Chitepo: A legacy of selflessness and unwavering convictions
FORTY-EIGHT years ago on March 18, ZANU’s founding national chairman and Zimbabwe’s first black barrister, Herbert Wiltshire Pfumaindini Hamandishe Chitepo, was killed by a bomb placed in his car in Lusaka, Zambia.
His bodyguard, Silas Simbiso also lost his life while his other security personnel, Sadat Kufamadzuba got injured from the bomb blast.
As the country prepares to hold national independence celebrations on April 18, it is important that we reflect on the life of this selfless nationalist who dedicated his life to the cause of the black majority.
The holding of this year’s commemorations in Manicaland is a befitting tribute to Cde Chitepo and many other political luminaries born in this province.
Born into a peasant family in Watsomba rural community near Bonda in Mutasa District on June 15, 1923, the young Herbert Chitepo lost his parents at a tender age.
He found refuge at St Augustine’s Mission School near Mutare where he attained his primary education.
He was said to have been a bright student who was always at the top of his class. He later went to South Africa to further his education and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English at Fort Hare College. This is where he met his wife- Victoria Mahamba-Sithole.
From Fort Hare, the exuberant Chitepo was awarded a scholarship to study law England and was called to the bar at Middle Temple.
After completing his law studies, Cde Chitepo returned to Rhodesia where he became the first African to qualify as a Barrister.
In 1954, Cde Chitepo became Rhodesia’s second black lawyer after Prince Nguboyenja Khumalo — son of King Lobengula. But upon completing his legal studies in Cape Town, he was barred from practicing law or furthering his studies in London to become a barrister.
Cde Chitepo was thus the first black lawyer to practice law in the then Rhodesia and defended many nationalists like Ndabaningi Sithole, Robert Mugabe and Simon Vengai Muzenda.
He used his legal expertise to lobby for reform and it was no coincidence that in his early years of practice, the majority of his briefs concerned Africans charged with contravening various offences relating to segregation laws of the colonial regime.
In a memorial lecture in honour of the late national hero on October 11, 2019 at Great Zimbabwe University, Chief Justice Luke Malaba said, “From 1957 Chitepo became visibly Pan-African as he defended African nationalists who were arrested for breaking laws such as the Land Husbandry Act and for breaching restriction orders.”
At first, Chitepo did not come out openly that he was involved in national politics even though at one time he served as a legal adviser to Cde Joshua Nkomo, ZAPU founder, at the Southern Rhodesia Constitutional Conference in London.
The Rhodesia government cautiously desisted from detaining him for fear of reprisals as Cde Chitepo’s stature and reputation was now internationally recognised. After the banning of ZAPU in 1962, Cde Chitepo was persuaded to go into voluntary exile to escape possible detention.
He became Tanganyika’s (now Tanzania) first black Director of Public Prosecutions.
When ZAPU split, he sided with Ndabaningi Sithole to form ZANU and was to become the first ZANU chairman at the party’s inaugural congress in Mkoba suburb, Gweru in May 1964.
In January 1966, Cde Chitepo resigned from his position as the Director of Public Prosecutions and moved to Zambia where he resolved to dedicate his time to the armed struggle. When other ZANU leaders were in prison in Rhodesia, Cde Chitepo became the face of the party, touring world capitals, canvassing for support and articulating the party’s position on the need for majority rule.
It was during these tours in Australia in 1973 that Cde Chitepo is known for famously saying that: “I could go into the whole theories of discrimination in legislation, in residency, in economic opportunities, in education. I could go on into that, but I will restrict myself to the question of land because I think this is very basic.” To him, land dispossession was the major grievances for black people in Rhodesia. Without ownership of land, blacks remained second class citizens in their own country, he reasoned.
In Zambia, Cde Chitepo became the chairman of ZANU’s
War Council or Dare ReChimurenga after
Cde Ndabaningi Sithole and others who were in prison prepared a document that bestowed powers on him to prosecute the war.
Together with ZANLA commander, Cde Josiah Tongogara, Cde Chitepo organised and planned successful military guerrilla attacks and underground activities in Rhodesia from 1966 onwards.
Six years later, he established strong rapport with FRELIMO in Mozambique and co-ordinated operations that opened up the north eastern region of Zimbabwe as a new and effective war front.
Endowed with clarity and the strength of an intellect, Cde Chitepo was a brilliant scholar whose life was focused on the total liberation of Zimbabwe from colonial bondage.
He was so clear and unwavering about the aspirations of the black people and argued that: “There will be no talks, no negotiations, no discussions involving our movement until Mr Smith recognises the right to immediate majority rule. That is no majority tomorrow, next week, next year or whatever. It is now. Until we hear that man, the rebel leader of the rebel regime, speak those words, our war goes on and it will continue until we have liberated every acre of our country.” (Lusaka, 1974).
Cde Chitepo’s indefatigable spirit to the liberation of black majority made him a target for elimination by the Smith regime.
They thought his elimination would halt the war momentum and instil confusion in freedom fighters. In the early hours of March 18, 1975 in Lusaka, Zambia, Rhodesian authorities succeeded in extinguishing the black prince through a bomb explosion placed in his Volkswagen Beetle. One of his neighbours also died hours later from injuries sustained in the blast.
Although an initial inquiry commissioned by President Kaunda apportioned the blame to ZANU infighting, an autobiographical account by Lt. Col. Ronald Reid-Daly (founder and commander of Selous Scouts) refutes this assertion.
In his book titled “Pamwe Chete: The Legend of Selous Scouts” (2000), Lt. Col. Daly states that the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) under its director general Ken Flower planned and executed the assassination and subsequently planted ‘evidence’ blaming ZANU members. Hugh Chuck Hind, an ex-SAS soldier and a Zambia farmer Ian Sutherland carried out the assassination.
If the Rhodesians had hoped that the death of Cde Chitepo was to be a death knell of the liberation war, then they got it all wrong as Lt. Col Daly asserts that: “The decision by Ken Flower to assassinate Herbert Chitepo, head of the ZANU War Council, now showed how badly he has misread the ZANU/ ZANLA situation. The death of Chitepo purged ZANU of its dissenting factions and a new and highly successful leader emerged. Robert Mugabe gave ZANU the means to consolidate its efforts by providing ZANLA with an indispensable factor — unity.”
Indeed, the death of Cde Chitepo gave a new impetus to the freedom fighters to prosecute the war to its logical end. They felt that war was the only language that the brutal colonial regime could understand and on April 1980, Zimbabwe hosted its flag and became an independent and free country.
Cde Herbert Chitepo will always be remembered as a self-less patriot who left the luxury of his professional career as the Director of Public Prosecutions in Tanganyika to dedicate his life to the cause of majority rule. He was a man ahead of his time.
As the country prepares to celebrate its Independence Day, it is also time to reflect on Cde Chitepo’s concerted efforts which brought about the freedom and equality enjoyed today as fundamental human rights.
Cde Chitepo used his profession to advance the interests of his country. He symbolised the ideal nationalist, through his deep sense of belonging and unwavering convictions.