TWO and half weeks ago a friend and I made our first ever journey to places where interesting incidents had taken place during the First Chimurenga.
We also visited some battle sites.
The above journey was inspired by the journeys of children of liberation war heroes of the Second Chimurenga who visited Chimoio in Mozambique and Mulungushi in Zambia to see the mass graves of freedom fighters who were killed by Rhodesian fighter bombers in the 1970s.
The above journeys made us decide to visit First Chimurenga battle sites and revive interest in the great stories of heroes of the First Chimurenga.
And so off we went to the various provinces of the country starting off with Masvingo province.
Our journey began from Beitbridge going up the N1, crossing the Bubi and Mwenezi rivers until we came to the Runde River which forms the southern boundary of Chivi district.
Starting on the southern bank of the Runde River near the bridge, we discovered that we had come to a place with a magical countryside.
Across the river on the northern bank is a range of mountains running east to west with amazing views.
There are fantastic hills with massive bounders which look like castles.
Add to this beautiful valleys with little streams at their centre.
What an amazing sight the Runde bridge area is.
The entire surrounding area is a real pleasure to feast your eyes on.
While the above place today looks serene, iconic and exceedingly beautiful to see, over a century ago in August 1890 it witnessed a huge political drama.
Yes, the very first military confrontation between the British colonial settlers and our people over the territory of Zimbabwe.
On the southern bank of the river where we were standing, stood the massive British colonial settlers column sent by Cecil John Rhodes to colonise our country and their guns while and on the northern banks among the hills and mountains stood Chief Chivi and his army.
The British pioneer settlers moving in a long, large column had entered our country via southern Matabeleland on their way to Harare where they intended to set up their capital called Salisbury and occupy our country.
Their prediction was that they were not going to have any problems along the way they had chosen.
And so when they had crossed the Matshabezi, Bubi and Mwenezi Rivers in both Southern Matabeleland and Southern Masvingo provinces without any incident, they thought they were going to enjoy a real cake walk on a Sunday afternoon entering beautiful Zimbabwe.
Then on August 3 1890, they came to the Southern banks of the big Runde River and they were rudely brought down to earth.
Across the Runde River on the mountain range, stood Chivi and his fighters.
Chief Chivi came to the river and told the British pioneer settlers that they were not authorised to cross over into his country.
Some accounts say that he actually told them to go back where they had come from.
The British pioneer settlers didn’t know what to do next.
The leaders of the settlers then learnt that, not only was Chivi a very independent Chief contrary to the heap of lies they had been told by Rhodes that he was under King Lobengula, but on the contrary that he had defeated the Ndebele in a battle at his headquarters at Nyaningwe mountains.
They also learnt that Chivi’s army had plenty of guns and was ready to use them.
One of the pioneer settler leaders Colugh was left with no choice, but to ask his superiors what he was going to do next in view of the dire situation they were in.
He was advised to prevail on the hunter Fredrick Selous who was their chief intelligence officer so that Selous would use all the tricks in his dirty book to ensure the column was allowed to cross the river.
And Selous did not disappoint.
After three long days with the column stuck on the southern bank of the Runde, Selous having played an evil chicanery on Chivi and his people, the British pioneer settlers were at last allowed to cross into Chivi district under false pretences that they were men on a peaceful mission into the interior of our country.
The next place we visited was Gwindingwi outside Rusape in Manicaland province.
Gwindingwi was the stronghold of the great fighter Chingaira Makoni where he operated from during the First Chimurenga.
At Gwindingwi Chingaira defeated every colonial army who came to fight him.
Moving up and down Gwindingwi I was totally blown away by the geographical structure of that place which had wonderful natural defences.
There are huge hills with mammoth rocks joined together.
In some cases the huge rocks stood alone.
In-between the boulders are open spaces.
Huge caves are present where the huge rocks join.
The caves are a marvel to watch.
Some of them are very long and wide.
Bombarding that stronghold using the artillery the Rhodesian white settlers had was a complete waste of time and ammunition for the place was impregnable.
Story goes that an entire British army sent all the way from Britain under one E.A.H. Alderson, using all kinds of artillery such as maxims, 7 pounders etc failed to dislodge Chingaira from that Gwindingwi stronghold of his.
The great hero was only defeated in the end not in battle, but through betrayal by his fellow Africans who lied to him one day that the whites had laid down their arms and wanted him to come out and talk peace with them.
Chingaira got out of his stronghold only to be killed unarmed by the Rhodesian murderers!
Next week our journey takes us to the rest of the provinces in the country.