Candid talk with a heroine

Samuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
EDUCATION is often a casualty in countries wrecked by war as more immediate needs such as food, water and shelter take priority, but the guerillas who waged a brutal campaign against Ian Douglas Smith’s settler regime viewed it with more urgency as a means to stabilise war-torn places.

It served two momentous roles – establishing and improving the capabilities of military personnel in their respective roles and laying a concrete base upon which economic wealth, social prosperity and political stability of a new Zimbabwe would be anchored.

New recruits, most of them of school- going age, had to be taught lessons that focused on patriotism, obedience, and loyalty to the country and about the ideals and practices of African citizenship – above all, how to read, write and calculate.

The chief instrument in this process of assimilation was the battlefront tutorials, but the major drawback was getting the eloquent, capable and resourceful trainers since there was a yawning vacuum of educated personnel that had sneaked into Mozambique to join the struggle against the settler regime.

This week we caught up with Cde Get Ready Mhukuta, real name Waddilove Concilia Chitukutuku, who was among those who took up the task to assimilate and weld greenhorn recruits into one harmonious combative military whole.

The ex-combatant insisted on the use of her Chimurenga name.

The unsung heroine said she dedicated four years of assiduous work on the blackboard and eventually took up the last recruit orientation in basic marksmanship with individually assigned weapons, field maintenance of weapons, physical fitness training, first aid and basic survival techniques in 1978.

She imparted knowledge to over 5 000 youths and children at Mavhudzi and Matenje Camps in Mozambique.

Within her target group, some had crossed into Mozambique with their parents, others were born during the war, while some youths had crossed on their own volition, but were deemed too young and raw for the battlefront.

“I had a better level of education, and was seconded to Mabvudzi Camp as a tutor. My responsibilities included teaching children that had crossed with their parents, born during war and some youths that had crossed over but were told by vanamukoma that they were still too young to join the war. Lessons started from crèche up to secondary level,” she explained.

Cde Get Ready said education played a key role during wartime.

“Education is often a casualty in any country wrecked by war, but we viewed it with urgency and as the most effective way through which we could inculcate and develop patriotism, obedience, and loyalty to the country and about the ideals and practices of African citizenship in these youngsters. We did not only focus on teaching them how to read, write and calculate. We had to develop them physically, mentally and politically for the envisaged new Zimbabwe. It was through education that we were able to keep them together, focused and disciplined while their parents focused on the war,” she added. “We kept them occupied, and this prevented them for engaging in unruly behaviour and saved them from worrying about the difficult situation obtaining during the war. It was a way to dissuade them from sneaking and finding their way back home. They were a reserve force for the future and we took the chance to properly orient them politically.

“Education remains a major aspect of development of any modern society since if there is a deficit of educated people then the new Zimbabwe was going to grind to a halt. It was important to have educated individuals at independence as they effectively contributed to the development of their country and society by inventing new devices and discoveries. We prepared the youngsters for adulthood so that they may form the next generation of leaders,” said Cde Mhukuta, who proudly argues that the bulk of those who passed through her hands were later posted abroad to further their studies in various fields and were now in the country serving in the education, health, security sectors, business and top echelons of Government.

“The kids were around 5 000, and if there were no teachers, the struggle would not have come out well. That generation could have gone to waste, and Zimbabwe would have lost drastically. As teachers we managed to keep them at one place, minimising chances of selling out among them.”

She drew parallels between education during those days and today, saying the point of departure was emphasis on discipline.

“It was not a free-for-all like the case with today’s education. It was a war situation, and discipline of students was all that mattered. We had stringent measures to ensure and enforce discipline. We would know each child’s whereabouts at any given time. It was difficult at times because there was this issue of chirenje – where kids would steal from the camp and sneak out to barter trade the stolen items with food in the adjacent Mozambique communities,” said Cde Mhukuta.

She, however, justified the children’s actions arguing that they acted the way they did to survive.

“There were food shortages, and children starved, some to death. Everything that mattered was in short supply – talk of food, clothes, drugs, water and learning materials. The health facilities were as good as non-existent.

They had to do that to survive. There was scarcity of everything. We would survive on muunze roots and barks. Many today owe their survival to wild fruits, especially masekesa and matufu and nhunguru. There was no soap to bathe or for laundry, and we had to improvise and use feso. We would take turns to put on one dress, the clothes available then belonged to everybody. The difference between the poor and the rich was unnoticeable. If we were greedy, many would not have made it into the new Zimbabwe. We would have killed each other. We were one people; would sleep together, boy and girl, without anything happening. We did all this because of extreme poverty,” she recounted.

As she poured her heart out, Cde Mhukuta said she suffered convulsions of seeing her subjects suffering and dying without life-saving interventions. She said she lost many of her subjects as a result.

“I love children, and it was painful that despite their innocence, they suffered the brutality of war in silence. Children were plagued by all sorts of diseases and died.

“I remember one (Cde) Powerman, who suffered severe dysentery. He lost lots of weight, his case was too extreme that he could not even lift his own leg on parade. Can you imagine a young man who should be running on his own walking with the aid of a stick? In the bush, there were nhata, matekenya, ticks, and many kids died.

“It was horrible watching them die, I am kind hearted, I have the Mother Teresa-like heart and would clean, nurse and bandage their wounds every morning before taking them for lessons and afterwards. There was a severe incidence of scabies (mhezi) and I had to be strong to clean their wounds using savlon and antiseptic cream. Most of these were recruits, with little hygienic standards and were dying of hunger and diseases. Malaria too killed many and we must construct a mass grave at Doroi because we lost a lot of our kids there. It is so painful, many died as a result of hunger,” said Cde Mhukuta.

Cde Mhukutu crossed over to Mozambique on Sept 16, 1974.

Her decision was inspired by stories told by her brother Samuel, then a student at St Augustine’s Mission, who crossed in June 1974.

“I crossed in September from Sakubva where I was working at Mr Livingstone Ndoro’s shops. We went through Machipanda with my friends Lizzy and Lillian Muzanechita around 4pm. We bumped into some comrades responsible for assisting guerillas, and we were told to crawl to avoid detection because it was dangerous,” she said.

They were taken to Chigayo (Chimoio) for two months for debriefing, following which they were taken to Doroi, where they were received by Cde Tsuro, and interrogated.

“We stayed for sometime and bases were formed. Survivors from Nyadzonia were brought there, making it a refugee camp and I was in Base 5. We were under the tutelage of trained guerillas like Cde Tension, Cde Dzarira.”

“Base 5 was meant for young children who were supposed to undertake some studies and since I had acquired some reasonable education back home, I was elected one of the teachers.

“Cde Jones Zvenyika was our base commander. In 1978, we left Doroi after concerns were raised why teachers were not being trained. We were selected to undergo a six months military training and use of weapons like sub-machines, grenades, AK rifle, motor 62, and LMGs, and also individual tactics”.

Early 1980 she was in the last group to leave Mozambique through Tete to Nyamapanda and then to Murehwa Mission. “There was fear that the kids had not been trained and could not defend themselves. So the guerillas had to come back first and ascertain the safety of the situation. We introduced sports to keep them occupied. Parents would not just come and pick kids, they had to follow protocol. They would have to get a pass allowing them to take and return the kids. We were relocated with the children to Camp Heaven in Shamva (now Mabvudzi Chindunduma Youth Academy). It was a bushy area again and we had to set up tent structures,” she said.

Cde Mhukuta called for the uplifting of living standards of war veterans.

“As war veterans we need to be recognised, politicians must not only rely on us when things go wrong. You find out that the majority of us have nothing. The poorest of the poor is the war veteran. We have nothing to show for our suffering. We are the last people to be recognised,” she decried.

As a disciplinarian, she expressed disquiet over the arrogance of today’s young generation.

“They are not disciplined at all. You cannot even control them,” she said.