Chronicle Editor
Gibson Nyikadzino, Zimpapers Politics Hub
Zimbabwe’s Heroes and Defence Forces holidays are this year being celebrated at a time the country assumes the chairmanship of the Sadc bloc. This is an important way to celebrate these holidays as they carry fond memories of the sacrifices and contributions by both Zimbabwe’s liberators and their regional peers, who had gotten theirs earlier.
When names of Zimbabwe’s liberation heroes and fighters are called out, battle-hardened commanders and military specialists like Josiah Magama Tongogara and Alfred Nikita Mangena, in most cases quickly come to mind. Along with their compatriots, these men were accustomed to the rigours of war and for the benefit of Zimbabweans, made their lives as ones driven by sacrifice.
Through these rigours of war, the making of Zimbabwe as a post-colonial state was out of the unique breed of determined people who found each other, operating from different spaces, but fighting for the same objective; delivering freedom.
Having made remarkable and distinguished contributions that ushered Zimbabwe’s independence through their military leadership, their bravery would be incomplete without mentioning how Frontline States enormously contributed to sharpening their prowess.
Besides placing the responsibility to unfree the region from colonisation, the then leaders of these states, Tanzania’s Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Mozambique’s Samora Moises Machel, Botswana’s Quett Masire, Angola’s Eduardo dos Santos and Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda, also championed the decolonisation of Southern Africa.
Ultimately, they scored an important victory with the independence and decolonisation process of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s independence was the result of an armed struggle, but the Frontline States played a key role in support of that struggle.
In addition to providing territorial sanctuaries and material support, nationals from these states sacrificed their lives and died along with Zimbabweans.
Other forms of assistance came in the form of shelter, land, material resources, office space, diplomatic support, military training, and access to local and global networks.
As a result, this bolstered the desire of Zimbabwe’s freedom fighters and the determination of their population to continuously embrace more global anti-imperialist currents from China to Cuba, and Russia to Vietnam.
The martyrdom of people from Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia for Zimbabwe’s cause earned them the term “frontline citizenship” because of their solidarity with Zimbabweans in their nationalist struggles against colonialism. This was part of the efforts by their leaders to instil attitudes of anti-colonial solidarity.
When Tanzania became the first country in the region to attain independence in 1961, it gave numerous liberation movements permission to establish offices in Dar es Salaam. As such, liberation movements and their armed wings, Zanu/Zanla and Zapu/Zipra from Zimbabwe, began running military training camps in rural areas. In Zambia, Namibia’s SWAPO was also coordinating anti-colonial operations from there.
The majority of liberation movements had their headquarters in Tanzania at one point or another, and it served as their instrument for doing so through the Liberation Committee of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
It is therefore impossible to quantify Tanzania’s unwavering devotion to the freedom of the subcontinent, African unity and pan-Africanism under the late Nyerere.
During years of Zimbabwe’s armed struggle, the overwhelming military might of apartheid South Africa also caused disturbances in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and continued to support oppressive initiatives by the Rhodesian colonial government in Zimbabwe.
For Mozambique, the country also sacrificed a lot for Zimbabwe and helped refine its military specialists at a time the country was facing internal challenges, especially after their independence from Portugal in 1975.
The country’s first leader, Cde Samora Machel supported Zimbabwe when it was “taboo” to be Marxist. As this was during the Cold War, he was labelled a “dangerous Communist ideologue” by the West for his good intentions, along with other leaders, to see Zimbabwe independent.
As Zimbabwe got its independence, Machel stated in November 1980: “The independence of Zimbabwe and the unity forged in the common action of the Frontline States created conditions for all the countries in the region to come together in the fight for a harmonious and independent regional development.”
Zambia, too, was on the receiving end of retaliatory attacks from the Rhodesian colonial establishment and South Africa’s apartheid regime which resulted in a massive loss of life and property because it hosted freedom groups.
Kaunda, an ardent opponent of apartheid and an unwavering nationalist, thought that Zambia’s liberation was meaningless if its neighbours were not freed during the region’s independence battles. As a result, the nation had to contribute financially to aid the region’s freedom.
In September 1990, six months after Namibia’s independence, Kaunda told Zambians that their country had “worked in a spectacular manner to bring freedom to the rest of Southern Africa”.
From Nyerere to Machel, from Masire to Kaunda and dos Santos, these men remain giants of 20th century African nationalism. Their people paid the price of Southern Africa’s liberation with their lives as they gave refuge to revolutionary movements.
From these sacrifices and many years into independence, Zimbabwe’s Defence Forces (ZDF) have remained resolute and committed to stay in the orbit of the region’s forebears who midwifed today’s freedom.
As Zimbabweans celebrate the triple occasion of the Heroes Day, the ZDF Day and the assumption of Sadc chairmanship, they should be mindful of the historical sacrifices by other nationalities that shaped the calibre of patriotic military men and women we have today.
Men and women who stand to protect a country’s territorial integrity, uphold the constitution, maintain peace and act as a deterrent, as well as make contributions to the region’s security in areas where there are flashpoints of conflict.
In difficult, hard and challenging times, the ZDF have stood firm. There is a popular saying, “Zimbabwe ndeyeropa”. It means its independence was “blood-bought”. Zimbabweans should therefore continue protecting the principles for which so much blood has already been shed.
Online Reporter