Mutorwa’s sacrifice for Zimbabwe’s liberation

24 Feb, 2017 - 00:02 0 Views
Mutorwa’s sacrifice for Zimbabwe’s liberation

The ManicaPost

Freedom Mutanda and Sifelani Tonje Post Correspondents
WE will start with the comments passed by an avid follower of the column who reads the articles online as he is domiciled outside the country.

He is Sungai Chingava and he writes: ‘‘Mr Mutanda, you must be doing OK! I am one of your followers on your narrations of the liberation struggle in the Chipinge environs. I enjoy reading them.

As narrations in retrospect, I think I enjoy the aesthetics of the language as you bring it to the level of your target audience.

Traditional leaders in the African milieu have always been looked upon as the bedrock of a state or community. Against such a background, the colonial edifice sought to ingratiate headmen, village heads and chiefs into their system for the discrimination that visited Africans to be viewed as normal. According to the 1894 Native Affairs Ordinance in Southern Rhodesia, African leaders were emasculated as the Native Commissioners took over the hitherto preserve of traditional leaders resulting in the latter presiding over petty civil cases while the Mudzviti became an overload in the African areas.

Joebson and Marquette (2000) aver that traditional leaders claim links to the divine, whether a god, spirit or ancestor. Indeed, since the Bantu arrived in these shores, kings were looked upon as closely related to Mwari; therefore, that divine link perpetuated their hegemony.

Colonialists established the uniqueness of the African tradition and they decided to exploit that by making chiefs their tax collectors. Their subjects viewed the leaders with disdain, distaste, suspicion or sell outs. A case in point is Chiefs Khayisa Ndiweni and Jeremiah Chirau who entered into an unholy alliance with the cunning, mercurial and devious Ian Smith leading to the formation of the ill-fated Zimbabwe-Rhodesia government which political scientists call ‘The Internal Settlement.’

Africans viewed such renegade traditional leaders as irrelevant, chauvinistic, and authoritarian (Chakunda and Chikerema, (2014)

However, the above writers say: ‘‘Africa’s traditional chiefs and elders are true representatives of their people, accessible, respected, legitimate…therefore, essential to politics on the continent.’’ (ibid)

One village head in Chibuwe, Chipinge under Chief Musikavanhu, refused to be drawn into the suicidal embrace of the Smith regime and had to suffer detention due to his resoluteness in the face of the mighty Rhodesian ruthlessness.

He is Phineas Mwandiona Mutorwa Chibuwe who has reigned as a village head since 1957. Sifelani Tonje and I paid a courtesy call on him. ‘‘Mutorwa’’ means stranger.

The following is his story in his own words. Read on:

I was born in 1934 and my father was Mutorwa. My great ancestor, Mukumiriweshango was a great hunter and legend has it that he hunted with three lions, Gavhinya, Muchabvira and Musoserei which helped him hunt wild game that teemed in the area.

I come from a family of great fighters. My great ancestor was lured to his death when he went to a n’anga in the highlands. His enemies from Maronga stalked and killed him as he knelt to drink water from Nyagadza River. From Mukumiriweshango, Taanahwo was born who in turn begot Mutorwa; I am a son to Mutorwa which means ‘stranger.’

I went to school at Chibuwe School from 1945 until I reached Standard Four when I went to Chikore to pursue Standard Five, the head there said I could not be accepted as I came from the valley. I remember his words: ‘‘Hatidi vanhu vemugowa, maqaba (we don’t want to enrol those from the Save valley because they are backward).’’

It pained me that there was discrimination even in education. Surprisingly, those who came from Christian (makhorwa) families were admitted. Ned Kahlamba who had gone with me there also failed to land a place and we had to trudge heavily back home with nothing to show for our journey.

Things were happening in the area bordering Musikavanhu paramount area. Mwafaone and Munyokowere, traditional dumburanzou (headmen) for Chief Mutema fell foul of the new legislation championed by the white only Rhodesian parliament.

The 1951 Land Husbandry Act ostensibly wanted to de-congest the rural areas, but in effect, it sought to provide a soft landing for World War Two veterans as they were given farms in the Middle Sabi area and evicted the bona_fide owners of the land led by Mafaone and Munyokowere to the Matsayi and Gokwe areas that were tsetse fly infested. I saw that the time for the African to stand up for his rights was upon us.

With my friend, Taps Kahlamba, I went to the then Salisbury in search of employment. I had odd jobs here and there before I joined the construction industry.

Owing to our desire for a better life, my friend, Chitemba and I migrated to South Africa aboard a truck where we were subjected to hard labour and we escaped the ordeal. We went to some friends who proffered condolences to us. I was taken aback.

‘‘Your father, Mutape Mutorwa is no more,’’ one of them said, ‘‘you didn’t know that? He died some three months ago.’’

I realised that the ancestors had warned me about that disaster, but in my lack of wisdom, I didn’t ‘‘move’’ around to check why my feet constantly swelled.

That was in 1957; I returned home and the local leadership installed me as the new Mutorwa and I have been Mutape Mutorwa ever since.

News of the ‘boys’ work in the north-east of the country filtered to us in 1972 and we braced for a long fight as Ian Smith had categorically stated that there won’t be majority rule in a thousand years or at least in his life time.

In my time, I had seen ANC, NDP, ZAPU and ZANU formed in an effort to dislodge the repressive white regime that made us second class citizens in our own country.

I supported the young vigilante groups that burnt dip tanks in the Gumira area as a form of protest. Ronald Masunungure and Dexter Muronde were the leading lights of these acts of consciousness. They met along the banks of Save River and obtained political orientation from the comrades as well as from Obert Bote who was the local ZANU supremo. I became quite involved with the cause of the nationalists that in 1972 some soldiers came to me and asked me to accompany them to Section 4 in a Land Rover. Little did I know that I was a marked man. I found myself in Mutare against my will.

My crime was I did not report the presence of freedom fighters in my area to the Native Commissioner. How could I do that yet it was my prerogative as the traditional leader to appease the spirits (mhondoro) of the area through sprinkling snuff and brewing beer every time the comrades came to the area under my jurisdiction. Peace and stability would reign supreme and casualties would be minimised.

I refused to be used by the settler regime.

Muronde, Masunungure and four others were there and their faces said it all. They told a story of torture, they were under arrest. We were closely guarded by a gun wielding policeman. I was asked why I had visited Chief Edgar Tiyeni Musikavanhu and why we refused to sign leases yet it was evident that failure to sign would result in us losing our land.

For five days, we endured the torture and they transferred us to Chipinge where we stayed for 21 days. Eventually, they released us.

We organised ourselves to resist the Pearce Commission whose draft proposals would not further majority rule. I was detained alongside Mujoji Simango. We stayed in separate cells. My wife came to visit with tears in her eyes. It was unheard of for a village head to be incarcerated. The whole Chibuwe village was shaken to the core- mambo wasungwa!. The humiliation strengthened my resolve and zeal to continue to support the nationalist cause in any form.

In 1976/77, we moved into the protected villages. Rhodesians asked me to tell people that it was in their interest to get into the ‘keeps.’ It was laughable and I didn’t do it. My children were not terrorists.

Thus, I organised a feeding programme for the comrades. We would cover walls for a cooking fire not to be noticed from outside. We organised groceries for the comrades that we sourced from businessmen such as Paul Vutuza, Chahweta and Chako who rented Tekeshe shop.

Comrades’ base was at Faafaa area. I accompanied the chimbwidos and mujibhas in the dead of night, in the wee hours of the morning actually.

In one incident, the Native Commissioner, Du Ploy came to the base and found only pots and plates of sadza; thus, he failed to capture anyone. In great annoyance, he kicked the pots and plates and cursed at the same time.

That did not deter us from feeding the comrades. One day we delayed in sending food to the guerrillas due to matters beyond our control. A guerrilla commander fumed, ‘‘mambo uyu mutengesi. Saka toda kumuuraya.’’ However, his fellow comrades dissuaded him from doing that. I heaved a sigh of relief.

Finally, independence came and we reclaimed our sovereignty. I was elected ward chairman for the ruling party in 1985. I am happy that I have spearheaded development projects in my area of jurisdiction with the help of Government. For example, I initiated the establishment of Chibuwe High School as the memory of my rejection at Chikore still lingers in my mind. We are in the process of opening Kubatana Secondary School that will de-congest Chibuwe High School. After independence, I lobbied for a township and a school to be built at Mutovhoti. The struggle was all about equal opportunities and accessibility to resources.

Phineas Mutorwa is a traditional leader who is widely revered for his wit and ability to tackle complex traditional cases. People from far and wide come to his court as he dispenses justice.

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