School kids who became freedom fighters

AS a teenager and while in boarding school at Manama Mission in Gwanda, Matabeleland South province, Cde Mavis Moyo heard about the struggle to liberate the country from white minority rule.

She would often hear other pupils discussing injustices occurring in the country but alienated herself from the discussions as her parents did not want to hear anything about such things.

Mavis had to focus on her studies, she was after-all lucky to be in school as education was then a preserve for boys. Patriarchy demanded that girls get married and concentrate on procreation.

But the environment she lived in was increasingly becoming tense with each passing day.

Secret meetings were being held, the people had become tired of oppression and the cadres were encouraging kinsmen to join the struggle.

She assumed then she would just continue with her studies as prescribed by her parents. Mavis was not ready for what would happen next.

She, together with other pupils, was in the thick of the night taken from their dormitories by a group of men to join the country’s liberation struggle.

Mavis had just started her menstrual cycle for the first time, she still wanted to study and become a doctor, her parents needed her to succeed and support the family but that was not to be.

She had to take up arms and play her part in liberating the country, young as she was.

Her age didn’t matter, what was important was her will power.

“I can’t begin to tell you how scared I was. So much was going through my mind; I was confused but couldn’t stay behind at the same time. I could see how badly the other pupils wanted this, I didn’t have the heart to say no,” said Cde Moyo, as she recounted her departure from boarding school.

There was no time to pack anything, she said. The exit had to be smooth such as not to wake the authorities.

“But some teachers tagged along too. People were tired. They were motivated to fight for the country. So, we walked through the night, it was safer that way. But I couldn’t stop thinking about my parents. How would they react to news that I was not in school anymore? They didn’t even know where I had gone to,” said Cde Moyo.

The country’s liberation struggle was not for the faint hearted.

It was a do or die state of affairs that demanded mental and physical fortitude.

Young Mavis had to grow up very fast, she had to snap out of the body of a 13-year-old girl and become a comrade of the struggle. She had to endure all sorts of discomforts. “There was no sanitary wear but also because of the exercises we were doing, we stopped menstruating. All the girls stopped menstruating because of the intense exercises we did in the mornings,” said Cde Moyo.

The widowed mother of three recalled: “I stayed in Botswana for a month, before crossing over to Zambia. When you left the country, you were first taken to Selibe Phikwe in Botswana. There was a big airplane which we called Dakota that would ferry us to Zambia. Our first camp in Zambia was Victory Camp which was a transit camp.”

The exercise regime was taxing and took a toll on the young and fragile Mavis who soon became one tough cookie.

“We’d exercise early in the morning, every day. The training was the same for both sexes; it didn’t matter whether you were a man or a woman. If your company, platoon or section was exercising, you were part of it. There was no distinction of being male or female. What affected us the most were the bombardments.

“You’d be talking to someone and the next thing their intestines were out, the head separated from the body and the hand in another direction. It was traumatising,” she said.

Cde Moyo recalls how they would sleep in tents and dig pits stretching about 500m so that when the enemy came, they could hide.

“There was a small airplane, we called it a spotter. It would come for about an hour, take pictures of us, the moment it did that, the other ones for bombardment would arrive. Instead of running astray, we would run into pits. We would assemble for head counts afterwards to identify each other.”

Using your real name during the liberation struggle was risky business.

“We wouldn’t use our real names. I was known as Sizabusa Kuphela. The moment you entered into a camp, you were given a nom de plume. This was because the Selous Scouts, the spies, would also join the struggle but when they came back from the struggle, they’d kill our parents. So the moment you got into the camp, you’d change your name so that you were not easily identified. If you told a spy your name was Sizabusa Kuphela, they wouldn’t know whose child you were,” said Cde Moyo.

The liberation struggle was not all physical – there was time set aside to learn what the struggle entailed.

“We also received theory training through which we were taught history. There was a man we called the commissar who used to bring information to us. We used to liaise with the Rhodesians and they would give us information through the commissar,” said Cde Moyo.

“After the war, we came back home with (Vice President) Joshua Nkomo. But after the Lancaster House Agreement, we were not really sure that the whites had really surrendered the country to us so not everyone came back home immediately. I was lucky to have come home then.”

Unfortunately, Cde Moyo came back to discover that her parents had long died.

She can never forget the discomforts she had to endure during the struggle to liberate the country. She sacrificed her youth for her country and does not regret a single minute of it.

“When we came back to the country, we went to Rufaro Stadium in Harare. I was there when Bob Marley performed. It was an awesome feeling seeing the Union Jack being lowered and the Zimbabwean flag being lifted. We were happy and cried tears of joy.”

Cde Moyo later travelled to Bulawayo although they were not allowed to speak to members of the public.

“We were not allowed to talk to other people because they were afraid that we would sell out those that had remained in Zambia. They only came back home after about six months. We were then demobilised. This is when you surrendered your gun as we later started uniting with the whites. We were integrated with the same people that were killing us,” she said.

After demobilisation, she headed back to school to salvage what was left of her future. She could not attain her dream of becoming a doctor but instead trained as a nurse. Moyo however hopes her dream can live again through her son.

“We went back to school and were given money to help rebuild our lives. I worked my way through school. President Mugabe had declared free education for all. I had to supplement my O-Levels and trained to become a nurse,” said Cde Moyo.

Among the many others who were taken from schools to join the country’s liberation struggle were Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Chiratidzo Mabuwa, Bulawayo businesswoman and Motsamai Lodge owner Cecilia Bhebhe and Cde Obert Matshalaga, who was a teacher at the time.