The Sunday News
A LOT has been said about Gonakudzingwa by some people who have also heard stories and by some who were there. What I am saying is personal and has never been known or talked about.
I thank God for keeping me to reveal the innermost of my experiences with revolutionary icon, Father Zimbabwe. If I do not reveal now the information and my trials and tribulations with Dr Joshua Nkomo at Gonakudzingwa, the information will be buried with my bones and I would have betrayed and deprived the present and future generations their Zimbabwean heritage.
In 1963 in Bulawayo I had been informed by Nkomo that with the split in Zapu leading to the formation of Zanu, our struggle at home and outside needed to be intensified. Nkomo said whatever you do, do not get arrested — ungazibophisi. I became commander of an underground demolition squad in Bulawayo known as Umgandane and going by the pseudo name of “General Hokoyo”. My group consisted of Joshua Dube, Abednego Mpofu, Canaan Ncube, Lensgina Mlotshwa, Fletcher Dulini and Kambonje Mayisa, some of whom are still alive. I trained the group in urban guerrilla warfare and making of petrol bombs. We bombed Wiston Fields the then Prime Minister’s podium at White city stadium, hence he was removed and replaced by Ian Smith. We bombed the railway lines and Mpopoma train station. Our urban sabotage activities were linked to Nkomo and his other outside activities where Front Line States had encouraged him to form a Government in Exile in order to get more resources to lead the armed struggle.
We heard that Dr Nkomo, Josiah Chinamano, Dan Madzimbamuto had been arrested and detained at Wha Wha.
Detention barracks
We heard that there was a new detention camp known as Gonakudzingwa where Nkomo was to be sent from Wha Wha. Cdes Robert Mugabe, Enos Nkala and Marembo (the younger brother to Stanslus Marembo) were transferred to Sikombela in Gokwe. Gonakudzingwa — a place for banishing the undesirable — was created at Villar Salazar railway station and police camp at the border with Mozambique. Salazar was the Portuguese President. The Portuguese had a trained army of assimilados.
The assimilados were Africans who were brain-washed to think, talk, fight and kill like the Portuguese. They were deployed to shoot-to-kill any detainee who would dare escape through the Mozambique border. On the other side of the Rhodesian fence there were lions and elephants which were a deterrent. On the Western side of the camps there was a community known as Sengwe Tribal Community, the Shangani people. These people were told that the detainees were mad people and they must not talk to them such that when you met them near the camp they would look aside and run away.
In 1964 Nkomo was put in a helicopter and flown to Gonakudzingwa. There appeared a dark cloud covering Gonakudzingwa such that the helicopter could not land. It had to return to Wha Wha. It tried the following day and skies opened up and it landed in that desolate place. In Bulawayo when the regime discovered that I was the wanted General Hokoyo, detail armed police in land rovers pounced on my house in Mpopoma at midnight. They arrested me leaving my wife Rose and son Mandla who was three years old. I was locked up at Fife Street Prison. One of the days I was told that I was going to join Nkomo at Gonakudzingwa. I was taken by a land rover at night to Zvishavane to board a train to Villa Salazar. The following morning I was at Villa Salazar Police station and was then taken to where Nkomo was with Chinamano, Msika, Madzimbamuto, and Ngcebetsha.
Dr Nkomo said to me: “I told you to be careful so as not to be arrested”. If we all become detained, he said, ngubani ozoqhubeka ngomsebenzi? I said, “bangithengisile Mdala”.
The following days more and more detainees were brought into Camp One. Willy Dzawanda Musarurwa, Jane Ngwenya, Ruth Chinamano, Chief Mangwende, Nevison Mukanganga Nyashanu, Jean Ntutha, Samuel Munodawafa (who was our Zapu chairman), Maluleke Senior, Makhathini Guduza, Mukarati Senior and Mukarati Junior, Stanslus Marembo and Munyangatire. When Nkomo’s Camp One had close to 1 000 detainees, Camp Two was created and then followed Camp Three, Camp Four and Camp Five which was for coloureds and Indians that is where Naik and Sulman Mehta were detained.
Nkomo decided that every Friday he should, though under police guard, address all detainees at Camp One under water tanks. I was assigned to march all the detainees to the tanks every Friday afternoon.
Before the meeting I delivered poetry to motivate them:
MaZimbabwe Vukani, lithath’ ilizwe lenu – Nkulunkulu nanzi zinkedama zama Afrika angela cala. Nkomo kaMqabuko kaNyongolo, wena owakhula belibele unodomehlezi kaMenzi, UnoMpunyumpunyane Inkunzi engelazimpondo
Jiba ongadliwayo zithi ziyawudla kanti ziyawutshakela
Wena opheth’ ukamba kanti lolukhamba yini na?
Chabobo Chabobo lokukhamba yilizwe leZimbabwe sonke sithi phuza lolukhamba kukhululek’ iZimbabwe.
Dr Nkomo would jovially start his address. He stressed that since we were detained from all corners of Zimbabwe this was a blessing in that this gave us an opportunity to know each other and to unite so that we would be a united people when we got our independence. The Sengwe people had now realised that we were not mad people and they now joined us at our meetings. Maluleke was our interpreter; he greeted almost everyone from the various camps. I remember him saying Tiko layhina meaning ilizwe ngelethu. Comrade Willy Musarurwa was tasked with the responsibility to produce Gonakudzingwa news so as to tell our detention story to the nation and to the outside world.
I decided to start the Gonakudzingwa education programme. Dr Nkomo said I should go ahead. He became the Chairman of the school board, Chinamano the secretary deputized by CCG Ngcebetsha. I was the organising secretary deputised by Nevison Mkanganga Nyashanu, a national hero. A typewriter was smuggled to me at Camp One, during the day it was in a plastic dug into a hole near a tree. At night when police retired I dug it out and started typing lesson materials and correspondence smuggled out of the country seeking support for the education programme. The Methodist Church and the Fabien Society, an outfit of the British Labour Party supported us. Ranch House College in Harare, Sir Garfield Todd and his daughter, Judy, supported us. In the USA, Andrews University provided distance teaching for Nevison Mkanganga long before we knew that after Independence it would be associated with Solusi University. Willy Musarurwa studied Sociology Degree using some of my Union College correspondence material. Boyson Mguni did his BA with Unisa, while Jane Ngwenya passed her O’ Levels. Many other detainees became PPGs (Political Prison Graduates).
Impolompolo
One night when I was sleeping on a mat, tired of typing, dark ants known as poisonous impolompolo in SiNdebele crawled and feasted on my body. I woke up and could not breathe properly. Jean Ntutha and Trynos Makombe rushed to wake up Nkomo, Chinamano and others to tell them that I was dying. The first person to arrive was Nkomo. He held my chest and said, “Phila Mfana, asikalithathi ilizwe”. He sent someone to go and tell the police who came and collected me and was given some medicine at the clinic. I was told that I was now a promoted detainee because I would sleep in the police cell. The cell was worse than the barrack where I was with other detainees. I could not sleep because I thought the medicine I was given was to finish me off. So when sleep would come I would jump and sit. The following morning Nkomo and Chinamano were the first to come and I asked them to take me back to the camp.
Baba tapera, baba sesiphelile
This was Josiah Chinamano who said to Nkomo, baba tapera, when he saw elephants invading the camp. Nkomo started running to the police camp, Chinamano and Msika following, leaving Ruth Chinamano behind threatening to beat the elephants with her fist. She was saying, “amadoda la angamagwala” – these men are cowards.
My talking to the elephants
One day some of the detainees went to look for firewood when they saw elephants they started to throw stones at them. Oh they were chased by the elephants up to the edge of the fence. They said you Ndlovu your animals are going to kill us. I told them to be steady and stand still. I walked slowly towards the elephants, stood still and said, “Salibonani lina oBabomkhulu, buyelani ekhaya ngingumntwan’enu, ngiyabonga”. All of a sudden, the elephants turned away.
Police confiscation of Gonakudzingwa school books
Chinamano had to respond in the magazine Central African Examiner published in Salisbury in April 1965 defending the education programme. Without our books we removed some fence bars and started making spears at night in a fire when police had retreated. We were prepared to fight physically with weapons instead of intellectually. Again Nkomo said Hatshi bo! Sikhanyiso kakwenziwa lokho. In a week’s time our books were returned and we resumed teaching. We nevertheless kept our spears hidden in our grass beds.
Management of tension stress and depression
Just a smile from Nkomo would make you feel good the whole day. Nkomo liked playing draughts and sharing jokes with Stanslus Marembo and Chinamano.
Nkomo the critical thinker and revolutionary planner
Nkomo had his team of Think Tank Consultants but would not reveal the implementation of the plan. After discussions you would be told to go and do it. You have sent yourself, and don’t say nguNkomo okuthumileyo. Uma intwala ikuluma uyabuza ukuthi ngenzeni ngayo? The fruits of independence we enjoy today were cogitated and planned in Gonakudzingwa. I thank God to be alive to tell the story as a surviving former political detainee at Gonakudzingwa and founding nationalist of our nation. Gonakudzingwa and Sikombela must be declared National Monuments and Unesco Heritage sites.
Nkomo the father of detainees, social worker, counsellor
Nkomo being a social worker trained at Jan Hofmeyer School of Social Work in Johannesburg, worked for the Rhodesia Railways and was a trade unionist. He was open to all detainees such that every day they went to him for counselling and family advice. The regimes detention was a method of breaking families so that they give up the liberation struggle. In order to destroy a person’s zeal, take away what the person loves most; the family, love, food, warmth and a sense of belonging. According to the famous psychologist Maslow, these are the basic needs of a person which must be fulfilled.
Nkomo had no time for gossipers. If you gossip about somebody he would call that person and ask you to repeat what you said in his presence and that would be the end of the story.
Release from detention, house arrest, and the great escape across the Zambezi
One day I received notice that I was wanted at the police station. I informed Nkomo and he said hamba phela uyokuzwa ukuthi bathini? I went with Nevson Nyashanu. I was called in by the member-in-charge. He said if you are released are you going to continue participating in politics? I asked what he meant by politics. He said all the noise and fighting against the laws of the country. I just said: “I will continue fighting to have freedom and a good country where you and all people shall live happily together”. I was told I would go under house arrest in Mpopoma and if I continue political activities I would be detained for life. I went and reported to Nkomo and Chinamano.
The picture with me, Dr Nkomo and Chinamano was after our meeting.
Instructions to me was to avoid being sent back to detention and to leave the country so as to tell the outside world about detention, conflictions and the urgent need for the relocation of Nkomo, Mugabe and all other political detainees. Nkomo emphasised that we do not want to see you back here. The most critical assignment was to cross into Zambia to meet and inform Chikerema, JZ Moyo, Silundika and others to intensify the armed struggle.
Friends organised a getaway car at the back of my house in Mpopoma while the police were guarding my car in front of the house. They searched for me and asked my wife where I was and she said she also was looking for me. My father-in-law Dr Ebenezer Malie had just arrived from Lesotho and accompanied me to the Victoria Falls where I crossed the border to Zambia. I delivered Nkomo’s message to the leadership at Zimbabwe House.
* Dr Sikhanyiso Duke Ndlovu is a former political prisoner and political detainee at Gonakudzingwa, veteran nationalist and liberation revolutionary under Dr Joshua Nkomo and PF-Zapu and Zipra
