adminTHE war of liberation against the racist Ian Smith regime was not only fought by men as there were women, who although playing a supportive role in combat exhibited outstanding military skills. One of those unsung heroines is Cde Grace Ethel Noko whose pseudo name was Cde Grace Muchachi, who together with Cde Thoriso Phiri were the first women to be appointed military instructors in Zipra.
Below are excerpts of an interview with our Assistant Editor, Mkhululi Sibanda (MS).
MS: Cde Noko can you please start by giving us your brief history.
Cde Noko: I was born on 22 July in 1959 at Halisupi area in Gwanda District. The area is just about 12km from the border with Botswana. For my education I went to Halisupi Primary School where I completed Grade Seven in 1973. I then left the country to join the armed struggle with three other locals on 15 July 1975, we were two girls while the other two were boys. From your calculations you can tell that I was 15 then.
MS: What drove you to join the armed struggle at such a young age and also the fact that you were just a small girl.
Cde Noko: We used to see people passing through our area going to cross the border to join the armed struggle. So it happened that one day I overheard my uncle saying he looked forward to the day when one of his own children would leave the country to join the struggle and that challenged me. So one day we held a Zapu youth meeting where we decided to leave the country and join the armed struggle. There were eight of us in that meeting, but when we left we were only four.
MS: So for you I suppose it was easy to cross the border as you alluded earlier on that it was a short distance to the border with Botswana.
Cde Noko: It was very easy for us because we had relatives just across the border in Mabolwi and Gobojango. In fact my aunt, my mother’s sister was married just across the border and from time to time we used to visit her. So we crossed the Shashe River and proceeded to my aunt’s place. When we got there we lied to them that we were an advance party of a church meeting. After staying there for a few days, one day we just slipped out and went to Bobonong. From Bobonong we were taken to Selibe-Phikwe.
MS: Then take us through what happened when you were now in the hands of the Botswana authorities.
Cde Noko: We spent some time at Selibe-Phikwe Prison, but we were not prisoners as such , it was just a way of keeping us from the prying eyes of the enemy. After some time we were moved to Francistown where we spent two months at a Zapu house in Blue Town where we were joined by some girls from Beitbridge. We shared that house with some trained guerillas, Cdes Black Swine and Matswaha. Then in December we were flown to Zambia.
In Zambia we were taken to Nampundwe Transit Camp and the people whom we found there included comrades such as Tondereyai, Cetshwayo Sithole, Sanders, Pardon Khutshwekhaya and the former commander of One Brigade, Retired Brigadier-General Muzheri.
MS: How did you find the situation at Nampundwe, I am told it was a tough place because of the physical rigorous exercises.
Cde Noko: It was tough, but I had no regrets with the decision I had taken. On learning of the presence of girls, the President of the party, the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo tried to stop us from undergoing military training, but we pleaded with the commanders to allow us and at the end of the day they accepted our request. After spending about three months at Nampundwe, we were moved to Mwembeshi for real military training and I am proud to say I was part of the group of 800 to open that camp. Out of the 800, there were nine women.
MS: Who were some of the women?
Cde Noko: Besides myself there was Chiratidzo, Audrey, Tebogo, Thoriso, Alice, Dorothy and Gladys.
MS: How were you coping and who were the instructors there?
Cde Noko: We were doing very well. Although men were faster than us, we made sure that we kept pace with them. Among the men, there were also some who were very young such as Zenzo Maphekapheka Ntuliki. Our instructors included Tshile Nleya, Retired Colonel Eddie Sigoge, Stanley Gagisa, Cephas Khupe, Eric Ndondo, current army commander, Lt-Gen Philip Valerio Sibanda, who was known at that time as Ananias. Others were Rodwell Nyika (Collin Moyo) and Richard Mataure (Retired Colonel Richard Ngwenya(, these two were later on to become senior commanders at the front and they operated in Mashonaland West). However, before we could finish training we were moved to Mgagao in Tanzania, this was the period under Zipa. But because of the conflict that erupted there between Zipra and Zanla, we were taken to Morogoro where we resumed training. After our training at Morogoro, myself and Thoriso were recommended to be instructors. We then returned to Mwembeshi to start our tasks.
MS: How were you chosen?
Cde Noko: We were some of the outstanding recruits and the two of us despite being women, we were very strong physically and mentally.
MS: That is very interesting. So what happened at Mwembeshi, didn’t male recruits look down upon you because you were women.
Cde Noko: At Mwembeshi there were 300 recruits and among those were 52 women. At first some male recruits naturally tried to be funny, but because I and Thoriso were very strong they changed their attitude. We were experts in judo, it was easy for a man who tried to be funny to find himself on the ground after facing either myself or Thoriso. We would just lift him up and throw him on the ground. After this group of 300 had finished training we were taken to Victory Camp (VC), which was a facility that had been opened for women. At that time there were many women arriving in Zambia to join the armed struggle. It was in 1977. VC was a transit camp for women just like Nampundwe was for men.
MS: Tell us about your experiences at VC.
Cde Noko: Myself and Thoriso were still instructors while the camp commander was Cde Cecil. Among the recruits were girls who had come from Manama High School in Gwanda. They included people like Chiratidzo Mabuwa, who is now the Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce, Cecilia Bhebhe, a prominent Bulawayo businesswoman, who is also the former public relations manager of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair Company and Sibonginkosi Gumede. However, I was later on sent to Cuba for further training where I specialised in military intelligence.
MS: How many were you in that group to Cuba?
Cde Noko: We were 14, in that group there were girls that I had trained in Mwembeshi while some of the comrades included the late Retired Colonel Smile Madubeko Moyo, Cecil Ndanga and Mark Tshuma. We were in Havana for six months. We returned to Zambia in September 1978 and that is when we found Mkushi, a women military camp having been bombed. Some of the people who were killed in that bombardment included my close colleagues and relatives, Audrey and Jane.
MS: After your return to Zambia where were you deployed?
Cde Noko: I was deployed to the Zapu headquarters, Zimbabwe House (ZH) in Lusaka where I worked under the late Vice-President Cde John Landa Nkomo. Some of the people I worked with there were Cdes Cecilia Bhebhe, Maggie Mhambi, the wife of the Zanu-PF National Chairman, Cde Simon Khaya Moyo, Hazel, who is now the officer-in-charge of Magwegwe Police Station, the late Chenjerai Hunzvi and Obert Matshalaga, the former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs as well as Eunice Sandi Moyo, the Provincial Affairs Minister for Bulawayo. I worked at ZH until the attainment of the ceasefire.
MS: So you returned home and what did you do?
Cde Noko: I became a member of the special constabulary in the police force, but I later left to do a course in secretarial studies. After that I joined ZEDCO group of colleges owned by Dr Sikhanyiso Duke Ndlovu and I am still working there.
MS: As a parting shot what can you say about the welfare of ex-fighters.
Cde Noko: As one of the people who sacrificed a lot for the freedom of this country, I feel enough has not been done for the war veterans, they are just a subject of ridicule. We have also not done anything for those fallen heroes who perished in Zambia and Mozambique. Our authorities were supposed to take their families especially parents to those places where their children were killed by the Smith regime to perform some rituals. I am also disappointed that there are lot of people who never broke a sweat during the armed struggle, but were old enough to be part of that process, who are now living large while ex-combatants are suffering.
Online Reporter
Londile Moyo