The Sunday News
Dr Milton Chemhuru
JZ Moyo, You at no time doubted that hope was absolute
There was always a tunnel of success in your eyes
For you, the light was at the beginning of the shaft
The light at the end of the mine bears no glow
Due to the depth of the mine or curves of the tunnel
JZ, you are assured ZPRA shared Hope with you
Your departure opened endless journeys
Asafu, Mangena and Goronga joined your untold expedition
Your gallant soldiers accompanied your exit
Joshua from Morogoro your trip was prepared by 1976
This is how Joshua decided to give up his spirit
May 1976, One Sunday morning I witnessed his blood spring up
Gushing from the chest of your brave soldier Joshua
The mighty Joshua, the Vasco da Gama of Gokwe
The founder of Gokwe front
His chest and heart riddled by flying showers of bullets
The innocent body swung and sank its face into the ground
His hands swept the air and bumped into the wet grounds
A sign of respecting His Almighty
His mouth spat his glorious lungs, I saw, and now I report to you
His spirit whistled through his nostrils, up above the ground it stood
Lit, glittered, and pinpointed at our independence
That was a message of hope and trust
Above that flat Morogoro ground oozed his blood
That which the thirsty sun of Tanzania vapoured it
May 1976, the Doom day for ZIPA, the mind of JZ Moyo
My hands were empty with nothing to cover his innocent blood
One Day on Sunday, May, morning, 1976, at six o’clock
The day the enemy triumphed over the children of Zimbabwe
The enemy celebrating the destruction of ZIPA
Madness, intoxicated with hatred and hurt filled their minds
Your dream, your desire, your focus, your everything, all crushed
Joshua, your gallant guerrilla like Che Guevara Ernesto hacked to death
The stubborn character from JZ roots, motionless lay his body
On the grasses of Morogoro grounds perished
A horrible, horrifying, dim, dark day for us all
A memory to curse our minds forever and ever
I report to you once more; Joshua went first to prepare your way
Your deaths and Joshua’s disappearance created a disease for me
My memory is cancerously embodied
A gifted disease with unrooted roots
The fibbers with ceaseless budding
Joshua photo my consciousness shall dominate continuously
Fairly the same with that ever-smiling face of JZ
JZ. Comfort your Joshua, let his face dry tears
In your warm hands and armpits let him sleep
Continue to recognise your gallant fighter
That brave fighter who expanded Gokwe front
A noble hero whose blood cheaply was spilled
Gashed from the bullets riddled heart
The precious blood that upon Morogoro grounds rolled
That red soil thirstily swallowed it
Like a hungry crocodile, death chewed his life
His life flew away like a dove from my weak fingers
My eyes had no magnet to attract it back . . .
On your left lies Asafu, who of the five of us in Morogoro was the youngest?
The inseparable crack force, an internal team was
Our Asafu, his death in us shall live forever
Asafu, Am pretty sure about your character a wage that protects a falling pillar
The stubborn guerrilla, gallant soldier you were
The unshaken, bright, determined young Asafu
The ever laughing, alert and focused on the targets
The uncompromising character, the JZ carbon copy
The weapon penetrates the enemy’s heart and spares none
The bow and arrow made of bronze of Sekuru Kaguvi sword
The bullet whose azimuth the target does not miss
Asafu, the mind that senses the scent of the enemy
Your “Ides of March” was above the innocent stream. Asafu Ndinda
The spear with a sharp pointer made of Marange Diamond
That arrow with teeth like the horns of a wild hog
Your fate was beneath the shallow waters of that stream
Underneath the waters was laid that Miniature Device
The tiny boy covered by the innocent fishes of the stream
The birds were enjoying peace while mating
Their chicks mimicking to glide into the space
At that same moment, animals observed harmony away from the creditors
Under the breeze shades of green trees chewing their day harvest cud
Around the site tranquillity was the order of the day
The stream along the war zone of Zambezi Valley stretched
Along where shallow clear waters meander with attractive sight
The little fishes enjoying their usual delicious bites along that stream
Asafu on the front truck bonnet sat accurately surveying the terrain ahead
In hope, enjoying the warmth and vibrations of the communist engine
Those Soviet-made army trucks exhibited their love for rough ground
Above the slopes of the banks of the stream halted the trucks
A reconnaissance team is tactically involved in surveying the area
With confidence, a confirmatory report suggested a free enemy zone
The tactics of our ZPRA commando, Asafu, observed all precautions
Nevertheless, His “Ides of March” was just seconds away after the report
Outcome of poorly trained ZPRA-Angolan-Cuban guerrillas
Orderly with confidence, crawled our trucks into the calm stream
Upon the steep slope of the road, the trucks converged like a flock of thirsty sheep
From the mischievous device, the lead truck spared its fore wheels
To the devil uncovered its bottom body vulnerably naked to the lethal tremour
All seemed to flow as per plan
Underneath the stream laid the incurable poisonous device
From above dropped the magic string attached to the “little Boy”
The same bomb that ruptured the JZ belly
Likewise, from the bonnet Asafu belly was swallowed and blown
The flurry of the device squashed and smashed his body above the skies
The horrific terrible bang gave order to its life
The engine bled, blew, burnt, scattered and vanished
The might of the volatile appliance proved its aggressive mood
The diesel drums rolled, deformed, blasted and splashed
Oil, diesel and combustion all came to Tsunami on a dry land
A volleyball of volcanic-like fire erupted with blinding gallops
The big-cloudy smoke covered the entire landscape
Its image crawled up high, tall, like a whirlwind similar to the pyramids
The sound of the blast resembled the “Xhoxhoza” operation of 1973
That bore a fearful crater on the Victoria Falls Railway
The dead, the living, the agony in vapour perished
From above the stream poured showers of bullets
Dr Milton Chemhuru pseudonym Dr Mbeya or Cde Albert Ntonga (MD. Havana University, Cuba) (MPH, University of Zimbabwe) is a former ZPRA combatant who trained at Morogoro in Tanzania together with the current commander of Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Philip Valerio Sibanda among others. After independence, Dr Chemhuru worked as a medical doctor and once served as the Provincial Medical Director for Midlands Province.
