Cobra saved guerrilla in Gonarezhou
MANY comrades have reminisced about how they found themselves in tight situations as they fought the Rhodesian soldiers, but they somehow got out of those circumstances inexplicably as if God had used supernatural powers to snuff out the danger. The Manica Post correspondents, Freedom Mutanda and SifelaniTonje, interviewed GaziyempiMundeta aka Cde Obed Chidyamaropa, of Chibuwe, who went to the war front in 1975 and experienced events which up to now he can’t explain exhaustively. He relives the journey which culminated in him helping the country attain independence in 1980. Here is the story in his words. His roller-coaster ride is a stuff that legends are made of.
MP: Tell us about an incident which
sent shock waves in your body? GM: Here I was staring at the spitting cobra with its hood in a prominent position. It had brown and yellowish spots; my estimate is that it was more than two metres long. Eyeball to eyeball, we looked at each other; the snake was ready to strike. My immediate reaction was recalling what my old man had told me about the way a mhakure (spitting cobra) reacts when it is cornered. It spits at its adversary as a reaction to the danger at hand. My body posture could have betrayed the fear which hit me at that moment. My mouth went dry; I let my tongue run its course on my dry lips. I could not cry out for the Rhodesian soldiers would hear me and finish me off. I could not use the pistol for obvious reasons. Therefore, I resigned myself to fate.
I counted up to 100 hoping to kill time. It appeared at that moment the snake was communicating something to me; my ancestral spirits had sent a courier to me of a life-saving message; as it slithered into the undergrowth, I heard soldiers’ voices close by. We had engaged in a contact with regime soldiers where five girls had died under a heavy merciless fire from the Rhodesian air force. MP:Where did the incident occur? GM: Libbing’s farm was a hunting ground for beef; on that day, we had slaughtered a big Brahman ox. We were on our way to the village when disaster struck. The farm was close to the Gonarezhou Park. As the ceasefire talks at Lancaster House dragged on, my group was in Chief Chitaudze’s jurisdiction. I had been promoted to the post of section security officer, and this was September 1979. Three helicopters came from Buffalo Range, near Chiredzi. As trained cadres, we found ourselves in take cover positions, but the 11 girls (chimbwidos) who stayed with us panicked and darted into a nearby thicket; that attracted the gunner in the helicopter who then spewed venom at the thicket.
MP: How did the collaborators help you during the war?
GM: We stayed with chimbwidos and mujibhas who would gather information and cook food for us. In 1977, Smith shepherded all people into keeps, protected villages, where he said they were safe from ‘terrorists’ and the main reason was to literally starve us. Consequently, the boys and girls and boys stayed with us at the base.
Deathly cries echoed through-out Gonarezhou National Park. My fellow comrades fired at the helicopter from covert positions and I made the mistake of crawling to the other side; a hail of bullets rained on me. Fragments flew in different directions and I was hit on the elbow, thigh and leg. As I tried to inch myself away from the fire, I met the snake. If I had continued to crawl, I would have fallen into the Rhodesian soldiers whom I assumed to have been commandos.
Fellow comrades and I met later but I was in pain; the other girls were captured by the Rhodesian soldiers and my team stayed with me during the whole ceasefire period.
MP: Comrade, take us through how you joined the liberation struggle and a brief story about yourself. GM: I was born in 1956; my father was James Mundeta and my mother was MwabudaMufote. Because I tendered our family’s livestock, I went to school in 1966. Mavhundu Hlahla, our Grade 4 teacher, inspired most boys in Chibuwe and in 1974 we went to Mozambique, but aborted the journey when we arrived at Chako Township near Mount Selinda Mission. We met a young man who told us that the situation in Mozambique was inhospitable for anyone intending to join the boys. He said Portuguese soldiers were on the look-out for people like us.
Therefore, we returned to Chibuwe and waited for an opportune time. Hlahla showed us pictures of dead soldiers and we felt that the Rhodesian white men could die just like those soldiers who died in the Second World War.
On August 8,1975, I was part of a group of 19 young men and women that crossed Nyangamba River into Mozambique via Rimbi, Mwangazi and Chikwekwete. We stayed at Matshazi for two months and survived through Chirenje. At Toronga we stayed kumatangaenguruve. Later, we changed poshtos at Chibawawa Refugee Camp. MP:Take us through your training
experiences.
GM: Trained instructors such as Cdes Gabarinocheka, Mao, Mambo and Santos introduced us to the ideology of the liberation struggle; the latter two enjoyed singing Sendekera. We changed church tunes into liberation songs. Food was as scarce as diamonds; we ate sadza without relish; at other times, we ate raw maize. It came as a relief when we went to Nachingwea in Tanzania for our training. There were four regiments at Nachingwea namely Reg HQ, Mapinduzi, Nyadzonia and Farm Four. My fellow cadre was Solomon Chikochi as we joined Songa Mbele in the four month training stint.
MP: You were a victim of an ambush.
How did it go?
GM: On arrival at Kirimani, we were told we would join Gaza province which stretched up to the Limpopo River; I got into Detachment 3 (we were 45) and our detachment commander was Smart, with Cde Fred Matanga as the provincial commander. We became Mateveranjanje (follow the railway line) because we knew the line would lead us to a town.
It was in 1977 and in August, we were in a convoy of four vehicles. 500 metres separated each car from the other car. Cde Fred Matanga’s car was in the rear. I heard and saw the jets simultaneously. Before I could do anything, they dropped bombs at our cars which immediately caught fire. What precipitated the fire was the load which was carried in the cars; we had explosives, grenades and ammunition that would be used by the combatants in the Gaza province once we arrive with those goods in the interior. Cde Matanga survived but a huge number of guerrillas died, forcing us to go back to Bharaj. However, we didn’t give up on going to the front. We finally arrived and did what we knew best; fighting the soldiers head-on and quickly disappear into the expanse of the park. A comrade was hit by a landmine and we left him there because time wasn’t on our side. We never saw him but we assume he could have been captured or killed by wild animals. We were close to 110 guerrillas and we wanted to quickly split into smaller groups when we arrive at the designated area. We survived on sugar cane that peasants gave us to revive our energy.
We arrived in Gezania and the section commander was CdeMetsirimwe.
MP: You said there was a foolish sell
out? How did you deal with him? GM:I smile when I think about this particular incident. As guerrillas, we never countenanced sellouts; we punished them severely if we identify them. We were at Chitaudze village. Out of mischief, a man informed the Rhodesian soldiers about our presence in the area. He quickly came to us and told us about his shenanigans. CdeMetsirimwe, the section commander, asked him his reasons for doing that to which the uncouth man said he wanted to see real action as he had only heard about contacts in the media. CdeMetsirimwe asked the man to stay as the battle raged between us and the soldiers. He operated the bazooka before the man could open his mouth. The sell out’s eardrums burst.
MP: It is ceasefire and subsequent independence. What happened to you?
GM: Our commanders told us in December 1979 that the war had ended and we had to go to assembly points as the country prepared for elections which would give everyone access to the ballot box. I went to Zezani, Mberengwa, up to 1981. I was integrated into the Zimbabwe National Army in 1981 but had to retire in 1983 due to the fragments that penetrated my body after an ambush against our team.
MP: Your take on the new dispensation?
GM: It is time to put our shoulder to the wheel and make Zimbabwe rise again as an economic giant. President Mnangagwa is on the right track. We went to war to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to get rich in the land of their ancestors.
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