Chronicle Editor
Pathisa Nyathi
I have just published a biography of Rodgers Alfred Nikita Mangena which I wrote, together with those of Edward Ndlovu and George Silundika, in the late 1990s.
Edward’s biography is also out and Silundika’s is scheduled for publication at the weekend. As I did point out earlier, the handwritten biographies were compiled as part of a Longman project to write the biographies of national heroes. I did that of pioneering trade unionist Masotsha Ndlovu. In the meantime, Diana Mitchell did that of PF-ZAPU Vice President Josiah Mushore Chinamano.
In 1999 Joshua Nkomo, the former President of PF-ZAPU and then Vice President of Zimbabwe passed on. No sooner had Nkomo died than a new opposition political movement emerged on the Zimbabwean political scene, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai.
The national heroes project by Longman was abandoned, most probably when it was envisaged the political landscape would change and usher a new political order characterised by less emphasis on Zimbabwe’s liberation heritage.
When the unpublished biographies were gathering ever increasing grime of dust, it was Jocelyn Alexander, the Professor of Commonwealth History at the University of Oxford who saved the scripts with a very rich political heritage. She took them with her back to the United Kingdom where she got them typed and provided then with some synecote paper for covers. That she did around 2010.
She produced several copies of the said biographies some of which I gave out to selected individuals who included the research interviewees who ran into dozens of them. I might also have deposited some copies with the Reference Section of the Public Library-under the clock.
Only when I intended to write a more definitive historical rendition of ZAPU’s Sabotage Campaign(1960-1964) did I revisit the manuscripts and began to appreciate the inherent value of the three biographies, especially those of Silundika and Ndlovu who got involved in the liberation struggle from its nascent stages.
Edward had been heavily involved in trade unionism which by 1960 transformed into nationalist politics. Meanwhile, I had by 2010 transformed myself from being just a researcher and writer to also become a publisher. By the end of 2019 I decided to revisit the three biographies with a view to getting them published formally.
Early in 2020 the two biographies of Edward Ndlovu and Nikita Mangena were e-mailed to Jocelyn to edit and provide the two scripts with blurbs. I got to work on the preface to be used for all the three as they shared a common history. Sadly, we failed to send off Silundika’s script to Oxford. Then came the lockdown in March 2020 and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Three biographies jumped the queue and were worked on ahead of the three. These were the biographies of Rebecca Mabhena, nee Dlodlo, the widow of national hero Welshman Mabhena; Stanford Sithole(Dumisani Tembo/Dakamela) and Dauti Salatiel Mabusa. These were done from scratch-oral interviews, literature review, writing and publishing.
The lockdown was extended ad infinitum and electricity was available 24/7. I worked and worked, not only on liberation heritage books but also on articles for Chronicle and Sunday News. We had been given the challenge to document the liberation struggle history, not just to Independence Day in April 2020 but throughout the whole year. This was a rare opportunity to get ZAPU/ZPRA’s history documented. I do not think I have disappointed in this regard.
It is Mangena’s biography, when I was reading through it, that had me identify another theme to unpack in the history of ZAPU and its fighting wing, the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA). In the biography there is an appendix written by three members of ZPRA’s High Command, namely Richard Dube (Gedi Ndlovu) who is now generally referred to as Gedi Dube who was ZPRA’s Deputy Political Commissar.
He deputised Lookout Mafela Masuku who upon the demise of Nikita Mangena became ZPRA commander with Gedi Dube as Political Commissar. The other person who was in the three-man team that crafted the document was Eddie Sigoge Mlotshwa (Cassius Moya) who was ZPRA’s Deputy Chief of Training alongside another Deputy Chief of Training, Makhetho Ndebele (Jack Mpofu).
The three decided to pen their rebuttal document following the allegations and insinuations that Nikita Mangena had been a victim of internal conflict and rivalries within the external wing of ZAPU.
The allegations, as brought out in the document, were attributed to Clement Mangena as having been uttered during the interment of Nikita’s remains in 1994 during their reburial at the National Heroes Acre in Harare. Mangena was declared a national hero only after the signing of the Unity Accord of 22 December 1987, and indeed, long after that event.
I developed an interest in using the Mangena issue to cast the spotlight on local and international conflicts with a view to locating seemingly local conflicts within a broader and more vicious international perspective.
I remember many years ago arguing that where there are political conflicts on the African continent, one needs to check what is below the surface of the earth at that particular place. It was a discussion relating to the discovery of crude petroleum at Muzarabani. Reference was made to a similar discovery of the same underground resource in northern Mozambique.
There are now political flare ups in Cabo Delgado region just as we anticipated. There are people in the world with an insatiable appetite for natural resources and they will muddy the political waters so that that they fish in conflicted and politically contested situations.
This and subsequent articles will deal with the contents of what, for convenience we refer to as the Gedi Document and the Nikita biography as compiled and written by myself. Fortunately, the Gedi Document is an appendix in Nikita’s biography.
Let me hasten to add that my main source relating to the events of the 28th of June 1978 was Eddie Sigoge who was very close to Nikita Mangena during the struggle and was among those in the High Command that he selected to accompany him to an area south-east of Kabanga Mission off the main road passing through Choma.
Others that he chose for the fateful mission were the Chief of Operations Jevan Maseko (Enock Tshangane) and Deputy Chief of Training Makhetho Ndebele (Jack Mpofu).
I dedicated the Nikita Mangena book to Eddie Sigoge and his bosom friend Elijah Pulazi Nyathi (Abel Bhutshe). With the two I conducted several hours of oral interviews both at their drinking hole and also their houses in Lobengula West both in the 1980s and the 1990s. Sigoge was in the truck, a Land Rover which was one of the three that were driven to the scene of the ambush where a unit led by Alexander Mutema (Asaf Ndinda) met its demise. The unit of Angolan-trained cadres was on a mission to cross the Zambezi River and reinforce the ZPRA cadres already inside the country fighting the Smith regime forces.
There, at the point where the unit was getting to cross a stream, they were ambushed by the Rhodesian forces. It was an ambush that led to Nikita’s death when he, in the company of colleagues named above, went to personally investigate the circumstances leading to the wiping out of the Asaf-led unit. The ZPRA commander’s death was met with mixed reactions and feelings.
Some were saddened, more so that it came a year after the elimination of ZPRA’s Commander-in-Chief J Z Moyo in 1977. Chief of Operations, John Dube (JD, Charles Sotsha Ngwenya) died in the same year. The same year witnessed the devastating Rhodesian air raids into Zambia and bloody attacks on several refugee camps. There were others who apparently rejoiced.
The Rhodesians worked effectively in churning propaganda that was well received in some unsuspecting quarters. I remember some years back when I commiserated with some officers from the Zimbabwe National Army who too shared the view that Nikita compromised his forces and exposed them to danger. I refused. I still refuse and shall do so to my grave.
Not so long ago I showed Mangena’s biography to one that I am persuading to pen her own biography as we would stand to benefit from her biography in that it would shed some insights on ZAPU/ZPRA’s role in the struggle for independence. She was, unlike many who took part in the struggle for independence, quick to identify the presence of a power struggle within ZAPU and indicated that Mangena was one person who was characterised by straight shooting and, as a result, the nationalists were not comfortable with him.
It will be interesting for those wishing to take up the issue further by laying their hands on the book and the Gedi Document to make their own assessments, analyses and interpretations regarding events leading to Nikita’s death.
Online Reporter