join the liberation struggle and the journey that she took from Nyanga to Mozambique.
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TC: Cde Gotakota, if you can start by introducing yourself to our readers.
EG: My name is Evelyn Gotakota and I was born in a family of 14 in Katerere Village, Nyanga. I joined the liberation struggle by crossing into Mozambique in 1975 with two of my sisters, Juliet and Tracy.
TC: What prompted you to join the liberation struggle?
EG: I decided to join the liberation war after liberation war fighters came into our area and started living among us. Sadly, the fighters were sold out and many of them were killed after an ambush. Rhodesian helicopters bombed their base and many locals, who were not fighters, were caught up in the crossfire and were killed. After the bombing, we decided that we had to go to Mozambique and train as guerrilla fighters.
We wanted to avenge the massacre.
TC: Tell us about the massacre. What really transpired?
EG : When the Rhodesian dropped the first bomb, the mujibhas and chimbwidos who were at the base ran for dear life and sought refuge in a cave. A total of 25 people were in the cave.
Some families had three or four members hiding in the cave.
The Rhodesian soldiers fired into the cave and detonated explosives. Of the 25, only one person, who luckily went into the deeper part of the cave, survived. A sombre atmosphere engulfed our village after the attack as we buried the dead.
The Rhodesians used a helicopter to tell the villagers to come and identify their departed family members.
They labelled those women that had perished in the attack prostitutes. The village was thrown into deep mourning as a cattle-drawn cart carried the dead from the cave to the community graveyard. Luckily for me and my sisters, we were not at the base when it was attacked. After the massacre, we felt obliged to join the struggle. Of my two sisters, whom I travelled with to Mozambique, one died during the war. My other sister was young when we went to Mozambique. She was probably 10 years old.
TC: Tell us about your journey into Mozambique.
EG: We headed towards Mozambique until we crossed the Kaerezi River.
As we walked, we took turns to carry our younger sister. We were nearly swept away by the river, with my younger sister missing death by a whisker after she was swept away. Luckily for us, she was swept to the river bank. After crossing Kaerezi, we walked until we reached a place called Guru. This was a Frelimo camp. I was barely 15 then and when we reached the Frelimo camp, we were asked where we were going. We were at Guru for five days and from there, we were taken to another Frelimo camp called Sarashowa where we spent another five days.
At Sarashowa, we started to notice that the situation was getting tougher by the day. Food was scarce and we slept without blankets. We were then taken to Villa Katandika where living conditions were also terrible. We were given lice-infested blankets and we could not sleep.
This was during the rainy season and we were sleeping in grass huts that were as porous as sieves. The Frelimo soldiers were telling us that we were now being initiated into the life of a guerrilla fighter.
TC: Were you not tempted to return home?
EG: No! We never entertained those thoughts. We were brave and determined.
Although we were girls, we never considered ourselves different from our male counterparts. We were treated the same and also did what the boys did.
We were then moved to a place called Chigayo, just outside Chimoio. The living conditions there were getting desperate by the day.
The clothes that we were putting on were now torn and we could not get other clothes.
The number of recruits was also swelling.
We were again moved to Doroi where the conditions were also unbearable. Those that were at the camp were asking us why we had made the decision to join the war at a time when the conditions were that bad.
We were malnourished due to the lack of food. We were also afflicted by the disease called matekenya.
We stayed there for a long time, but we were unhappy with being at the camp. We wanted to be trained and to be deployed to the front.
During that time, fewer people were being taken for training.
This was because there were more refugee camps as compared to the number of training camps.
Finally, we walked to Chimoio where we were eventually trained.
The training was similar to the training that our male colleagues were receiving.
I was trained on how to use heavy weapons such as the LMG (Light Machine Gun).
TC: You joined the war when you were very young. How did you cope with such feminine issues?
EG: The situation during the war was very abnormal.
I know of some girls who could not have their menstrual cycles even if they were old enough.
Maybe it was because we were undernourished and could, therefore, not be able to produce the hormones that trigger menstruation.
Those that experienced the menstrual cycles often used leaves as pads.
There were certain leaves that were very effective as sanitary pads.
They would also use pieces of cloth.
In my case, I started to experience menstrual cycles later in life.
It was in 1980 that I started experiencing them and this delay might have been caused by the conditions that we were subjected to.
TC: You can continue with your narration.
EG: After we had finished our training, we were attacked by the Rhodesians this one day when we were on parade.
When the first plane arrived, we noticed that the pilot was signalling other pilots.
We thought that the plane was the one that was being used by the late Mozambican president Cde Samora Machel during his many visits.
Within a short period, the airspace was filled with warplanes and one combatant, Cde Tendai, shouted that we were under attack.
Next week, Cde Gotakota will narrate how she escaped the attack and the different roles she played until Independence in 1980.
