Chronicle Editor
Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
It is important that more liberation stalwarts write books about the story to free Zimbabwe from colonial rule so that children learn the true history and not the version of colonisers.
This was said by a veteran of the liberation struggle and Zanu-PF Politburo member, Colonel (retired) Tshinga Dube who penned his autobiography Quiet Flows the Zambezi published in 2019.
Such books in Zimbabwe give an insight to the lives of politicians and how they fought the war to liberate Zimbabwe and give a background understanding to the happenings politically during that time.
When Africans in general and Zimbabweans in particular do not tell their stories through media controlled by them and books like Cde Tshinga’s, history will be distorted.
Many books in libraries dotted around the country about Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle were written by white authors.
This is what Colonel (Rtd) Dube wanted to counter when he published his book.
His decision helps ensure that the history of black people is not told by those that fought against them.
“The problem is with our culture as a people as our history is often told orally. Even the wars of our forefathers, if it wasn’t for the white man, we wouldn’t know what happened. When they write they have their own slant that portrays them as heroes.
“Where the white man was defeated, they leave that information. All the history of the first Umvukela we are reading was written by whites who were angry that our forefathers were fighting their oppression. We don’t have a record of those events from our point of view,” said Colonel (Rtd) Dube.
Colonel (Rtd) Dube said weekly columns such as Sunday News’ Lest We Forget, must be followed closely as they tell the accurate history of the liberation struggle.
“It is extremely important for us to write and not only give oral history. The Sunday News through its column Lest We Forget, by Mkhululi Sibanda, is doing a very good job in documenting the liberation history. All that will be put in the liberation museum. More than that. there should be pictures of those who participated in the liberation struggle and what remained of the aeroplanes that were taken down by the cadres and the weapons that we used, all that must be documented,” said Colonel (Rtd) Dube.
His wish is for Quiet Flows the Zambezi to be part of primary and high school set books so that children read and understand first hand the history of the country.
“The former Minister of Education, Ambassador Cain Mathema had said my book should be given to schools. I have already given the book to universities so that students there can read it. This is to counter books circulating that are distorting history. The truth must be told as to who did what during the liberation struggle,” said Colonel (Rtd) Dube.
He said more can be done and encouraged his fellow liberation stalwarts to write about their experiences during the liberation struggle.
“I always encourage the people who participated in the liberation struggle to write books and not be like our forefathers, who hand down history orally. We can forgive our forefathers because they couldn’t write. But as for us, we can read and write so we must make sure that we chronicle history through books.
“This is to avoid the situation that we found ourselves in where most of the history was written by Selous Scouts and not our people”.
Meanwhile, in last week’s Sunday Mail’s weekly instalment of the Chronicles of the Second Chimurenga, which was titled “We turned back after stumbling on dead bodies”, the narration and story of Cde Stanford Peace Moyo was erroneously attributed to Colonel (Rtd) Dube.
Colonel (Rtd) Dube was born on July 3, 1941 at Fort Usher in Matobo District, Matabeleland South.
The war veteran whose pseudo name was Cde Embassy, was deployed in the Tsholotsho area in Matabeleland North in a unit that included the famous David Mongwa Moyo (Sharpshoot) and John Ntemba.
The unit laid the groundwork for the joint Zipra when it was still called the Department of Special Affairs and Umkhonto WeSizwe Wankie Battle of 1967 and also carried out massive recruitment and politicisation of the masses.
Colonel (Rtd) Dube holds an MSc Degree in Electrotech from MADI Institute of Engineering in Moscow, Russia.
An expert in military communications, Colonel (Rtd) Dube also holds a Higher Diploma in Chemical Weapons Convention from the Hague and has chaired the Zimbabwe National Authority of OPCW for 15 years.
He once served on the board of the United Nations Disarmament under the Secretary-General of the United Nations and served both Dr Boutros Gali and Dr Kofi Annan.
A chief executive of the Zimbabwe Defence Industries for 22 years, Colonel (Rtd) Dube served on many parastatals boards.
He was a Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) board member for eight years and deputy board chairman of TelOne for seven years.
In 2012 Colonel (Rtd) was the chairperson of Marange Resources. He was elected the member of Parliament for Makokoba in June 2015.
In September 2015 he was sworn in as Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators and Former Political Detainees.
Colonel (Rtd) Dube is a long-time benefactor of Highlanders Football Club.
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