The Sunday News
Cde Jane Lungile Ngwenya is a household name in the story of the country’s liberation struggle. Although she is no longer active in politics she is still abreast with the political, socio-economic issues taking place in the country.
Cde Ngwenya has not lost her touch, that sharp political brain is still there, so is the persuasive tongue that led people to leave the country in droves to answer to her plea for Zimbabweans to join the armed struggle through her radio programme broadcast by the Zambia Broadcasting Services in the mid-70s. Cde Ngwenya is also the only survivor of the PF-Zapu national executive that was there at Independence in 1980.
Our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda and senior reporter Robin Muchetu last week spoke to Cde Ngwenya about her political activites during the liberation struggle. Below are excerpts of the interview:
SN: Many people know Jane Ngwenya as one of the first female nationalists but some might want to know who really is Jane Ngwenya? A brief background of yourself.
Cde Ngwenya: I was born in Buhera District in Manicaland on 15 June 1935 under Chief Chatindo. I completed my Standard One in 1944 at Gwebu Primary School as we could only go as far as that. It was hard to find a school that offered higher grades those days. However, I grew up there and later attended Madende Primary where I did my Standard Two and I could not go further as schools were very far. There were boarding schools like Daramombe and Makumbe Mission schools but I could not go there as we had no money because my father had passed away by then. We were staying with my grandparents at their homestead. We then moved to Kwekwe in 1946 where I learnt under the care of my relative who also was my grandfather. We moved from place to place as he was a policeman and in 1947 we went to Shurugwi and I did my Standard Six at a school that had been donated by Charles Wraith, called Charles Wraith African School. It was a school that was negotiated for the Africans as schooling was difficult for Africans during that time. I was very young and I then went on to join teaching although I was not trained.
SN: How was teaching during those days?
Cde Ngwenya: I hated teaching then because I felt teachers were brainwashed. In 1948 we saw the Burombo strike in Shurugwi and services ground to a halt. The reason I say teachers were brain washed is because I would hear elders saying some teachers have gone to ask to sleep at the school during the strike. Some took part in the strike but still were sympathetic to the system as they wanted negotiations to take place so from there I realised that they were brainwashed. And I was not for the idea. Later on, I met a man and married in 1953, I was studying privately though during that time. I gave birth to my first child after that. One day in 1953 when I was living in Bulawayo and coming from St Patrick’s Church in Makokoba I saw Benjamin Burombo addressing a meeting and I drew closer. He was speaking about politics and I told him I was interested in what he was saying. He was speaking about how Africans were being beaten up, losing their cattle and fields; I had seen this first hand back in the village in Buhera when my grandfather was beaten up and his cattle taken away so I became interested. I listened to the address and liked it.
SN: So your long political journey had started?
Cde Ngwenya: Yes, I then became more interested and followed where ever Burombo addressed people as I was a bitter person who had seen people suffering, there were no schools, poor salaries, ill-treatment and so much more. I also followed Cde Masotsha Ndlovu, Joseph Msika, Zephania Sihwa, Jason Moyo and other trade unionists where they addressed people. They all spoke a language that I understood — politics. My grandfather back home in Buhera had been arrested several times and we witnessed it so such things motivated me to love issues of politics in the country. In 1959 I went to attend these meetings, sometimes I would attend alone or with my husband, that’s if he was around since he worked out of town. Sometimes my husband would say he is busy to accompany me, therefore I would attend the meetings alone, to listen to these pressing issues which were bothering me when I grew up. One day a white man called John Stonehouse of the Labour Party came and addressed us at Stanley Hall in Makokoba and the meeting didn’t end well as there was pandemonium in the whole suburb. People were attacked and shops belonging to those perceived to be sell-outs burnt down. That was the period of zhii. We were arrested and I was with my young child who was two years old then and the ANC was banned in February of 1959. I speak about this arrest as history but it is the incident which caused the breakdown of my marriage.
SN: How did that lead to the death of your marriage?
Cde Ngwenya: My husband, George Tinarwo reprimanded me for being too active in politics but I told him that it was where my heart was. I told him I wanted to help the people air their grievances and find solutions to our problems as black people. He told me that he supported the nationalist cause too but he reminded me that I was a woman who had to preserve her marriage and care for our children. He said he was spending sleepless nights as the Rhodesian police would descend on our house any moment looking for me. I told him that the police were arresting me as a person not as a woman so there was no peace in the marriage. We then agreed to go our separate ways, because both our families felt I was dominating and overpowering the man in the marriage. They all felt that as a woman I had to be submissive to my husband and I was called all sorts of names. I felt that I wanted to lead and assist him in running our family but that failed. We eventually divorced at the Bulawayo High Court and Sir Hugh Beadle who was the judge then said to me: “You are a stupid girl, you destroy your marriage because of silly things said by your people. You cannot run yourselves (black people), you have to say thank you to the people who brought civilisation to your country”. I just ignored him as I wanted to go back to the people and fight the white oppression.
SN: That was the period of the federation, how was politics in the other two countries that fell under the federation, then Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi)?
Cde Ngwenya: The winds of nationalism were sweeping across the whole southern African region. The nationalist movements were being organised with clear cut structures set up. The colonial forces were also responding in kind by arresting the leaders. Political leaders from neighbouring countries which were part of the federation were also being arrested and some like Kenneth Kaunda, Kapwepwe, the two being from Zambia and Chipembere from Malawi were once detained here in Zimbabwe. Locally in 1960 the NDP was formed. We attended a congress in Harare and decided to form structures of the party and work for the people, that is when I was chosen into the leadership. There were 65 people in that executive, 64 men and one mad woman, who is me. People sometimes ask me where were other women but I tell them they were supporting a great deal because their husbands were the ones behind bars so they were active supporters. I was the only woman in the national executive, Joshua Nkomo was in Ghana at that time, and I had not even met him before. We voted him to lead us in the NDP.
SN: You spent time in prison. Can you please take us through your prison life.
Cde Ngwenya: I stayed for seven years in jail between 1964 and 1971. I had also been arrested on several occasions, slapped with restrictions and detentions. I once served time at Gwelo (Gweru) Prison which they called the home of correction where there were many other women from different places. Those women were serving time for different criminal activities and they came from all races. I was there for politics. The ironic part is that the prison was called the home of correction but what happened was that I was the one to correct the laws of that place. There were some white female prisoners who had been arrested for various criminal activities but we were made to clean their cells as we were black prisoners. We were also ordered to clean for the coloureds. I made noise about that and told the magistrate who would come every Saturday to hear our grievances. I told them we needed soap, we needed sanitary wear, after working all day at the prison we needed to bath so soap was essential. I complained about food, then I was taken to a different cell called “spirit high” where basically it was punishment which included having no food. I was detained several times in that cell because I never stopped making noise pushing for the change of situation in the prison.
SN: Did the changes that you were fighting for eventually come?
Cde Ngwenya: We finally won as things were corrected after I made noise about it. Women were now given soap, sanitary wear and the conditions were a bit humane, yes, they had been arrested for crimes but that did not have to take away their dignity. I was also detained at Whawha after the formation of Zapu. After being detained and restricted I then left for Zambia in 1971. I was secretly taken away by the party people as there was information that I was going to be arrested and eventually eliminated. My name, I was told, was at the top of the hit list. The people who arranged my travel to Zambia via Botswana were the late nationalists Grey Mabhalane Bango and Sivako who was also a businessman here in Bulawayo.
Next week we continue the interview with Cde Ngwenya telling us about her journey to Zambia, how Zapu was reorganised after the Chikerema incident and how she survived during the kidnapping of Ethan Dube in Botswana. Cde Ngwenya will speak on the death of Jason Ziyapapa Moyo as she is one of the people who were present when JZ opened that envelope which contained the parcel bomb. In the interview Cde Ngwenya also speaks highly of the Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Cde Chiratidzo Iris Mabuwa on how she seamlessly fitted into her shoes when she took over her radio programme which was used as a propaganda tool to urge Zimbabweans to join the armed struggle.
This Thursday is Cde Ngwenya’s birthday and she turns 82. In advance, we say amhlophe, makorokoto. May the Almighty bless you with many more years.
