Celebrating Zimbabwe’s female war heroes
Women played a key role in liberation movements across Africa, particularly in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Below are some of the female heroes who are recognised for their contribution in the liberation war.
Sally Mugabe
Born Sarah Francesca Heyfron, Sally Mugabe was the first wife of the late President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe. Amai (mother), as she was affectionately known by the Zimbabweans, was the first woman to be buried at the National Heroes Acre in Harare after being declared a national hero.
She was born in Ghana on June 6, 1931 and was married to the nationalist politician since 1961. Sally was born and raised in the West African colony of Ghana which was known as the Gold Coast during the colonial period. She grew up in the West African British colony at a time in which the early forms of Pan-African nationalist politicians were beginning to gather momentum. She went to Achimota Secondary School in Ghana where she successfully completed her secondary education. Soon after this, she proceeded to Takoradi Teacher Training College where she enrolled for a teaching certificate. It was at this institution where she met her future husband Mugabe.
In 1967, Sally went into exile in Britain after the arrest of her husband Mugabe together with other nationalists from the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) party. She spent the next eight years campaigning for the release of political detainees in Rhodesia, including her husband who had been arrested in 1964 and was to remain incarcerated for eleven years. Sally subsequently joined Mugabe in Maputo Mozambique after the latter was released from prison and escaped to Mozambique to organise the Second Chimurenga war against Ian Smith regime. During her stay in Mozambique, Sally was the mother figure to thousands of Zimbabwean refugees who had sought comfort in camps such as Chimoio and Nyadzonya. During this period she worked closely with other nationalist leaders such as Edgar Tekere and Simon Muzenda in securing refuge for Zimbabweans in Mozambique.
Margaret Dongo
Margaret “Tichaona Muhondo” Dongo is and one of the most celebrated veterans of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle. She was born on March 16, 1960. She lost a son in 2016 due to an accident at her farm in Mhondoro.
Dongo is said to have started her political career when she dropped out of school at the age of fifteen to go for military training in Mozambique. Having joined the liberation struggle in 1975, she received military training at Chimoio Military Training Camp and eventually served in the Tete Province, offering assistance to injured combatants.
Joice Runaida Mugari Mujuru
She is former Vice-President of Zimbabwe, a position she held from 2004 to December 2014. She is also former Vice-President of Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) a party she was expelled from on April 2 2015.
Mujuru is also known by her liberation war name Teurairopa Nhongo which loosely translates to “Spill The Blood”. In post-colonial Zimbabwe, she became the youngest minister in the first Cabinet of independent Zimbabwe.
Mujuru was born in Mt Darwin on 15 April 1958, Mashonaland Central, in northeastern Zimbabwe. She was one of 12 children born to her parents. Joice Mujuru only did two years of high school and as a teenager left in 1973 to join the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (Zanla). In 1977, she married the late General Solomon Mujuru (then under the name Rex Nhongo) who died August 15 2011. Together they had four daughters Kumbirai Mujuru, Nyasha Del Campo, Kuzivakwashe Mujuru and Chipo Makoni.
Oppah Muchinguri
She was born Oppah Chamu Zvipange Muchinguri on the 14th of December 1958, and lived in Mutasa District's Zongoro Area, in Manicaland Province in the then Rhodesia now Zimbabwe. Muchinguri was married to Tapiwa Rushesha and they divorced in the 1990s after having two children together who are Natasha Rushesha and Tanya Rushesha. In 2015 Muchinguri announced her marriage to Bishop Anthony Kashiri.
Oppah received her military training in Mozambique and later joined the liberation war of the Second Chimurenga fighting in the Josiah Tongogara- commanded Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (Zanla).
At independence, she was appointed as Private Secretary to the President between 1980 and 1981. She was Deputy Minister twice, first of State for External Affairs between 1989 and 1993 and of Environment and Tourism between 1993 and 1997. Her first ministerial post came in 1997 when she was appointed Minister of State in the President’s Office, a post she held until 2000. Muchinguri who is the Defense minister has also served as Higher Education and Women's Affairs minister.
Victoria Chitepo
Born on March 27, 1928 in South Africa, Victoria Chitepo was a teacher by profession. She married Herbert Chitepo in Durban on November 29, 1955. During the liberation struggle, inspired by her husband, she organised women to march in protest and co-ordinated care for detainees who were in prisons in places such as Marondera and Sikhombela.
Chitepo was found dead in 2016. Chitepo by her granddaughter at her Mount Pleasant home while she was preparing to go for a Central Committee meeting.
She was 88.
Ruth Lottie Nomonde Chinamano was a Xhosa woman born in Cape Town and also a Zimbabwean national liberation war heroine. She was a Zanu-PF Central Committee member and a widow of the late veteran nationalist
Josiah Chinamano. She was a dedicated, unwavering and selfless party cadre who was committed to the liberation of Zimbabwe and its development.
Chinamano was born on February 16, 1925, in Griqualand, Cape Town, South Africa. She grew up in a family of five: four girls and a boy. Her father, Ben Impiayipeli Nyombolo, was a teacher who fought in the World War 1 before becoming a politician. Ruth’s mother, a graduate of Lovedale Institute in the Cape Province, was also a teacher. Young Ruth attended primary school in Queenstown where she lived with her aunt, Frances Mcanyangwa.