adminNduduzo Tshuma in Zambia
CADRES who were killed in the Mkushi Massacre during Zimbabwe’s liberation war were remembered on Tuesday with the Maqhawe’sizwe Entourage Trust visiting the shrine to honour them. Mkushi, a Zipra camp in Zambia where female combatants were trained during the liberation war was bombed by the Rhodesian Army in October 1978.
The local community surrounding the camp joined the trust in remembering the female combatants who were brutally killed by the Ian Smith regime.
Speaking at the shrine, the trust’s publicity secretary Cde Stanley Nyathi said the girls who were bombed had just arrived at the camp for military training.
“It’s unfortunate that most of the girls who were here, some of them hadn’t been trained. Some of these girls were four weeks in the camp when the enemy attacked,” said Cde Nyathi.
A survivor of the bombings, Cde Lister Dube whose pseudonym was Rumbidzai Choga, a commander of recruits at the time, said they joined the war as young girls.
She said it was decided that they go to school but she escaped with other girls from Victory Camp to Mkushi.
“We got here in the dead of the night and an announcement was made that we would be sent back to Victory Camp but we ran away until the commanders gave up and let us train with seniors,” said Dube.
“After training we went to Camp 2 of training personnel across the river. This one was Camp 1. While there, another group of recruits came and I was one of the trained personnel who came to provide security for the recruits.
“I had my platoon that monitored the road. There was a time we dug trenches so that we could hide at a time of bombings. What pains me is that it didn’t take long after that exercise that we were bombed.”
Cde Dube said at the time the attack was carried out, the Rhodesian Army went trench by trench killing the girls who were hiding.
“I and a group of girls didn’t hide in the trenches and neither did we run to assembly points. The assembly points, had already been ambushed. We managed to run away to escape with my platoon until we reached Rusensa,” said Cde Dube.
“I led the group, getting on and off the road, until we reached Rusensa. The injured were sent to hospital. We’re happy that the Ambassador (Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Zambia Gertrude Takawira) said the shrines will be spruced up soon so that our colleagues can rest in a proper place.”
Maqhawe’sizwe Entourage Trust chairman Cde Onesmus Bhebhe said the group felt it was proper to commemorate Heroes Day by visiting the shrine.
He said many young lives were lost in the bombings and he wonders what inspired the young girls to join the war.
“When we talk about Mkushi, Mkushi is synonymous to Manama (High School) in terms of numbers of people who lie here. We also remember all the schools from where pupils left to join the armed struggle,” he said.
“It was a tradition. Growing up, when we found our father fighting with someone, we wouldn’t ask what was wrong but to conclude that the person he was fighting was wrong. These youths came here for the cause of their parents because they were too young to know any cause and to experience the inhuman treatment faced by their parents at the firms. They took that cause and made it theirs.”
Cde Bhebhe said there was need to resuscitate and rejuvenate the spirit of freedom, economic independence and wealth creation.
He said the organisation was also advocating that the shrines get a facelift.
“We need to inspire the youth to connect the past with the present and the future for continuity,” he said.
The organisation paid tribute to Charles Mpabanga Ncube, a resident in Zambia, for looking after the shrine.
Ncube said he had invited his neighbours who had indicated interest in taking part in the commemorations.
Online Reporter