The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi
Today we continue with the visit of George M Houser to the Frontline States and the Zimbabwean liberation movements based in some of the Frontline States, notably Mozambique and Zambia.
Houser was obviously a man on a mission as Zimbabwe was on the verge of attaining her independence. It was an independence in which he and some Western powers and the Warsaw Bloc had some keen interest from the viewpoint of vested political and economic interests.
The issue regarding the refugees was important and information from that sector had to be obtained and handed over to the relevant authorities.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) was in support of the struggle and as a result there were some member churches that pulled out of the WCC in protest against its stance towards the struggle for Zimbabwe.
NGOs were keen to get reports from their kith and kin who they were inclined to believe and trust more than reports emanating from members of the liberation movements.
Of course they needed to have the information to pass on to their contributors. Visits to the refugee camps were thus undertaken with a view to extracting information that would justify expenditure and support further disbursements of funds. From a political angle the refugee situation was important to know.
Some of the personnel were waiting to be drafted into the guerrilla armies once they had reached the age considered suitable for one to be enlisted on the ranks of Zpra and Zanla. Houser was no exception. He did visit the refugee camps and reported accordingly.
Working relations between the two Zimbabwean liberation movements were another area of interest. The interest lay in assessing how well co-ordinated and cohesive the two PF components were. At the time of Houser’s visit the Patriotic Front was about two years into its existence. The Frontline States were at pains to keep the Patriotic Front intact.
On the other hand, it was not in the interests of Western countries to have a united body with the possibility of them fighting elections as one.
Covert political operations, some of them bordering on political shenanigans, were crafted to cause some rift or deepen it where it already existed.
Let’s turn to the refugee issues first. Houser wrote, “There are approximately 45 thousand refugees in Zambia. A year ago there were less than half that number. So the refugees are pouring in at a significant rate each day and week. I visited two refugee camps within 30 miles or so of Lusaka. One was a camp for mothers with small infants. There were 113 mothers and 115 infants because of two sets of twins. Assistance is given through the United Nations High Commission for Refugees(UNHCR). The women do a great deal of their own work including growing some of their own vegetables in well kept gardens.
“The buildings there are overcrowded with as many as five women and babies in a room. But soon, I was told they will be moved to another camp which would be less congested. They will use part of the present camp for mothers and infants for a clerical training centre for some of the young people who have come to Zambia in order to volunteer their services to the movement.”
Then Houser was taken by Joshua Nkomo, the Zapu leader who by then was based in Lusaka after the death of Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, through a parcel bomb to the girls’ VC (Victory Camp).
“This was a companion camp to the one where boys are staying only a few kilometres distance that was bombed by the Rhodesian military on October 19. There were about 6 000 young women in the camp I visited . . . These were not military camps. Many of the young people there are orphaned or separated from their families because of the war situation inside Rhodesia. They are engaged with educational programmes with classes held under the shade of trees. Some of the housing is being constructed with the help from the United Nations Development Program(UNDP) coming from member states of the United Nations. Many of the refugees are living in tents yet.
“I have never been in a place with as much spontaneous singing with as obviously a high morale as I saw here. The cost in food, clothing, medicine, etc runs into millions of dollars a year. It would be good for some of the church people who protested against the $85 000 contribution which the Program to Combat Racism in the World Council of Churches gave for Zimbabwe refugees to see these camps.”
Houser goes to make some comment about a man he came across within the education sector. In 1977 two schools had their children abandon Rhodesian schools to go to Zambia to join the liberation struggle. The schools were Manama and Tegwane. Houser met a young man who was a leader in the educational programme. Talking to the young man Houser realised there were schools where virtually all the students and faculty members had crossed the border into Botswana.
The incident, so Houser observed, had been covered in the Rhodesian Press. It is said the 400 students and faculty members were from a missionary-related school and had been kidnapped by the Zapu forces. The young teacher told Houser the story was a typical Rhodesian lie.
The young teacher indicated that instead the students and faculty members had planned their own escape from Rhodesia and walked across the border into Botswana and were later transported to Zambia to do their part in the building of a free Zimbabwe.
On another occasion Houser records his visit to Joshua Nkomo where he was introduced to a five-yea-old lad. The explanation given to Houser was that the lad was found wandering by himself on the Botswana side of the border but near the Zimbabwean border. The Botswana police picked him up.
The young boy was not able to give his name, nor did he give some indication where he came from nor who his parents were. All he was able to say was, “I am walking to Geneva to join Nkomo. Then the humorous Nkomo said to Houser, “He has arrived in Geneva.” The lad was living in Nkomo’s house in Lusaka!
