When Rhodesians bombed Ngaone School

03 Feb, 2017 - 11:02 0 Views
When Rhodesians bombed Ngaone School

The ManicaPost

 Freedom Mutanda and Sifelani Tonje Post Correspondents  —
TO BE a clever African boy or girl was a blessing to the ‘boys’ and an irritation to the Rhodesian regime. When it became clear that the guer­rillas wreaked havoc in the country­side and were creating liberated zones, the regime decided to cut off the link between the freedom fighters and the masses through the erection of pro­tected villages commonly referred to as ‘’keeps.’’

Now for the feedback. Tawanda Mhlanga, a regular reader had this to say about the Destroyer Dombo arti­cle: Cde Destroyer Dombo’s story was an inspiration. I always want to draw lessons from these stories.

The comrades shared the little they had. Nowadays, we have Zimbos with resources and they hardly share with others.

Secondly, going to war was a big SACRIFICE. How many of us are will­ing to sacrifice but cdes sacrificed the precious life they had.

Thirdly, Cde Dombo used the ori­entation they received to survive the Chimoio massacre.

Lastly, the Mudzingadzi attack touched me. How could the Rhode­sians use bombs that had nails?

That Cde Dombo is now a farmer and is doing well shows us that one of the liberation reasons was land. The war vet is leading by example showing us the way. Others have land but they are busy growing weeds and spent time making useless noise in bars.

Thank you Cde Destroyer! You destroyed colonialism and now you are destroying poverty and hunger.

Cdes Mutanda and Tonje, of all your articles, this has been relevant, exemplary and encouraging. Keep the grandsons and granddaughters of Nehanda informed.

Our unsung hero of the week is Joseph Machuwaire, a man who saw it all in terms of co-ordinating food distribution, intelligence gathering for the guerrillas as well as being in the thick of things when the comrades and regime soldiers had contacts during the protracted liberation that gave rise to the independence we brag so much about today.

I was born on 10 September 1962 in Enkeldoorn. My parents left for Melset­ter in 1965 and later on went to Museye to stay with my maternal grandparents, the Neras. In 1968, I began Sub A at Museye School up to Grade 6 in 1975.

Wen comrades began their forays into Zimbabwe they used the Chim­animani/ Rusitu as one of their entry points.

I remember vividly an incident where I was caught between a hard place and the sea. One Thursday morning in 1975, I took the cattle as usual to Mwachion­era along the boundary between Mus­eye Tribal Trust Lands and Highlands Estate. We went via a mountain close to Mutape Museye and there we met a group of comrades, who introduced themselves as liberators.

The comrades educated and advised my friend Gibson Chiutanyi and I to co-ordinate parents and the commu­nity to prepare food for them and to invite people for the first pungwe in Museye. The pungwe was exciting as a lot of slogans galvanized the peo­ple. For example, the guerrillas would shout ‘ZANU!’ and people would say ‘’mwenje!’’ in unison.

We walked long distances from Mus­eye to Churuchehuku, Mataa and so on as we escorted the comrades to their Changazi base. Museye has thick foli­age and mountain ranges and this allows for movement without being seen. Comrades did their hit and run activities and hid in the caves and trees. Changazi acted as a transit base for comrades going to Buhera and Bocha.

The ‘big’ mijibha, Ndonga Hag­amaga, was the escort, scout and had knowledge of where weapons were hid­den as part of his duties was to carry weapons. We helped him in that.

Our co-ordination between us and the community went on smoothly but it was fraught with danger. Rhodesians were ruthless. I welcomed the guerrilla leader, Ndinaani Muhondo who was particular about co-ordinating food for guerrillas under his command.

The date remains etched in my mind; it was on 17 June 1976 at Mus­eye School; the school had closed. We went to Ngaone and eight comrades arrived at Ngaone School , they came at the school during assembly at about 0730hrs.

They addressed students on the mer­its of the liberation struggle. Suddenly, a mirage jet fighter came into view and dropped bombs directly at the assembly grounds. Within seconds, helicopters hovered overhead menacingly.

We scurried for cover in the nearby bushes. Soldiers, who hitherto had been at an Agritex plot at Chimhanda, fired at us. Helicopter gunships were at full throttle as they rained deaths at the poor, defenceless civilians.

The fighter jet dropped bombs wil­ly-nilly and the comrades did not take the attack lying down, they responded with their bazookas, LMGs and AK 47s against a seemingly undefeatable enemy.

As the fighting raged on, the guerril­las shot down a helicopter which went into Mr Tuso’s garden. Even today, the debris of the helicopter can be found in his garden.

As the battle pitting the guerrillas who were outnumbered went on, some comrades came as reinforcements to the original eight.

Normalcy returned after 1515hrs, the comrades had retreated as they fought. From school, we went home in a sin­gle file under the watchful eye of the regime soldiers who were very annoyed by the fall of their prized helicopter.

A Dakota hovered over Ngaone School and that marked the closure of the school. The whites stopped us from dipping our cattle.

In that contact, a girl went to col­lect exercise books from the Head’s home, Rhodesians spotted her and they dropped a bomb over the house. She died moments after the battle, vil­lagers saw her mutilated body and they whimpered.

How could they wail long and hard when the soldiers kept threaten­ing more destruction if they kept on mourning? (To be continued)

Share This:

Sponsored Links

We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds