Mkushi massacre 44 years later

Wednesday marks 44 years since the Rhodesian forces launched an aerial and ground attack on Mkushi Camp in Zambia, a ZPRA military cantonment for women. The camp was bombed on the same day with Freedom Camp on 19 October 1978. One of the survivors of that brutal attack was Cde Jennifer Nkomo-Nleya pseudo name Cde Jester Chivi. Cde Nleya is the spouse of former ZPRA deputy commander BrigadierGeneral (Rtd) Tjile Nleya pseudo name Cde Ben Dubhu Mathe. Below she gives an account of how she escaped from the jaws of death on that fateful day. Read on . . .

I WAS among the first group of girls that were selected to pursue military training at Mkushi. The selection process was based on various factors. Your height, age, physical fitness, and level of education. They needed to strike that balance.

At Mkushi, Billy Mzamo (national hero Highten Nkomo) was the camp commander and assisted by other instructors like Moto, Kumbirai, Moses Phinda real name Lawrence Makwarimba, and Ntatshana among others. The training was very tough. We used to wake up around 4 am and do road runs. Most of the time it would be cold as the camp was surrounded by a river and swamps. It was very tough and I found it difficult.

After the road run, we would return for our breakfast. Food was there but the time for one to eat was curtailed. It was tough. The most unfortunate thing was the fact that we had not developed coping mechanisms to eat, as we did during our last days as trainees.

For example, we devised a way that when you would be served with hot oats, we poured cold water and drank it. It was better than not to eat at all as we were given limited time. The taste of the food never mattered at all. One more thing which was also a challenge was the size of combat uniforms and shoes. We ended up wearing them like that as there wasn’t any other option. We ended up swapping combat regalia because of the sizes. The combat boots, had no sizes that would fit us. What we ended up doing was to tear our blankets and put some stuff in the boot to make it fit.

It became a challenge when you were training as instructors like Kumbirai wanted people to run, never stop, or find a reason to stop, whatever they wanted from you to do. The guy was tough and rough. If you decided to do something fun you would be beaten. I remember one time during the road run exercises, I used to run with this friend of mine who was called Cecilia. We would run with others and swiftly hide at a point where we would join the group when they were running back to the camp. We did this to avoid running. We did that thrice. We were playing truant.

On the fourth occasion, I think someone reported us. Phinda beat us up. The guy had to bash us as if we were caught selling out information to the enemy. We were made to dig a trench as punishment. I will never forget that day! Six months later, upon completing the training we delayed having a pass-out parade for unknown reasons.

Others opined that party President Dr Joshua Nkomo who was to officiate was held up in other engagements. What I remember is after the training a group of senior commanders came to Mkushi to assess while we were still awaiting the pass-out.

I don’t know whether they were assessing the nature of our training or what. I remember in one of the parades Ambrose Mutinhiri and Tjile Dubhu Nleya all agreed that we needed to do another month of training. They said this while in a jovial mood and laughed at us.

Finally, the pass-out parade came and the selection of a group of instructors was chosen. That group of instructors is famously known as the Group of 50. I don’t know what criteria they were using to choose but I still believe that physical fitness, age, height, and the level of education all contributed to being chosen.

In our group some people were very fit and couldn’t be left out. These were comrades like Sevi, Ossie Mhandu (current commander of ZNA Bulawayo District), Senzeni-Sigoge (mother to beauty queen Loraine Maphala), and KD. These were fit I tell you. I think I was chosen in the group of instructors because of the level of my education because in the Group of 50 when it came to some issues that needed writing and administration I was always called to help together with Cecilia, Neutral, and Martha Mathonsi.

As an instructor, I worked with Sevi in the battalion that we instructed. Like I said I mainly focused on the theory side of instructing and Sevi and others took the practical side like road runs and judo. Sevi was very fit I want to be honest. Still on that, within the Group of 50 instructors, departments were formed to fully operationalise the training.

There was an administrative unit, artillery, reconnaissance, security, and training. I was then assigned to be the chief of artillery specialising in anti-air and Sevi was my deputy. Therefore, our battalion was responsible for the security of the camp. This was a military structure that was put up to operationalise the training.

A lot has been said by others that the Women Brigade was formed at Mkushi long before Solwezi. I wouldn’t be absolute to say the brigade was formed at Mkushi and formalised at Solwezi. What is clear to me is that an operational structure to facilitate the training of women was set up at Mkushi and operated within the command of the camp commander who was Moses Phinda who had taken over from Billy Mzamo and not as a separate structure like what was formed at Solwezi.

On the eve of the bombardment of Mkushi, there was a disagreement between Phinda and Jane over something that was not clear. Remember, Jane had assumed a position that was more of a deputy camp commander although I think it was not in black and white. Even if it was, I think the likes of Moses Phinda and other male characters had not fully accepted the fate of women in the command structures within a training camp.

It is normal in any society! To be challenged in decision-making by someone you consider your junior makes evokes certain feelings, but look Jane had trained with men that were now seasoned guerrillas at the front. Back to that story, there were disagreements over the withdrawal of sentries from guarding.

We were then called for a briefing that requested instructors to be on high alert and be vigilant. As I was responsible for the artillery, we were instructed to withdraw anti-air machinery and other machinery. We complied and security personnel was also warned to be on high alert as Freedom Camp was bombed.

One of the security personnel that I worked with was Moses Mzila Ndlovu. He was at Mkushi for sometime but I don’t know whether he was there during the bombing. Mzila Ndlovu had specialised in anti-air, Strella (SAM-7), light machine gun, and security. At Mkushi we had dug trenches which we used to accommodate recruits on days when they had no drills depending on their company. We would go inside the trenches, cover ourselves with leaves and relax. Covering ourselves with leaves meant that the enemy would not easily pick us. We wouldn’t leave the tents pitched when there was no one inside.

The rule was to pull it down and only pitch it up when using it. On the day when we were bombed, it was around tea break time between 10am and 11am when companies were feeding at the feeding site in the kitchen.

My company was still awaiting its turn to be fed. As my company was waiting to be fed, I decided to go to my tent and sleep for a while. When you finally become an instructor or assume a position of power you end up bending rules and doing what you want. I had to go and sleep for a while. I never saw anything as I was sleeping in the tent, I heard a loud sound which was a bang and producing vibrations more like a tremor.

I quickly moved out of the tent and what I saw was very bad. You couldn’t scream, cry or wait to make sense of it but only to run in a panic mode. I ran in the direction of Mkushi River and two comrades were following me. I realized it was Beauty, the one whom we left home together to join the struggle. She was always with me. I could not clearly see dead bodies because the place got misty due to bombs and bullets from the Rhodesian Air Force and ground force.

Fortunately, we ended up taking a route that led us off Mkushi River. As we were running it became so misty and we ended up crawling. These were all the tactics we were taught to apply in a battle situation. We reached a certain place that was safer. It was not because we were clever but I do not know what led us to that place. Many people were pushed to the river and swamps and most of them never survived because they were ambushed and persistent use [was made of] napalm. In our camp, they pushed us into the swamps, and in the other camps, they were pushing them into the river which was infested with crocodiles.

What I remember, is when we got to that safer tree still with Beauty and three others, I had lost my shirt. I was now naked and only had trousers. I don’t know whether I lost or removed them because of confusion.

We slept under that tree as the bombing continued hours into midnight. Others got lucky that they ran in the direction of Rusemfa which was an assembly point in case of emergency. We were completely lost and stayed in there for three days. Imagine you are stuck for three days without food or shelter.

We only got rescued by Jewel, Stanley Gagisa Nleya, and Brigadier-General (Rtd)Tjile Dubhu Nleya who were doing rounds of assessments. It is a common occurrence for members of the command to do rounds of assessments within a bombed area. You won’t believe this, but this was the first time Tjile Dubhu Nleya saw me and spoke to me in that state. Imagine, this is the man who later became my husband. I won’t hide this, and will never be ashamed to say that when he saw that I was naked without a shirt, Dubhu removed his combat shirt and gave it to me.

The three of us got closer to Dubhu as we were scared and we were prepared to follow them wherever they were going. They pitched a tent next to us, gave us glucose, water, and later food for us to eat. They left behind Jewel with us to protect us and their trail while Dubhu and Stanley proceeded to the camp as they were on a mission to assess.

This story was picked from a book titled Yithi Laba: Diaries of the role of Zapu-ZPRA women combatants in the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe Volume 1 written by historian Methembe Hillary Hadebe