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Freedom Mutanda
Post Correspondent
FROM 1972 following the Altena Farm attack by ZANLA Forces and the 1967 Wankie and Sipolilo (Guruve) ZIPRA attacks, the liberation war became a thorn in the flesh for the recalcitrant Smith regime.
African writers and singers came in to fight inequalities by the colonial government, and to encourage boys and girls to join the Chimurenga. Mass nationalism had moved a gear up from sabotage to gun exchanges, song and dance.
Cde Nelson Matanda, a war veteran, said revolutionary songs sung by the people and established singers were responsible for the morale in the camps and homes of Zimbabweans who listened to the radio broadcasts that were coming in from Maputo and Zambia.
“Without the revolutionary songs, we could not have motivated our sisters and brothers to join us in executing the war. Our fathers and mothers in the communities were galvanised into supporting us through song and dance,’’ he said in a recent interview.
From Mkushi and Freedom Camps in Zambia, ZIPRA musical groups released scorching hits which spurred more young men and women to cross Zambezi River or go to take up arms.
Pungwe meetings set the stage for the “boys” and “girls” to tell the community that they were in the area. Pungwe was derived from the river which begins the journey from Nyanga Mountain to the Indian Ocean in Mozambique.
The freedom fighters were especially adept in using this mobilisation tool, with music and dance enticing the old and young to support the armed struggle wholly.
Drawing from the experience of the Chinese Red Army which fought the Nationalists (KMT) soldiers from 1929 to 1949, the combatants used the “fish in the sea” concept.
In that concept, the people were the sea while the freedom fighters were the fish.
This means they could not survive without the sea.
Proper orientation was therefore carried and liberation war fighters would use song and dance to endear themselves with the people.
Peasants, workers, students, religious people and the generality of the people swayed beautifully to the Chimurenga beat.
The Kongonya dance where hip gyration is the order of the day characterised the all-night meetings where political commissars within the ranks of the freedom fighters would churn out the notes, spelling out the national grievances and how a protracted war would bring the freedoms that everyone craved for.
“Nzira Dzemasoja” was a hit song sung at pungwes to articulate the discipline that bounded combatants as they went about their chores.
The former Soviet Union supported ZIPRA which favoured conventional fighting, and China lent her support to ZANLA where guerrilla tactics were valorised.
It is from Mao Ze Dong where soldiers were taught to be disciplined and respect property for the generality of the peasants to support them.
Through song, the cadres were taught to be humane if they were to entertain any form of support.
ZANLA and ZIPRA were aware that war was not a walk in the park and therefore motivation would see them through.
A war of minds needed instant fight back and the media from the departments of information of the two revolutionary parties, ZANU and ZAPU, were equal to the task.
However, at that time, listeners to Radio Maputo did that at great risk to themselves; thus, the volume was always turned to a low where it appeared as though no one was listening.
Chimurenga musicians fought the war from their vantage positions.
Cde Dick Chingaira (Cde Chinx) fought the war as a singer, and he became the face of Chimurenga through his music.
After independence, he continued to sing about the war, and that was a reminder that while the political war had been won, the economic one was yet to be won.
Oliver Mtukudzi, Thomas Mapfumo and Zacks Manatsa encouraged young men and women to go and join the liberation war fighters in their fight for independence.
Their songs had subtle messages, but for Zimbabweans, the message was very clear: “Go and fight for you to regain your dignity”.
Authors also came in to concentise the masses.
Solomon Mutsvairo’s novel, “Feso”, was one of the first Shona novels and it touched on the Shona past and its legacy.
The late Vice President, Cde Simon Muzenda recited an excerpt from this novel and was promptly arrested.
The seminal book, “African Nationalism” by late national hero, Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole is in the same bracket with Nathan Shamuyarira’s “Crisis in Rhodesia” which sought to internationalise the Rhodesian problem where Ian Smith was adamant that the “natives” were happy in their situation.
More Zimbabwean authors helped drive the conversation on how coloniality could be ended.
“Waiting for the rain” by Charles Mungoshi explored alienation by Africans in colonial Zimbabwe. The House of Hunger” by Dambudzo Marechera was symbolic of Zimbabwe’s situation at that time.
It impelled young people to make a beeline for training such that by 1979, there were more than 50 000 guerrillas fighting the Smith regime.
Thus, writing about the colonialist excesses helped to make people appreciate the gravity of the situation and take steps to redress the situation.
The Frontline States and other friendly countries chipped in due to the writings of the nationalists and journalists such as Bill William Saidi and Charles Chikerema.
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