adminMorris Mtisi
YES, a true hero fell at St Augustine’s High School; Date 5 August 1979; Time just before dawn.
Synopsis: A true war-hero falls at Tsambe; exact spot, the old foyer connecting old staff room and Form 3 block; the school Bio-Chem laboratory a few metres away lies; the student recreation hall faces all of it – a spitting distance away.
“ON THIS PLACE TENDAI PFEPFERERE GAVE HIS LIFE TO SAVE HIS COUNTRY,” today runs cold rusty writing on the wall at the foyer. The tragic end of a freedom fighter remains today on this wall, on a stone sculpture standing cold outside, cemetery-like on the yard, almost forgotten, alone, close to where he was shot and killed in cold blood.
“They take your country and for this you must die . . . Down by the country road,” goes the words of a 1970s British rock band – Grandfunk Railroad. And Dire Straits sing, “Even a hero can have a bullet in his chest,” in their Brothers-in-Arms album.
On Heroes’ Day and Heroes month (August), we remember Tendai gave his life to save students and a school. I would have brought down Ammagedon that day, bring down hell and swear by Chimurenga and Mbuya Nehanda to bring down unstoppable fire, bullet for bullet. And damn the consequences. Not Tendai Pfepferere! Noooo! Tendai didn’t do that.
Here comes a disciplined cadre and sane combatant, a freedom fighter whose gun only speaks of sense and purpose. He literally chooses death, Christ-like, to save national investment in future fathers, mothers and leaders, future politicians, business men and women, technocrats and thinkers. He says, ‘I will go . . . students must live.’ How many heroes do we know of this nature and caliber? A hero whose heroism springs not only from what he bravely does, but also what he bravely does not do?
Throughout the dreadful night, students and teachers, not to mention freedom loving Father Prosser, then principal at Tsambe, saw hell. They were queued up and searched and tormented. The reason, looking for ‘gandangas’ – terrorists miraculously embedded amongst the frightened students.
Check point Number One: Tendai passes through unidentified. The ‘gandanga’ looks like a student.
Check point Number Two: The same happens. The guerrilla moves along with students asking girls behind him to hide his AK 47 in their skirts and passing it on to him at intervals. Dicing with death! Meanwhile thinking of course, “How do I beat the infidels?”
A freedom fighter (name reserved in confidence), and brother-in-arms with Tendai, together at Tsambe on the dreadful night, revealed to this writer, that the whole day Tendai talked about a smell of blood dominating his chest and nasal cavity. Some people do sense impending death. Tendai Pfepferere too must have.
Check point Number 3: All must raise their hands here. It is no more body search. “Who is that damn nigger who is raising one hand?” the white commander asks? Belligerent buffoon unable to hide his buffoonery! The queue is frozen.
They know who it is amongst them. The white satanist buffoon corks his FN. Everyone knew what that meant, not least Tendai. They are perfect snipers these infidels. They shoot to kill, and they don’t miss.
He takes aim, and Tendai complies. Before he emits fire and death from his rifle, Tendai raises both hands. The obvious happened. In a loud obvious clatter, ZANU PF property falls onto the hard cement floor. Too late!
The next second Tendai Pfepferere is down. His acrobatic somersault to hit the door open with his jungle boots and vanish has failed. The exit door is tightly locked. End of story. End of Tendai. End of a war hero! The rest is history. Do we turn around and forget? That is the question. His blood irrigated the foyer, the school and the Anglican Mission. Do we forget? Yes, we have forgotten.
Is all we can do, wait until another August when the nation commemorates fallen heroes? Do we wait until all the heroes have been sung and forgotten, for us to remember the one who fell right under our nose?
Who must remind St Augustine’s Mission of its role during the liberation struggle? How many politicians, church leaders, business men and women and great leaders did Tsambe produce for Zimbabwe? How can a school like Santa forget its own history?
Is all we can do, pass by the statue without looking at it doing our everyday business? And deprive the born-frees learning at Tsambe today knowledge of a war hero who chose to die on the school so that students and their teachers could live and produce human capital for the nation? How easy it is to forget!
Last Monday was Heroes’ Day. It is always heroes’ day on this day every year. A commemoration of fallen war heroes, known and unknown! Is all we can do remember them? Are these fallen heroes and heroines only important because they died? What about what their sacrifices meant? What about what their death means to us today? Do we remember someone gave his life, died, to free us?
This is a challenge for St Augustine’s, a challenge I direct to those there today and those who went through it. Can we forget? And so easily? How can our children remember what we have forgotten? How can young born-free Zimbabweans remember heroes and heroines of the armed struggle if they can’t remember the one who by choice fell to save them at their own school? What does it cost to remember genuine war heroes and heroines who traded their precious lives for Zimbabwe?
Is it enough even to just remember them? Recite their names and heroism? Without reflecting with deep political or nationalistic sense the meaning of their sacrifices? Are music and dance and slogans enough to remember heroes and heroines of our liberation struggle? FOOD FOR THOUGHT!
If you want to know what this ardent writer and patriotic war-hero lover, who proudly taught at the great Tsambe(1985-1991), the all-time famous Santa, has up his sleeves for it, call him or Whatsapp him to learn more about the Tsambe project: TSAMBE-LEST WE FORGET! My cell number and Whatsapp number is 0773 883 293 / email [email protected]. We cannot only remember. We cannot only recite names and speak. Let us do something in their honour and our own honour. Now! DO SOMETHING! The move is overdue. It is never too late to do good especially if it is done for those we cannot afford to forget. Is it not the wise who said, “Forget others so that they forget you when you need to be remembered?”
If we share the same sentiments, all you former Tsambe students and teachers around and in the Diaspora, about Tsambe and the role the church played during the war of liberation, you’ve got me. Don’t hesitate to be in touch. We all owe it to this great school. No wonder a great hero chose to fall on its soil on August 5, 1979. LEST WE FORGET!
Indeed Zimbabwe is built on the blood and graves of heroes. Every Zimbabwean day must be and is indeed Heroes Day.
Let us all remember our heroes and heroines by allowing ourselves one deep thought and action culminating into a tangible project of commemoration in our various communities.
Our children will remember to remember us and those who deserve to be remembered, and something tangible in their honour, our honour and their own.
God bless Zimbabwe!
Online Reporter