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Cde Makanaka is a female freedom fighter killed in the callous bombing by Rhodesians, of a Zanla Camp in Chimoio, Mozambique in November 1977 and is buried indecently, in a mass grave with thousands others. She has been manifesting through a stranger and demanding reburial and, and, and… she says, there are 175 other bodies (remains) stashed on top of hers. This is not fiction.
Her case has given the Fallen Heroes Trust a skull-splitting head ache.
As we commemorate the Heroes Holiday, there are several thousands of Zimbabwe’s fallen heroes who still lie buried in indecent places throughout central and southern Africa; in mass graves, in shallow graves and at times, as mere remains exposed to the vagaries of weather, in Mozambique, Zambia, Angola, Tanzania and little everywhere else. A few thousands have been exhumed and reburied by the Fallen Heroes Trust.
Isdore Guvamombe (IG) talks to Fallen Heroes Trust Chairman Dr Arthur Makanda (AM) about the complexities of the issues around the exhumation and reburial of fallen heroes.
IG: What are fallen heroes?
AM: These are freedom fighters or combatants of our liberation struggle who died in the war or who died after the war of liberation, after partaking the war. So, the Fallen Heroes Trust is an organisation that seeks to give them a decent reburial, that seeks to take care of the welfare of the families they left behind, among other issues.
There are thousands of Zimbabwe’s fallen heroes who still lie in indecent places throughout central and southern Africa; that is mass graves, in shallow graves and at times are mere remains in Mozambique, Zambia, Angola, Tanzania and many other countries. We registered the trust in 2017.
IG: What triggered the formation and subsequent registration of the Trust?
AM: This followed an upsurge of manifestations of spirits of the dead fighters, the cdes or fallen heroes through the living. The fallen heroes talked- (they still talk)- and sought reburial or repatriation of their remains to their original homes and manifested through many people, some of them not even related to them. Some people went to fetch firewood and stepped on mass graves and became possessed instantly, etc. There were many such issues and we needed to solve them.
We then engaged spirit mediums, those who led us spiritually during the liberation struggle and started the process of exhumations and reburial which we are doing up to today.
We have done mass exhumations at Chibondo in Mt Darwin, Chiwere in Rusape, Butcher in Rusape and many other places. We are still doing them.
IG: How big is the task?
AM: You are talking of several thousands and this is complicated. For example, we have Cde Makanaka who has been manifesting and wants to be reburied, but she says she is in a mass grave in Chimoio where 175 other fallen heroes are stashed on top of her in a mass grave. How do we rebury Cde Makanaka without reburying those on top of her and those in the some grave with her?
We need to bring closure and finality to these fallen heroes. No matter how complex their issues.
IG: What is Government policy on this whole thing?
AM: Am sorry to say there is no clear cut policy when it comes to most of these freedom fighters and their children. The War Veterans Act speaks to the issue of national heroes, provincial heroes but not liberation struggle heroes. We can only assume that, and we do that at ad hoc basis, that these are district heroes. Their status has not been provided for legally.
There is no budget from the fiscus on these issues and at times, provinces have had to use the Devolution Fund to assist. But that is going out of their way. It is not distinctly defined. They can choose to ignore and nothing happens.
Worse still, the children of these fallen heroes have no legal status in the war veterans realm. Some sacrificed and left behind children and families before going to war, and those have no legal status and cannot benefit. Some had children at war and those children are classified as under age and cannot benefit.
Some fighters came back from war in 1980 but died before 1997, when vetting was eventually done and therefore have no status and cannot benefit anything. There was no vetting between 1980 and 1997. These are real issues we must deal with. There is a real dark period between 1980 and 1997. And this is when many fighters who came back from war started their families and if they died before 1997, their families get nothing.
IG: This is serious comrade! So why is did it take you this long to rebury even those in small dotted graves?
AM: the same complications I alluded to. But there are many issues around this thing, cde. There are cultural issues also involved. Some relatives did rituals to their relatives who had gone to war, resulting in their death. Some cultures’ especially in some parts of Matabeleland, don’t rebury people who die in violence. They fear the spirit. Some among the Shona do rituals dzekutsipika (suppressing the spirit) and when we want to rebury they refuse.
This is why many of the comrades who manifest are angry around these issues. Some want reburial elsewhere in Zimbabwe, not in their exact places of birth or villages, which is why the spirit of Cde Cephas is demanding land, a farm in Hurungwe to rebury all those with complicated issues. So, we must find a way to appease these fighters to bring closure and finality, which is why land is critical at this stage.
IG: What is the way forward?
AM: The way forward is getting the policy done. There is need for a legal framework that speaks to the exhumations and reburial. So far, all those helped were out of good will and not out of policy. The Government has to work out legal instruments for liberation fighters of that level and their families.
We get bad attitude from Government officers because there is no defined policy. They will be wrong to our cause. We want clear cut policy.
IG: What is your parting shot?
AM: Every fallen hero must be accorded a decent burial. We must work on reburying everyone who lies in those places outside Zimbabwe. Cde Makanaka’s case is a real test case. But we must do something about it. There is no going back on reburying our fallen heroes. They died for this country and they deserve better treatment.
Online Reporter