A stranger than fiction tale

Freedom Mutanda
When white missionaries came to Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular, their main aim was to completely erase African religion from the collective memory of the indigenous people of our beautiful land. They wanted an enforced religious renaissance in Zimbabwe whereby the black man would look at his own tradition, culture and religion as pig’s vomit.

A lot has been written about the role of religion in both the first and second Chimurenga, we are told how the early spirit mediums told people that a white man’s defeat would result in the shepherding of the entire white population out of Zimbabwe. Of course, at that time, the country was generally referred to as the land south of the Limpopo.

At the beginning of the second revolution, spirit mediums in various parts of the country gave their thumbs up to the raging of the war. Cde Masversion, a war veteran said, “There is no clan that does not have a young man or woman who went to the war of liberation. This war was fought for the people of Zimbabwe and the driving force was none other than the spiritual world.’’

People from Nyanyadzi saw first- hand the religious aspect of the war as it occurred in Headman Nemaramba’s area in 1994, almost fifteen years after a comrade’s death. They saw a man come out of the world yonder and tell his parents where he had been interred.

Flashback to 1979
It was in 1979, the Lancaster House agreement had been signed with the signatories being the Patriotic Front, the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia government, Rhodesian Front and the midwife, Britain. Comrades had been warned to be wary of the Rhodesians who could not be trusted.

Nyanyadzi had seen some heavy fighting since the decisive stage of the war begun in the early 1970’s, the peasants and other people lived in fear of the regime soldiers’ reprisals and the comrades had received word that soon they would go to assembly points in readiness for independence. Ceasefire was beckoning.

Out of the blue, there was an ambush on the comrades who fought in that area and several guerrillas died and Cde John was one of them. People in the area wrapped him in a blanket and buried him at the local grave yard as the elders performed rites of passage. ‘’We are not your relatives but as this is a war of liberation, we are one. Go well comrade,’’ one of the elders said as he clapped hands.

Apparently, the community had heard the last of Cde John.

1994-fifteen years later
Cde Francis Muvhara, a government employee in the Ministry of Water at Nyanyadzi takes up the story. He is a 61 year old retired Water Foreman at Middle Sabi ZINWA. He witnessed the story of Cde John when he was at Nyanyadzi.

Let’s listen to him as he recounts the harrowing and intriguing story of the guerrilla who refused to remain buried far away from his home. In Mount Darwin, a girl saw a man she had never seen before in her life and he said, “I am your brother, John. Tell father and mother to take me from where I lie buried.’’

At that time, the parents were out in the fields. When they returned, she told them about it and they said that they knew him but they were shell shocked that he could come in human form if ever he had died. Actually, after fifteen years, they had a hunch that he had died. However, they didn’t know the place he was buried.

For several days nothing out of the ordinary took place. Then one night, just after the family had had supper, the sister saw her brother again. Her parents could not see Cde John, however. He told the family to prepare for the journey to Nyanyadzi.

“We don’t know where Nyanyadzi is!’’ the father protested. “Just board a bus to Harare and I will guide you accordingly,’’ Cde John told the sister. Amazingly, the sister had never seen her brother as she was born about the time Cde John was killed in the Nemaramba area in 1979.

The following morning, the family boarded a bus to Mbare Musika. From nowhere, Cde John showed himself to his sister and he led them to Tenda bus which plied the Harare-Mutare route. They arrived in Mutare and Cde John appeared to his sister once again.

He told her to board Msabaeka bus and intimated to her that the family had to disembark at Nyanyadzi and go to the kraal head. They did as he told them and reached the Kraal head, Ephraim Nyahanda’s homestead.

Cde John’s father explained the reason for their visit, the kraal head summoned his advisers. Kraal head Ephraim Nyahanda and his advisers deliberated on the matter. They were in agreement that they knew of a Cde John who died in an ambush and buried at the local grave yard. Nevertheless, they could not identify the grave prompting the elders to tell the visitors that as traditional leadership, they needed time to converse with the spirit world.

Cde John’s family went back to Mount Darwin and waited for Chief Muusha to exhaust the traditional rites to be performed before it was called. The kraal head would confer with those in the higher rungs of traditional leadership and that would be communicated to the family in due course.

About three to four months later, the Muusha leadership had conferred with the spirit mediums of the area and it reached a decision. Cde John’s family was called.

The family, on returning to Mount Darwin had communicated to the local government representatives that understood the situation and pledged to assist. Thus, when the family was called to Nyanyadzi to collect the remains of Cde John, it was seconded by a Police Santana to help in transporting Cde John’s remains to his family grave yard for burial.

Cde John had not appeared to his sister since he directed them to the kraal head. He returned to lead the procession in identifying his grave. Imagine identifying a grave hastily dug in 1979 with fear that the enemy may see and punish them.

The 15 year old girl led the procession to a place and pointed to a thicket filled grave, people dug the place. Surprisingly, the body was still intact after many years underground. Initially, the body appeared to be ‘refusing’ to be removed.

Cde John’s father clapped hands, intoning his clan’s names as he asked John to allow them to take him to his final resting place. Using sticks as levers, the men removed the body and placed it in a police coffin and then put it in the police vehicle. Cde John’s remains went to be buried at his family home.

Lameck Rwizi, a local resident said, “I was shocked to hear about the incident but I was assured that it was no fictitious story. It dawned on me that the war had a spiritual aspect.’’ Tales from the liberation war have always emphasized the clear link between the spiritual and physical as the prosecution of the war reached fever pitch.

We have heard how comrades must never ever be intimate with a member of the opposite sex and if that happened, there was hell to pay. Spirit mediums emphasized on discipline.

To most people aligned to the traditional view, the Chibondo phenomenon is no story from a grandmother’s head. It is a story of a people condemned to the mine shafts by a retreating force that knew its time was up but the people refused to be forgotten in the same manner Cde John’s apparition led the family to Nyanyadzi and he was given a proper burial by his own people.

Repatriating dead comrades is an on-going programme thanks to the Fallen Heroes Trust. It may not be today that people whose loved ones are at large will hear about spiritual sightings, but one day the story of Cde John will visit your clan and you will believe.

Please, dear readers, continue to give me feedback as the journey towards a history authored by our people is highlighted to the world. Indeed an African proverb puts it aptly, unless the impala tells a story, the story of the hunt will always be about the hunter. In that case, the whites wrote their stories on how they colonised Africa and how the natives appreciated that.

On the other hand, some nationalists believe that Africa’s unfortunate handshake with Europe left her with bleeding fingers. It was an attempt to remove the blood on the African fingers that the likes of Cde John went out to be trained and the end result was independence for many Africans.

For readers’ feedback please sms, whatsapp or email me on the following numbers and email address-0777582734 and [email protected]