dyton mupawaenda
Chronicles from the 2nd Chimurenga
CDE AMBROSE MUTINHIRI, whose Chimurenga name was General de Gaulle, needs no introduction. He was a key figure in the liberation struggle and his rich history is too extensive to capture in a single interview. He is currently the most senior-ranking surviving Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) commander. ZIPRA was the military wing of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU). Cde Mutinhiri, who has held senior Government posts, has been interviewed by The Sunday Mail before. However, following a series of articles published in recent weeks, readers of this column requested that our Features and Arts Editor PRINCE MUSHAWEVATO interview him on some of the critical issues raised. These include the famous Wankie (Hwange) battles, the downing of two Rhodesian Viscount planes and perceived power struggles within ZAPU.
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Q: Our readers have requested that we interview you following a series of articles we published on this platform in the past weeks. But before we delve into those issues, could you please begin by introducing yourself and providing a brief overview of your background?
A: My name is Ambrose Mutinhiri. I was born in rural Marondera on February 22, 1944, under Chief Nyandoro. I began my primary education at Chionana Primary School in Marondera. Later, I moved to Mhondoro to stay with my aunt, my father’s sister.
I continued my primary education at St Peter’s Musonza.
Back then, primary education was divided into two levels: lower and higher.
For my Standard Four and onwards, I moved to Highfield, Harare (then Salisbury), around 1959 or 1960. I stayed in Lusaka with my nephew, the son of the aunt I had previously lived with in Mhondoro.
He had a house in Harare.
I enrolled at Tsungayi Government School, where I completed my primary education.
After that, I enrolled at Highfield Government Secondary School, which had just opened.
I attended for three years but did not complete my secondary education.
Q: Why? What happened?
A: I was arrested for political reasons. I was born in rural Marondera, and we lived there for a while. My father was a farmer and wanted his own farm. He left the remote areas of Marondera in search of fertile soil. So, he moved to Chitomborwizi, a farming area in Chinhoyi.
During that time, to acquire a farm, you were required to complete a type of apprenticeship.
They called them “master farmers”. You would live with a farmer who already had a farm, use part of his land and receive training under his supervision, as well as that of a lands officer (mudhumeni).
After qualifying, perhaps after two or three years, you would be allocated a small farm to purchase. My father followed his son-in-law, who had a farm in Chitomborwizi, and that is where he went to do his master farmer course.
When he finished the course, his younger brother, who had also completed the training, received a farm in Sipolilo (now Guruve).
However, my father was denied a farm because of his constant disagreements with the land officers over political issues.
Realising he would not get a farm, he decided it was not appropriate to extend his stay on his son-in-law’s farm.
He looked for an alternative place to live.
Q: Where did he go from there?
A: He reached an agreement with a certain village head (sabhuku) under Chief Chirau, who was close to Chitomborwizi.
However, Chirau was biased towards the white settlers.
So, when he learnt that a man involved in nationalist politics had settled in his area, he declared that he did not want him there.
But my father was stubborn.
He insisted that he had the right to live wherever he wanted, as long as he had an agreement with the village head. So, in the process of trying to remove him from the village, the police became involved. They would come and arrest, fine him, and that pained me greatly, even though I was still a student in Highfield.
At one point, they came to get him while I was on holiday.
The authorities manhandled him and literally threw him into their truck.
It was an ugly sight that troubled me deeply.
I cried!
Because of my stay in Highfield, I was close to influential politicians, and I began attending their rallies.
Through what I had witnessed my father go through, I became convinced that white minority rule had to end.
Q: You can carry on.
A: While still in Highfield, I learnt how to make and use a petrol bomb.
One day, I visited my father and, armed with this new skill, I created a petrol bomb.
My first target was Chief Chirau.
I went and petrol-bombed his house, but it was not a very successful attack.
He was not injured, which is why I say it was unsuccessful.
While in Chirau’s village, I met a gentleman named Chifura.
Chirau was a relatively underdeveloped area and the people there were not very interested in politics.However, during my brief stays, I managed to convince some of the local youths to become active in nationalist politics.
Chifura was older than me and had connections with miners in the Raffingora area.
He managed to acquire a dynamite and we learnt how to use it.
We started by removing the fuse and detonating it in a river.
A large number of fish died during the incident.We did not realise the magnitude of the effects.
From then on, I never returned to school.
I was arrested around 1962 and taken to Chinhoyi, where I was sentenced to six lashes by a magistrate’s court.
I was sentenced under the Unlawful Organisations Act of the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act.
I received the six lashes, but that did not bend my spirit.
It actually fuelled it.
We then undertook another operation in which we went around cutting telecommunication lines.
Q: Still on that topic, can you give a bit more detail regarding your first arrest?
A: The police came and arrested the youths I used to play with, but I managed to escape.
They could not find me because I started living in the bush with Chifura.
The police would frequently raid our home, but they could not find me since I was not going there anymore.
My mother used to bring me food while I was in hiding. She would pretend she was going to wash dishes when she was actually bringing me food. She would drop off the food and take the previous day’s plates back home.
In that instance, my mother became, in essence, my first chimbwido.
After several failed attempts to arrest me, the police eventually arrested my father and mother to force me out.
That pained me greatly.
They were held in remand for some time, but my mother was later released.
My father remained in custody.
It was then that I decided to surrender myself. I went back home and met my mother.
That very same day, several police officers came to our homestead to arrest me.
Vakabva nekure vachinyangira (They stealthily came from a distance), deploying and surrounding our village.
They assumed I would run away.
But not this time; I was prepared for them.
They did not know me and when they entered our homestead, one of them asked me where Ambrose was.
I told him it was me.
I was so thin and a bit tall that they did not believe it was me.
They took me to the back of our house and I faced an incident that was to be my first baptism of fire.
Q: What happened?
A: They questioned me about the Chirau incident, the cutting of telephone lines, the dynamite detonation and other things.
I denied everything, which resulted in one of the officers hitting me on the forehead with the butt of his gun before firing shots into the air.
This did not scare me, but it traumatised my mother immensely. But this is how they eventually arrested me, leading to the six-lash conviction. I was considered too young to go to jail, so they decided to beat me.
I was around 15 years old at the time.
The conviction was for a single count.
I still had several other charges that went through the court again and I was sentenced to eight lashes at the High Court.
In the first instance, I received the six lashes and left smiling, giving the warden the impression that he had wasted his time.
The others who were with me during this charge, who were a bit older, included Chabvutagondo and Chifura (Jnr) Tapera, who were both sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment each.
I still had more lashes to face.
When I received the eight lashes at the High Court, they released me by mistake.
They had not checked that I had further charges and was supposed to appear in court again. I am told that an hour after my release, they were already looking for me again.
But this time, I was on the run; I had had enough of the police and courts.
So, a cat-and-mouse game began.
Next week, Cde Mutinhiri will continue his narration, sharing how continued police brutality led him back to Harare before he crossed the border into Zambia. There, he would meet liberation stalwarts, including James Chikerema, Rex Nhongo (Solomon Mujuru), Jason Moyo, Joshua Nkomo, George Silundika and Nikita Mangena, with whom he had close and personal encounters.
Online Reporter