I was prepared to sacrifice my life for freedom

LAST week, Cde RICHARD CHIRONGWE (RC) chronicled how he witnessed a white Rhodesian soldier fatally shoot a black vendor in cold blood. He subsequently fled from the scene as the killers closed in on him after realising he had witnessed the heinous crime. This week, CDE CHIRONGWE tells our Political Editor KUDA BWITITI (KB) how he joined the liberation struggle

KB : Did you manage to evade the Rhodesian soldiers who were hot on your heels?

RC : Fortunately, they could not catch up with me. I was really running fast. I was an agile young man, so my speed was too much for them. I thank God that I managed to escape, because if I had not fled, they could have killed me.

KB : Did they not look for you at your father’s house, given that he was a wellknown photographer?

RC : After this incident, it was no longer safe for me to live in Highfield. I moved to my grandfather’s in Ardbennie. I then also changed my name to Kenny Richards. My father was very worried about my situation. He actually came up with a clever trick to ensure that the Rhodesian forces would not look for me. He went to the police and told them that I was missing. This was, in fact, just a decoy to keep them off my trail.

KB: Did you manage to return to school? RC : Yes, in fact, in that year, 1974, I went to live with my uncle in Mutare’s Dangamvura suburb. I enrolled at the African Central Correspondence College, where I completed my studies. The school comprised a number of people who had been affected by the political situation. After completing the exams, I then went to Mozambique with the intention of joining the war.

KB: What inspired you to join the struggle?

RC : I had witnessed first-hand the brutality of the colonial regime and I wanted to see a change. I was prepared to sacrifice my life for our country to be free from segregation. There was blatant racism at that time. White people were given preferential treatment in all facets of life. Black people were not allowed to walk along some streets in the city. Whilst living in Mutare, I also got to understand that Frelimo soldiers were helping those who wanted to join the struggle.

KB: How exactly were you recruited to join the armed struggle?

RC : I went to Mozambique with two other colleagues. We were among the first to go to Mozambique. We were not recruited by the comrades, as was the case with others who joined the war. So, when we went to Mozambique, we were at first based in an area called Katanda. We stayed with Frelimo soldiers at their camp in the bush. At that time, Mozambique was not yet independent. It only attained its Independence later, on June 25, 1975.

KB : How did the Frelimo cadres treat you?

RC : The Frelimo cadres were friendly and they taught us some basic military training, such as how to hold and fire a gun. One of the people whom I remember at the camp was a man we called John Kennedy. Another cadre I remember was called Raphael. There were Zimbabweans who were fighting for Frelimo. In the Katanda area, a lot of people spoke Shona, so fitting in was easy. Later on, we went to an area called Zhunda. This was another Frelimo camp, which became a

ZANLA camp. Zhunda was close to Chimoio. So, having been among the first cadres to go to Mozambique, we were responsible for receiving other recruits and senior party officials when they arrived at Zhunda.

During that time, I was made a security officer. When the then-ZANU secretary-general, Cde Robert Mugabe, arrived in Mozambique, he came to Zhunda and I was one of the people who received him.

When I first arrived at Zhunda, there were a few people, but with time, the numbers increased.

As the numbers grew to thousands of people, Zhunda, in 1975, became the transit camp for people arriving from Zimbabwe.

Soon, Zhunda became too small because the numbers continued to increase. We then started to have other camps in Mozambique. I was one of the people who opened the Nyadzonia Camp, which used to be a former Frelimo camp. At Nyadzonia, more people arrived and it then became the transit camp, ahead of Zhunda.

At Nyadzonia, what we called companies were formed in readiness to fight the war.

A company comprised about 90 soldiers. At Nyadzonia, one of my best friends was Justice George Chiweshe, who was a member of our company. I also helped in the building of barracks at Nyadzonia, as the number of people continued to grow tremendously.

KB : As a security officer, what were your duties at such a large camp?

RC : One of the roles was to vet people who were recruited to make sure they were not sell-outs. We had a rule in the bush that once you joined the comrades, you would not be allowed to go back.

My duties also included going after deserters and bringing them back to camp. Once you joined the war and attempted to leave, you would be suspected of being a traitor who only came to the bush to spy. So, we would actually follow the deserters. Even if they came back to Zimbabwe, we would hunt for them, even at their homes.

KB : Did you encounter any sell-outs at the camp?

RC : There were many bad apples. One recruit called Kanengoni almost caused mass deaths at the camp. We were not aware that he was a sell-out who had been sent by the Rhodesian forces. As we were preparing to have a meal one day, one of our cadres noticed that there was something amiss. He discovered that some poison had been put in one of the pots.

Investigations revealed that it was Kanengoni who had put the poison. If that poison had not been detected, many people could have died.

When he was caught, Kanengoni confessed that he had been sent by the Rhodesians and was severely punished.

Later on, while at Nyadzonya, I was selected as one of the people to go to Mgagao in 1975.

It was sometime during the end of 1975. There were 700 of us who were chosen from Nyadzonia to go to Tanzania.

Next week, Cde Chirongwe recounts his experiences at Mgagao, which was a crucial training camp for ZANLA forces during the liberation struggle.

“So, having been among the first cadres to go to Mozambique, we were responsible for receiving other recruits and senior party officials when they arrived at Zhunda. During that time, I was made a security officer. When the then-ZANU secretary-general, Cde Robert Mugabe, arrived in Mozambique, he came to Zhunda and I was one of the people who received him.”