Chronicle Editor
Lest we forget with Colonel (Rtd) Ernest Mganda Dube
The name Father (Fr) Fidelis Mukonori is associated with servitude to God and not service to the Zimbabwean people’s war for independence against the racist Rhodesian Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) power-domineering system. During the era of former President Mugabe, the esteemed Father often appeared on the Ztv chronicling how he tracked the Zanu-PF leadership in Mozambique, not preaching the word of God, but interceding on either the British-sponsored peace-seeking talks or their own Catholic Commission on Justice and Peace initiative.
To the PF Zapu leadership, Fr Mukonori was as well a regular visitor where their interceding talks were traded as top-secret only known to the very few members of the Zapu’s Revolutionary Council as well as those of the Zambian Government. The Catholic Commission on Justice and Peace in Rhodesia was the Holy See Justice and Peace architecture started by Pope Paul the 6th as its Leviathan (authority). On 8 October 2020, I happened to track Fr Fidelis Mukonori at his new residence of Makumbi Mission Seminary, a locality found some 100km to the North of Harare, in the Chief Chinamhora country side, Mashonaland East Province.
The purpose of my visit was to enquire on the role of the clergy as well as the people of other colour (colour defined as any pigment that is not black) during the Imfazo First Chimurenga Wars and that of Zapu’s Revolutionary War as well as that of Zanu’s Chimurenga War. To my readership, you want to agree with me that while the term Chimurenga was spiritually spoken of in Zanu, to Zapu it was Revolutionary War. Somebody of top-notch reputation had advised me to seek council with the Father on this particular discourse. The man of God was believed to be quite knowledgeable of many of the secret peace-initiated developments in both Zapu and Zanu during the war of liberation. I was also told that the Father has a lot to tell us pertaining to the liberation war era key players i.e. war protagonists that included the Rhodesians. Father Mukonori, (Fr FM) together with Father Peter Paul Musekiwa (Fr PPM) warmly welcomed me and my companion at their Seminary Boardroom where they walked us through the Jesuits’ relations with King Lobengula, Chief Makumbi among other chiefs. The questions posed to which the servants of the Lord answered are here presented below (Question : QN. Father Mutonori: FM; Father Peter Paul Musekiwa: Fr PPM)
QS: Following the killings of catechists Bernard Mizeki, Molimeli Molele and others in the First Chimurenga 1896 War in the District of Marandellas then, now Marondera, an inquisitive researcher would think that the Catholic Church, the Jesuits, etc were never with the African people in their war of anti-colonialism. What is your perspective from an African nationalistic assessment as to the situation that was before the African catechists?
FM: About the death of the then catechist Bernard Mizeki, whom I believe was originally a Mozambican taken by the Anglican missionaries to South Africa when he was just a little boy, had been trained in Cape Town as a catechist for their mission objectives. We have to take it into context that in the 1893-1897 wars, the people of Southern Rhodesia decided to resist colonisation. The catechists were just doing their job. The African populace then, when they saw the catechists who lived among the white colonist-community and many times came to mingle with them, thought such conduct had more to do with information gathering which they would later arm the colonial administration with counter moves. You must appreciate the fact that the church then was seized with education programmes to literally develop the African as a requisite process to national development. My perception from my hindsight studies is that the African traditional leaders persuaded Mizeki to recuse himself from the stand-off because it was a military security issue that was beyond catechism, but he refused. So, the traditional leaders thought they were justified to kill him like other mission personalities because they could not see the distinction between missionary education/evangelism service and colonialism. The alien catechists who were as well misinformed about people’s customs and attitudes failed to appreciate all this as well that the traditional leaders were not prepared to submit themselves to a white God coming with a gun.
Fr PPM: People must understand that Marandellas then, was a Methodist area of jurisdiction and not all other churches like Catholic, Jesuits, etc should be assumed to have been involved. In fact, the people did not object to the word of God but to colonialism.
QN: Some people of colour, both the Indian and white communities, feel Zimbabwe’s national history does not seem to interest itself in their involvement in nationalist politics. Take us through memory lane on the key personalities and their exploits including those either arrested or banished by the Rhodesian Government for active participation in the Zapu-Zanu politics? Are there any special names you feel need national hero conferment and your justification?
Fr PPM: I think this research is very important, it excites me in that it helps unlock energies so that regardless of the colour of one’s skin, we can develop this nation together since various colour groups were involved in the war of liberation right from the beginning.
Fr M: If you can go through our books on the Civil War in Rhodesia, we have produced about six to seven books, which give some facts about the war. You will realise that the war involved both black and white people. Also worth observing is that we had black people in the Army and Police who worked for the Rhodesian system. On the other hand, we had some white and Indian people who sympathised with the nationalistic liberation movements of Zimbabwe. As a Commission, we ended up having sympathisers in Mr Ian Douglas Smith’s government and even in the military as well as many enemies. On many of the nationwide killings, which had moved from 50 to 1 000 lives a day, we would get such raw data from the military intelligence people during debriefs that the Commission was attending often as well as our system obtaining everywhere.
Fr M: At national Joint Operation Command Centre (JOC) meetings, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) would sometimes scamper around us, and in the worst cases push us rough seeking information on how we were getting human rights abuse data to which they would get irked resulting in them storming our offices and confiscating our valuable documents. You can imagine; Gen Peter Walls, the Rhodesian Chief of Joint Operations and I did not see eye to eye but I did not care. This is a true account of the missionary lives in Rhodesia then. Many people of colour lost their lives while others; the likes of Peter Mackay, Bishop Donald Lamont, John and Patricia “Pat” Deary, Ranger, Brickhill, Patel, Hassamal, Culverwell inter alia paid high prizes for their fight to see Rhodesia come out of despotic racial rule of Prime Minister Ian Douglas Smith. When contemporary Zimbabwean historians are not signifying the church icons’ role and everyone seemingly forgetting them as well, what does that mean?
Lest we forget some tough times the people’s representatives of both Christianity and justice went through, let me pen-off by remembering Bishop Donald Lamont. Bishop Lamont, the head of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace had since 1974 been canvassing for a just war between the Zapu-Zanu movements and the Rhodesian Government. His leadership role in recording war atrocities four in the war theatres was an act without government sanction. The Bishop’s fate was then decided in October 1976 when he was arrested and tried for having assisted terrorists with medical aid to which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour (Fr Mukonori, 2017, A Memoir: Man in the Middle). In his letter openly scolding the Prime Minister, Ian Douglas Smith for his two-faced politics, Bishop Lamont leaves a deep-seated fact about wider politics, “Far from your policies defending Christianity and Western civilisation, as you claim, they mock the law of Christ and make Communism attractive to the African people.” For their resolute commitment for a just and peaceful Zimbabwe, may the future Zimbabwean generation cherish them. Symbiotic to the reason of going to war and resisting the colonial injustices for some of us, to which we have reason to challenge any corrupt trappings and injustices, is Fr Mukonori’s scriptural quote advice that says, “I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9”.
ν The writer, Ernest Mganda Dube (EM) aka Bookless, is a political scientist who also has interest in history discourses with emphasis on Zimbabwean anthropology in general and world wide military-national security issues in particular.
Bongani Ndlovu