adminSamuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
THE twin-burial of two iconic cadres, Cdes Victoria Chitepo and Vivian Mwashita- both from Manicaland – at the National Heroes’ Acre demonstrated the uniqueness of the liberation struggle for not recognising age, but sacrifices of both parent and child.
That the two heroines died and were buried on the same day at the national shrine serves to remind Zimbabweans that just as the bullet does not discriminate, the war was fought by both parents and children who identified their enemy with similar lenses.
Manicaland was not only central, but also corridor in the wagging of the struggle for freedom and in this context it is not out of place that history is merely writing its own story.
While coincidences exist, the part played by the two heroines who remained true to the ideals of the struggle to the end cannot be coincidental.
The two did not play part in liberating Zimbabwe as a matter of coincidence but out of the determination to go down fighting for independence.
Given Cde Chitepo’s age (89) and Cde Mwashita (58) – the interment depicted of a mother and daughter honoured for waging a war with distinction.
That it was a first in Zimbabwe at the highest level of recognition of national heroine status awarded two women hailing from one province – Manicaland – also confirms a war which drew the majority of its female participants from the eastern province bordering Mozambique.
President Mugabe described Cde Chitepo as courageous and nationalistic.
“When her husband (Cde Herbert Wilshire Chitepo) died, Amai Chitepo did not tire, (she was) influenced by her father an ANC cadre and husband Herbert first Zanu chairman…she made a lifelong commitment to the liberation struggle,” said President Mugabe.
“Mai Chitepo nemamwe madzimai kuno kumusha vakazvi organiser wo. Mudzimai wangu wokutanga (Cde Sally Mugabe) achibva kuGhana wakagara kumba kwa Mai Chitepo tisati tachata saka Mai Chitepo vaiva amai vangu. Dzakara washaya vaive vakabatana,” added President Mugabe.
Zanu PF politburo member Cde Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said the two fallen heroines mastered the art of extracting sensitive information from the enemy without detection.
“They were a rare breed of cadres, war veterans who will go to challenge the Ian Douglas Smith regime during difficult time. Amai Chitepo inspired all of us, and what was of great importance during that time was the courage to ensure that the spirit to liberate was rekindled among female comrades. For Manicaland we were inspired and that is why young people like us, and Vivian, who is also late, left school, we knew with vigour that she was able to push the agenda forward,” said Cde Muchinguri-Kashiri.
Dr Simbi Mubako described Cde Chitepo as woman with strong feminine values.
“She played an instrumental role for the emancipation of women in Zimbabwe and her commitment to the development of Zimbabwe was unquestionable. She could fight and was very courageous,” said Dr Mubako.
Analyst, Mr Donald Kamba Makoni, said Cde Chitepo was a match for her late husband, Advocate Herbert Chitepo, a towering figure of the Second Chimurenga and most feared man by the colonial regime of Ian Smith.
He said Cde Chitepo was a character who lived and survived complexities that finally extinguished a flame that was stubbornly and scary bright.
“While history will credit him with setting the tempo for the war that birthed Zimbabwe in 1980, he also immortalized the role of ideology, thus claiming the nerve centre and brain power that present Zimbabwe still has to appreciate in full.
“Herbert found a partner in Victoria, and together played complimentary roles that indeed strengthened the two, and, solidified the struggle against the avarice upon which white brutality was mounted against indigenous black Zimbabweans. It takes two to agree, but it takes two souls to marry and agree to swim against a current infested with intrigues, feuds and bloodletting,” said Mr Kamba Makoni, adding:
“(Cde) Vivian Mwashita entered the struggle at the vulnerable age of 17, died early at 58 due to afflictions imposed by hypertension and diabetes. Vivian went through the rigours associated with the vulgarities of an unplanned but necessary war, with her training ending with instructing others, punctuated with a life she continued to claim when others had been consumed by the enemy bombs in Mozambique.”
People should, however, not read too much into burying two heroines from the same province who died and were buried on the same day at the same place. Suffice to say that it is significant that the nation had to wait for thirty six years to experience what amounts to be stranger than fiction.
We hope that Zimbabweans will reflect on this peculiar occurrence as a strong message that says the struggle for political independence must be supported by equal zeal that yields economic independence on the basis of unadulterated unity.
Online Reporter