A missed opportunity with Gogo Chitepo
THE woman the people of Bonda were proud of is no longer with us. National heroine Gogo Victoria Chitepo is now with the angels. The whole of Zimbabwe is in mourning and today she will receive a befitting send-off, coincidentally alongside another national heroine, Vivian Mwashita.
Gogo Chitepo was the wife to the late national hero and first chairman of ZANU-PF, Cde Herbert Chitepo.
Being the wife of the chairman of the liberation struggle was not an easy life to pursue for the light-hearted woman.
Gogo Chitepo was a brave woman for real.
The enemies of Herbert Chitepo and the revolution were indeed hers also. Anything that went awry for Chairman Chitepo also did the same to her.
Gogo Chitepo was a woman worthy woman.
I personally interacted with her in December last year.
We travelled together to Bonda Mission for the Herbert Chitepo Community Sports Tournament.
She was one of the brains behind the tournament that is held yearly in honour of Chairman Chitepo, her husband, and other revolutionaries like President Mugabe
At the tournament I was approached by Gogo Chitepo’s son and grandchildren.
They asked me if I was capable enough to have some interviews with Gogo Chitepo detailing everything about her life and everything she went through as the husband passed on in 1975.
I told them I was capable. They took me to Gogo Chitepo and she requested to know my academic qualifications. She was very much impressed by my curriculum vitae as she was worried to have someone who would not take issues as she said them.
We agreed I was to meet her together with the grandchildren on how best I was supposed to conduct the interviews.
I told them I was to give them a call when I became free — as it turned out I would be bogged down by work commitments.
Now that Gogo Chitepo is no longer with us those interviews have also flown with her to the skies.
There is no longer any need for me to call anyone. I wish I had squeezed my time and interviewed her, only if I knew things were to be like this. Wish I did it soon for Gogo Chitepo and the nation at large.
She went with the information she wanted be taken down. She was indeed a great source for our Zimbabwean history. She was and without doubt part of the liberation struggle of this country.
Gogo Chitepo, however, left us the Herbert Chitepo Community Sports Tournament. This is an event that is held in honour of the late liberation hero and her husband, Cde Chitepo, together with His Excellency President Mugabe and several other national liberation heroes for their commitment towards the attainment of freedom, peace and unity in Zimbabwe.
Members of the communities of Nyanga and Mutasa are excited to have a local activity which identifies with the ideals and achievements of the late national hero from their area. The tournament thus seeks to remind the youth and community members to uphold the values of unity and peace as embraced on Unity Day when the tournament is held.
The tournament uses sports to promote education, peace, healthy and unity within the communities. The youth in the Manicaland province and mainly from Mutasa and Nyanga are mobilised to form clubs and teams in different sporting disciplines which in turn work with respective sports associations.
The tournament collaborates with various volunteers and organisations through programmes on different social issues such as girl child empowerment, leadership and life skills, child abuse, gender based violence and health and environment management.
The tournament also seeks to create a platform for the selection of the best athletes for the Manicaland provincial teams in the Manicaland Youth Games Festival and Paralympics Festival.
The Herbert Chitepo Community Sports Tournament thus seeks to promote local social and economic empowerment through sport as ever echoed by Gogo Chitepo. It aims to turn sport into vibrant creative industry and thus support the country’s economic blueprint, Zim-Asset.
Go well daughter of the soil. We shall cherish the good work that you did for this nation.
The Herbert Chitepo Community Sports Tournament shall ever equip people with the necessary skills required in life as was your wish.