George Maponga in Masvingo
After the first Zanu Congress held in the Midlands capital of Gweru, a historic event happened at the Great Zimbabwe monument that appears to have set the tone for the protracted war of liberation culminating in the delivery of a new Zimbabwe on April 18, 1980.
The Second Chimurenga had two phases; the initial phase, where seven brave guerrillas confronted Ian Smith’s mighty war machinery in 1966 marking what is now famously known as the Chinhoyi Battle. There was also a second and decisive phase that began with the Christmas eve attack on Altena Farm in Mt Darwin in 1972.
Zanu’s decision to go for an all-out armed confrontation with the racist Rhodesian regime, after realising its intransigence could only be broken through the barrel of the gun, was a pivotal move that precipitated a bitter and bloody war of liberation that eventually battered and bruised Rhodesia’s resolve. On August 8, 1963, Zanu was formed paving way for its first Congress in 1964. After the Congress, around July in 1964, Great Zimbabwe Monument, witnessed a surprise visit by several newly-minted Zanu nationalist leaders who caught the Rhodesian internal security system unawares.
These leaders joined traditional leaders, school children and villagers from around the monument and went up the Hill Complex at Great Zimbabwe to plead with the country’s ancestors and forebears, asking for guidance to wage the liberation war.
Retired Major General Gibson Kudzai Mashingaidze, born in Bikita in 1951, was on this day lucky to be one of the 10 teenage students, from the nearby Morgenster Mission School, who were selected to accompany the Zanu leaders to seek the ancestors blessings in the warfare to unshackle yoke of oppression.
Rtd Major Gen Mashingaidze who was 13 and doing Standard 4 at Morgenster Mission, vividly remembers events of this day he believes had a huge influence on his decision to partake in the war of liberation where he became a struggle stalwart and one of the most decorated freedom fighters alive.
Looking back, he says on this wintry day, he and scores of other students sneaked out of Morgenster Mission and walked for about 5km to Great Zimbabwe monument after getting wind that Zanu leaders were going there.
“One morning we woke up to word that Zanu leaders were coming to Great Zimbabwe monument to invoke the spirits of the land and ask them for the nod to wage the armed struggle. We walked to the ruins after deceiving white teachers at our school with the help of our black headmaster then Mr Danidzirai Makamure,’’ he recalls. “We waited for many hours and we were thinking that the nationalists were no longer coming. However, around 4.30pm and in a flash we saw a convoy of vehicles streaming into the monument at high speed. We were elated and I will forever remember the excitement which engulfed me and everyone who was there. The leaders included then Zanu president Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, his deputy Cde Leopold Takawira, Cde Enos Nkala, Cde Edison Zvobgo and Cde Edison Sithole.
“The nationalists quickly selected 10 boys, including myself, from among the school children to go up the Upper Temple (Hill Complex) with them. When we got there they performed rituals, spilling snuff to the ground while clapping hands and asking (Sekuru) Chaminuka and (Mbuya) Nehanda to guide the armed struggle.” He says after the hill-top rituals, the nationalists went down the mountain and Rev Sithole briefly addressed the expectant and boisterous crowd.
“When we went down the mountain one could tell that a different spirit had engulfed the crowd as people started singing liberation war songs, one of the songs was ‘Tsuro, Tsuro we-e, Tsuro, Tsuro, wee-e’ while another song praised (Cde Joshua) Nkomo since his Zapu party was the most known political party at that time. I also felt a new spirit had engulfed me and from there on I made a decision to resist the policies of the racist Rhodesian regime,’’ said Rtd Major Gen Mashingaidze.
“The nationalists sped off as the Rhodesian police closed in to arrest them. They avoided passing through Masvingo Town and drove through Morgenster Mission escaping through Mapanzure Road. A team of Rhodesian security officials descended on the monument, but the nationalists had already made good their escape. For me and most of my colleagues that was the day that I was baptised in Zanu which is the only political party I have known all my life up to this day,’’he said.
After Morgenster, Rtd Major General Mashingaidze did his secondary at Mashoko Mission where he gave the racist white school authorities a torrid time.
He was expelled in 1970 after spearheading several demonstrations.
He said, as a prominent public speaker at Mashoko Mission, he was targeted by white American teachers some of whom had fought for the US in the Vietnam War who were miffed by his open belligerence and defiance against oppression. “They blamed me for a series of demonstrations that always rocked the school and expelled me.”
After expulsion, he joined his uncle in Gweru where he acquired a driver’s licence and undertook a course in bricklaying.
The revolutionary fires lit in him at Great Zimbabwe monument in 1964 were to see him taking part in the 1971 Pearce Commission demonstrations where protestors derailed a Rhodesian Railways locomotive near Ascot. Police used teargas to contain the stone-hauling youths and Rtd Major General Mashingaidze was put on the wanted list by the Rhodesian Special Branch. He left for Harare in 1972 and joined the then Post and Telecommunications Corporation on apprenticeship.
In Harare he was inspired by tales of early freedom fighters who were operating in the Chesa area of the newly-opened North East front in Mt Darwin who according to reports that time, had powers to vanish or melt in thin air. He visited the Chesa area several times hoping to be recruited for military training outside Rhodesia.
“I had to leave the Chesa area for good after a landmine planted by freedom fighters exploded and hit a Rhodesian army truck. I knew that my identity card which revealed that I was from Masvingo province would put me in danger so I left Chesa for Harare. I skipped the border in 1973 with five other colleagues to join the liberation struggle via Plumtree.” Rtd Major General Mashingaidze said two colleagues were captured by Rhodesian security forces and he never saw them up to this day. In Botswana they disguised themselves as members of the apostolic sect and were received by the late General Vitalis Zvinavashe.
“Fox Corner (the late Gen Zvinavashe) processed air tickets and passports for us to fly to Zambia and we were no longer using our real names. He gave us aliases and I was given the name Gibson Gumbo which became my Chimurenga name.’’
In Zambia they lived with different Zanu leaders and commanders, among them the late General Josiah Tongogara, Mayor Urimbo and Chairman Hebert Chitepo. “I was assigned to live at General Tongogara’s house in Lusaka and when I met him for the first time, I was very excited because this was my first time to meet with a gandanga (freedom fighter). In General Tongo, I saw a cheerful and loving but no nonsense man who was genuinely committed to the independence of Zimbabwe.
“He used to wake me up late at night and ask whether I had indeed committed my life to liberate Zimbabwe. He also asked why I was joining the struggle. I remember him saying that the war was not against whites but a system of racial oppression and segregation.’’
Rtd Major General Mashingaidze said they were taught basic drills and underwent political orientation at KuFarm camp in Zambia under a commander called Cde Tsuro. The majority of the young trainee fighters cited the skewed land ownership system in Rhodesia as their reason to join the struggle.
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He left Zambia for Mgagao Training Camp in Tanzania in 1973 where he met military instructors including the late Lieutenant General Amoth Chingombe (Agnew Kambeu), Cdes Gwindingwi, Parker Chipoyera, and David Todhlana. “We started training in 1974. Our instructors were waiting for more recruits to come from Chifombo and eventually training begun with around 200 recruits at the camp,’’ he said.
After he finished training, Rtd Major General Mashingaidze was selected to be one of the instructors to remain at Mgagao to train new recruits after emerging best student in operating the recoilless rifle.
“I remained at Mgagao with other graduates who had excelled and were also appointed instructors. Among these was Dominic Chinenge (now Vice President Constantino Chiwenga), (the late Chief Air Marshall) Perrance Shiri whose real name was Bigboy Chikerema, Augustine Chocha (Chihuri), Tinzwei Goronga, Rupiza and others. Consequently, we were also elevated to become members of the Zanla General Staff and Zanla Commander, General Tongogara personally came to oversee our promotion into the General Staff.’’
