The mind is central to all human endeavour

Pathisa Nyathi

A finger does not pull a trigger to fire bullets. The mind does. A hand does not carry a gun or sub-machine gun. The mind does. Feet and legs will not carry a guerrilla to an operational front. The mind does.
One could go on and on along the same vein. What is being emphasised here is the centrality of the human mind in all human endeavours. Where the mind has not willed, there is no action. This is the same with regard to the liberation struggle.

Where we do not appreciate this fact, change will not just happen effortlessly. More often than not, Africa seems to forget the critical and central agency of the mind. It seems the role of the mind in the struggle for independence is underestimated.

As a result, Africa is not taking remarkable strides to lift the continent beyond the independence euphoria, jubilation and elation. Independence was but an important stage in the long, arduous and never ending struggle towards liberation. Where the mind is not applied, people perish. Dependence is a mental state where the heavy gears of the mind have not been engaged.

This is by way of introducing this article whose thrust is the demonstration of a mind and its role in leading bodily action with regard to the execution of the struggle for independence. Without mental application, the struggle would have been without the energy necessary to advance it to a level where Ian Smith and his ilk capitulated.

Yet at the same time, mental processes alone may not achieve much. It’s like a running car engine whose gear is in neutral. For example, what I have written is thought out initially. If there was no follow up to write down those thoughts, it turns out to be an mammoth exercise in futility.

To begin to think Africa will develop through use of hands is to engage in futility. Hands work on demand, on instructions of the mind. Where instructions have not been given, there is no energy or zeal to initiate any action. This we shall apply to the struggle so that the way forward, the next struggle, like the first one, has to rely on the mind.

Whether we are referring to health development, agricultural development, the mind has to lead the way. Whenever people choose to disengage the mind and instead engage in eternal celebration, also known as laziness, we get nowhere. The best we can do is to extend a begging bowl and resign ourselves to the eternal dependence syndrome.

By 1960, we observe an important turning point in the struggle for independence. It was the year when the National Democratic Party (NDP) was formed on 1 January 1960. Its formation came after the proscription of the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress (SRANC) in February 1959 when the Edgar Whitehead-led settler government instituted Emergency Regulations and enacted repressive laws to drive over 300 political activists into various prisons such as Khami and Marandellas (now Marondera). The SRANC itself was banned under the Unlawful Organizations Act (1959).

What we are stressing here is that the mind’s political gear had been engaged over a long period of time. The trade union movement had been in operation from 1928 when Masotsha Ndlovu inaugurated the first and pioneering trade union, the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union(ICU).

Already, the mind had done some work. Masotsha Ndlovu had been to South Africa and his mind was open to new ideas. Labour militancy had gone several gears up. The minds were engaged on that trade union front and other related fronts. By 1960, political consciousness had reached unprecedented levels.

As far back as 1934 a native congress had been initiated with the assistance of TTT Jabavu from South Africa. Aaron Jacha was the leader of that movement. From those humble beginnings, there was slow but steady progress, characterised by learning — a mental process by all accounts. More and more blacks in Southern Rhodesia received western education and were exposed to ideas from the international political scene. Influences from the likes of Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, WEB Du Bois and others were beginning to be felt.

Thompson Samkange led the ANC and was succeeded by Enock Dumbutshena who in turn was succeeded by Joshua Nkomo. The ANC at the time was, to all intents and purposes moribund, ticking only in Bulawayo and nowhere else. Political life was injected into the ANC when it merged with the City Youth League of Salisbury (now Harare) led by James Robert Dambaza Chikerema, George Bodzo Nyandoro and Edson Sithole. The merger and launch of the SRANC took place on 12 September 1957 at the Mai Musodzi Hall in Harare Township (now Mbare). The SRANC thus became the first nation-wide political movement for blacks and was led by Joshua Nkomo.

We give this historical background to show that there was steady development of political ideas that culminated in the formation of the SRANC. Ghana had, under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, attained her independence. The wind of change was blowing across the African continent. It was a wind that was not allowed to cross the Zambezi River. It took the mind, to initiate a new political strategy which culminated in recourse to violence. That strategy should never be viewed as having been a mechanical process. Rather, it was a mental process which activated a mechanical process. The order of political processes is critically important to appreciate.

Soon after Zhi-i in July 1960, a new stage in political awakening was reached and there was no turning back. Nkomo then was making an impassioned appeal to the people to rally behind the struggle. He was in essence requesting people to apply their minds to the struggle. The mind needed activation, some process of education and learning before action followed. When action leads the mind, something has gone terribly wrong. Direction has been lost. The mind leads and the body with its physical action follows. This is like getting a lot of money and deciding what to do with the money in the pocket. That never works. Ideas should always exist ahead of money.

After Zhi-i in 1960, several political activists were deployed to various rural areas where political rallies were held. Places such as Filabusi, Gwanda, Ematshetsheni and Kezi were some of the areas that were targeted. Some of these areas already had politically conscious people who teamed up with deployees sent there by the likes of Thenjiwe Virginia Lesabe and Sikhwili Khohli Moyo. In Kezi there was the influence of Joshua Nkomo who came from Bidi. Jason Ziyapapa Moyo came from Donkwe Donkwe. In the meantime, many other people came on board and the process of politicisation was soon in full gear. Mishek Velaphi Ncube, Tayima Tshelanyemba Ndlovu, Peter Njini Sibanda, Sydney Joseph, David “Shapshoot” Moyo, Roger Matshimini Ncube were some of the activists. It was the preliminary stage of politicisation, of learning and education that preceded action. The mind was at work to prepare for the next stage — translation of mental processes into action.

The same was true in other areas. For example, in Gwanda there were men such as Edward Mbahwa Silonda Ndlovu, Charles Madonko (may his dear soul rest in eternal peace), Sanders Mlilo, Titus Mathiba, Orders Mlilo, Moffat Hadebe and many others.

During 1960 and 1961 the learning and educational process, through holding of political rallies went on. There was, by and large, at the time, no recourse to violent means to unseat the settler government in Salisbury. In essence, the minds were being prepared for action, the translation of mental processes to action.

That was the onset of the Sabotage Campaign which John Robert Mzimela refers to as Umtshetshaphansi. It was also variously named Zhanda under the national leadership of General Chedu (Enos Chikowore).

After the mind had done its homework of preparing the body (hands, legs, feet and all), only then was the visible stage commenced. The work of the mind is intangible and only when its prompting and agitation take place do we begin to see its concrete products. In action we read the mind.

That was the stage when petrol bombs were hurled into targeted properties. These were followed by explosives making use of gelignite obtained from mines and Davies Granite in Bulawayo. It was the time when commercial and industrial explosives were being made to blow up targeted infrastructure.

Meanwhile, home-made guns were being manufactured by people who had undergone military training in China in 1963. More sophisticated arms were smuggled into the country during the last quarter of 1962.
We are not here giving details of the Sabotage Campaign, but merely demonstrating the primacy of the mind. For one to risk carrying and exploding a petrol bomb, that came after mental conviction, at a time the mind had completed its preliminary work of preparing the hands, feet and all for carrying out mental orders.

The same idea was followed during the armed liberation struggle. The water-fish relationship that is often alluded to is application of the same ideas. The water, that is the peasants, must be worked upon mentally.
Some people will call this politicisation. Trained guerrillas, the fish in the given imagery, operated effectively when water had been prepared. There were political commissars who did initial politicisation which prepared peasants to dedicate effort and support the struggle. During military training, political education was an integral part of that critically important process of political conscientisation. The term may now frighten some people who developed some phobia for anything emanating from the East.

The likes of Stanely Gagisa Nleya (may his soul rest in eternal peace) were responsible for the training of recruits, not just in combat tactics but also with regard to political strategy when it came to winning the hearts and minds of peasants to come out in full support of the struggle. The political commissar was, at the ZPRA High Command, effectively the Deputy Commander of the army. That underpinned the importance attached to the mental process of preparing minds for active support, i.e. mobilisation. Political commissars were cadres with a thorough grounding in the history and condition of black people groaning under the burdensome colonial yoke. It was his duty to bring all that to the masses so that mentally, they were prepared and predisposed to support the struggle, especially when the going got tough.

Resilience, motivation, morale are born of political education, a mental process.

In my research on the struggle for independence, I have discovered different levels of analysis and interpretation among cadres. Those who were in intelligence seemed to display a deeper understanding of political issues. Unfortunately, some of these have a tendency to be too secretive and do not willingly share their knowledge with others. Many have passed without having shared that knowledge, not for use in the struggle that has gone by, but in forthcoming coming struggles of whatever nature. Humanity will always have struggles as the best human condition shall forever remain an advancing mirage and reality.

Knowledge drawn from previous struggles will be of great advantage if we are to avoid reinventing the wheel, and thus wasting time, energy and resources.

The next group that I realised had sound grounding in political issues were the political commissars. Well, that was expected of them as they have to locate the struggle within its historical context and know what issues of historical repression to harp upon so as to convince the people to come out in full, support of the struggle.

Recourse to violence was but a method of dealing with untenable political and socio-economic conditions. Struggles are never an end in themselves, rather they are a means to an end.

The end must never be some fuzzy, out-of-focus picture. When that happens, the struggle is compromised and the process fails to proceed beyond mere political independence to embrace the search for liberation — the one condition most needful on the African continent.