The Sunday News
It all started by reading a newspaper during lunch time while working in a factory under the Smith regime.
Cde Angeline Masuku was told by her manager to leave and look for employment from the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo or President Mugabe after being spotted reading a newspaper that presented the general concerns and priorities of native Zimbabweans to non-judgmental audiences.
That incident brewed the desire to sacrifice her life and join the liberation struggle, regardless of the fact that it was male dominated.
Feeling threatened by black consciousness and possible influence that she posed to fellow workers her manager preferred to send her and a few other individuals packing and seek employment from black nationalists who were spearheading the liberation struggle.
This further pierced the already cracking heart of a female native Zimbabwean under the colonial regime.
All ingredients were made available for Cde Masuku to give up her dreams, leave her family and beloved ones to live in the jungle where the survival of the fittest was the supreme law defying all odds considering the existing women stereotyping in a typical African society.
Most women were subjected to parental roles and menial jobs, providing clothes, shelter, medicines and food among other basics for the guerillas.
Cde Masuku braved the harsh conditions and crossed to Zambia to join Zipra military training camps after failing to cope with the enslaving chains and evil shackles of the Smith regime.
Cde Masuku, a teacher by profession, joined the liberation struggle in 1963 and later became Secretary for Bulawayo District in North-West Province during the colonial era and later went to Zambia.
She said she was looking back with nostalgia, fighting the liberation struggle as a scribe.
“When I left for the struggle it was not easy. It was hot then and there were high temperatures in the country. Most men had left for the struggle and women got the worst as they were compelled to fend for their families alone.
“What pushed me to join the war was that I was working as a researcher in one of the industries and women were being ill treated and taken as mere second class citizens. We were being subjugated in that despite having the same qualifications with men, we were earning less and this worsened the dire situation. I had for long been deprived of my rights as a native let alone a woman,” she said.
Cde Masuku said reading the newspaper during lunchtime gave her the final push and she braved the harsh weather to join the liberation struggle.
“When I was working in the factory, we were instructed not to read newspapers during lunch or free time. I defied our superiors and we would read newspapers at lunch. It was this form of passive resistance that led to the manager taking us to task. He said: ‘I realise that there are people who have political motives and they must go and seek employment from (Cdes) Nkomo and Mugabe’.
“I did not return to work but my boss sent people begging me to rejoin the company and I told him that I had been offered employment by Cde Mugabe and Cde Nkomo,” she said.
Cde Masuku went to Zambia where she was appointed deputy editor of Zimbabwe People’s Voice in charge of the Ndebele version. She was responsible for the counter offensive strategies and counter hegemonic discourses meant to stimulate a vengeful impulse among natives.
She said she had no regrets as a freedom fighter and so far so good.
“I look back with nostalgia. I have no regrets of having joined the war of liberation. However, we are greatly concerned with how best can we move forward from here and become self sustained. Is our Zimbabwe mature enough to take care of itself? We did our part as female fighters and we wish to see the youth liberating the economy by properly utilising mineral resources the country is endowed with,” she said.
Cde Masuku said the key to success was unity.
