Online Reporter
Last week, CDE TOBIAS KANYONGO, whose Chimurenga name was Bomber Chimukwende, recounted his journey to Mozambique to join the liberation struggle alongside his close comrade. In this week’s instalment, he reveals to our Politics, Foreign Affairs and Opinions Editor KUDA BWITITI details of his military training at Nachingweya Camp in Tanzania.
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Q: How did you feel when you managed to cross Bhinya Road into Mozambique?
A: Obviously, I knew that turning back was out of the question. To me, crossing Bhinya Road was knowing that, yes, now this is the real deal, I have come to fulfil my wishes and I am going to sacrifice my life. So, you can say that crossing Bhinya Road was a truly profound and surreal moment. Being in Mozambique was a good feeling, particularly because we knew that they were independent after FRELIMO succeeded in attaining freedom from Portuguese colonial rule.
Q: After crossing Bhinya Road, where did you go?
A: In Mozambique, we teamed up with other recruits who had entered the country using other routes.
Q: At this time, how many were you in total?
A: We were about 70. We proceeded to a ZANLA base at Changara. From Changara, we were picked up by ZANLA vehicles and proceeded to Tete. At Tete, we stayed for about two days. Then from there, we were ferried by the Scania trucks to head to Tembwe. At Tembwe, we stayed for about three months.
Q: What were you doing during those three months?
A: It was a waiting period for us to get to Tanzania, where we would get military training.
Q: Describe your time at Tembwe.
A: We were involved in a lot of political orientation. We studied revolutionary theory by day, debated strategy by firelight. We discussed a lot about the war. The number of recruits who were joining the war was increasing. So, we were increasingly growing confident of winning the war. We knew the Rhodesian Security Forces were quite a formidable unit, but our strength was in our numbers and our determination to liberate the country.
Q: What happened next after your time at Tembwe?
A: We were then picked up from Tembwe and proceeded to Beira, from where we flew to Tanzania, and we were dropped off at Mtawara Air Base. From this base, we were taken by road to Nachingweya.
Q: Who were some of your trainers at Nachingweya?
A: Our camp commander was Captain Buckley, who was from the Tanzanian forces. Essentially, the Tanzanian forces were our lead trainers. We also had local instructors. Some of the local trainers that I remember vividly include Cdes Kidd, Cde Up Up and Tichatonga.
Q: Describe what the training entailed.
A: These instructors were tough. Let me give you the context. The rule of thumb for training was that out of every 100 people who trained, two had to die.
This shows you how difficult it was. The Tanzanian instructors had a saying: “If no one dies, you are not training hard enough.”
If a month passed without deaths, they would double the drills. The weak were winnowed out; the rest learned to embrace suffering as a companion. Some deaths were caused by exhaustion.
Q: What would happen if at least two people did not die during training?
A: We would be forced to start the same routines all over again, with more intensity.
Q: What was the training routine?
A: As you can imagine, the physical drills were demanding. Our daily routine was like this: We woke up at 4am.
The first exercise was running. The distance would be about 25 to 30 kilometres. We would come back from the road run at around 7am. We would then have breakfast.
After that, we would begin the training on the actual military drills. We also did survival skills. There was a lot of psychological hardening, mock interrogations, sleep deprivation and isolation pits.
If one trainee failed, the entire group suffered. This helped to forge unbreakable bonds among the recruits. It was gruelling, but I sailed through with even more determination to fight to liberate the country.
Next week, Cde Bomber Chimukwende tells us about his deployments to the front, where he was involved in multiple battles.
