By Lenin Tinashe Chisaira
Zimbabwe
commemorates its Heroes Day in August each year. The 2016 commemoration comes
at a time when the political relations between the state, citizens and most interestingly
the war veterans are not cordial. In
that regard, a review of one of the latest and most informative memoirs about
the liberation struggle, Wilfred Mhanda’s Dzino:
Memories of a Freedom Fighter[1]
seems in order. The author, Wilfred Mhanda’s[2] nom de guerre was Dzinashe Machingura
hence the nickname Dzino in the title of the memoirs. Dzino was one of the fiercest
critics of the post-war Zimbabwean state for which he spent his youthful days
fighting for.
Dzinashe
Machingura is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished yet disinherited
freedom fighters to come out of Zimbabwe. He contributed to the success of
Zimbabwe’s liberation war at a time when allies of the Zimbabwean struggle such
as “(President Samora) Machel …lamented
the Zimbabwean nationalist leadership, which he did not consider equally committed
to a long and difficult fight to liberate the country.”(p. 94).
It
was also a time when military commanders in the Zimbabwe National Liberation
Army (ZANLA) like General Josiah Magama Tongogara were in incarceration in
Zambia following President Kenneth Kaunda's clampdown on the ZANLA High Command
in the aftermath of the assassination of Herbert Chitepo, Zimbabwe’s first
lawyer and then chairperson of the revolutionary Dare reChimurenga (p62-66).
In
those troubled times, Dzinashe Machingura reveals how he and other commanders
on the ground formed the ZIPA on 25 November 1975 to carry on the armed
struggle .The army was a merger between ZANLA and the Zimbabwe People’s
revolutionary Army (ZIPRA). The Military Committee of ZIPA included Solomon
“Rex Nhongo” Mujuru , Dzinashe Machingura, Elias
Hondo, James Nyikadzinashe, Saul Sadza, Parker Chipoera, Webster Gwauya and Tendai
Pfepferere from the ZANLA side. The ZIPRA contribution consisted of Nikita Mangena,
John Dube, Enoch Tschangane, current Vice President Phelekezela “Report” Mphoko, Ambrose Mutinhiri,
David Moyana and Dr Augustus Mudzingwa (p. 96-97). ZIPA was the entity that was
to open military fronts and to resuscitate the liberation war in earnest (p.
100-107). However its role in history seems to have been officially blacklisted.
Dzino’ memoirs honestly admit the crucial role
of the Marxist/socialist ideology in
being the lifeblood of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle. This ideology was sin instilled in
the freedom fighter from the training stage. Dzino indicates that “At the end
of the formal training programme, before proceeding to the transit camp in Kongwa
in the Dodoma region, most of our time was spent on productive activity and on
extra political lessons. A voluntary group of about eight, headed by Dick Moyo, was
formed to study the basic tenets of Marxism-Leninism.
I was part of that study group.”(p. 24). In that regard, the current
neo-liberal cum nationalist capitalism models the nation finds itself in is the
mere result of a struggle betrayed and a very Zimbabwean model of state
capture.
The revolution devours its children
French
royalist journalist Jacques Mallet du Pan’s[3] adage
that “the revolution devours its children” is well known and well documented
and has already been proved to be true in most revolutions that have occurred
around the world through the history of humanity. Of particular interest are
the French Revolution with its Reign of Terror[4]
and the Russian Revolution with the Stalinist Purges[5]. For
Africa, Chinua Achebe[6] creatively
narrates about that kind of dog eat dog politics in post-revolutionary Africa
in his novel, Anthills of the Savannah[7].
The
book under review , Dzino, exposes the origins of persecution that took place
in the liberation struggle. These were the roots to most of the problems that face
Zimbabwean politics in the present times. These political problems include the
politics of using disciplinary hearings to settle political/personal
scores as well as to boot out dissent
even from former comrades in arms.
 |
| Wilfred "Dzinashe Machingura" Mhanda aka Dzino |
With
independence getting nearer again, Dzino
and other were suspected of harbouring political ambitions using ZIPA and they
were lured into an underground prison in Maputo (p. 186-193). President Robert
Mugabe , in July 2016 confirmed the incident whilst issuing warning against the
dissenting leadership of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association
(ZNLWVA). He warned that “During the
war, we would punish defectors severely . . . we kept them underground like
rats, in bunkers”[8],
highlighting the truth in Dzino’s memoirs.
A history distorted
The
book, most importantly, serves to provide an additional picture to those that
have been presented by the other few Second
Chimurenga historians like David Martin and Phyllis Johnson, whom Dzino himself
accuses of being biased towards President Mugabe in their book, The Struggle for Zimbabwe[9].
Dzino: Memories
of a Freedom Fighter also exposes the often told lie that freedom fighters
fought for the struggle selflessly and without payment. The selflessness has
already been demystified by war vets’
self-centred demands of the late 1990s and at the 2016 War Vets Meet Patron
indaba. In the book, Dzino writes of freedom fighters receiving a weekly stipend,
in addition to cigarettes (p. 28)
The
only blight in Dzino’s book is the last third of the book, written as “Reflections
on Post-Independence Zimbabwe” and the conclusion. This section is so different
from the tone of the early ideologically coherent parts that is appears as if
it was inserted by someone else. The section goes into overdrive to reflect
ordinary Zimbabwean civil society’s neo-liberalism. These include attacks on
the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (p. 228). However it is up to each reader’s
perspective to interpret the book.
Every person must read Dzino: Memories of a Freedom Fighter
In
conclusion, every person interested in Zimbabwean politics and liberation must
read Dzino: Memories of a Freedom
Fighter. It has been said that socialists are the memory bank of the
revolution, because they read and know how to pursue revolutionary actions
backed by revolutionary theory and vice versa. In the same vein, activists and politicians on Zimbabwe should , as the
nation makes reflections on its Heroes’
Day, make a habit of learning from the works that touch on Zimbabwe’s past as this
possibly shapes the future political and
economic structure of the country. In addition to books like Martin and Johnson’s
The Struggle in Zimbabwe, Maurice
Nyagumbo’s With the People, Didymus
Mutasa’s Black Rhodesian Behind Bars,
Ian Smith’s The Great Betrayal,
Munyaradzi Gwisai’s Revolutionaries ,
Resistance and Crisis in Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo’s The Story of My Life and Edgar Tekere’s A Lifetime of Struggle, people must definitely read Dzino: Memories of a Freedom Fighter.
Lenin
Tinashe Chisaira is an activist, socialist, lawyer and writer based in Harare,
Zimbabwe. He tweets at @LeninChisairaand blogs at www.cdetinashe.blogspot.com
[1]
Published by Weaver Press, Harare, 2011
[2] (b. 1950 - d. 2014)
[3] (b. 1749 – d. 1800)
[4] (6
September 1793 – 28 July 1794
[5] (1936
to 1938)
[6] (b. 1930 - d. 2013)
[7] Published
by Heinemann, 1987.
[8]
Newsday, “Mugabe in brutal crackdown threat”, 28 July 2016, accessed 8 August
2016 at https://www.newsday.co.zw/2016/07/28/mugabe-brutal-crackdown-threat/
[9]
Published by Faber and Faber, London, 1981
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