THANK goodness the festive season is upon us!
This is a time to celebrate, especially when Madzimbabwe take into account Zimbabwe was recently declared the best tourism destination in the world.
For our tourism to grow, we would like to encourage Zimbabweans to take time and visit all the wonderful places this beautiful country has to offer, like Great Zimbabwe, Kariba, Victoria Falls and Nyanga, among others.
But do Zimbabweans know that there are many more interesting places in the country they can visit and have a great time?
Some time back this writer visited the not so well-known places and had a wonderful experience, learning a lot at the same time.
In this first article of a three-part series, I am going to take you on a journey I made to Mt Darwin District in Mashonaland Central in early 1990 with the late great historian Dr Stan Mudenge.
Dr Mudenge wanted to visit an old Portuguese port-holed fortress at the site of the old gold city called Masapa at the foot of Mt Pfura there in Mt Darwin.
On the other hand, I wanted to visit a famous battle site on the banks of a river called Ruya some 10-or-so kilometres to the north of Mt Darwin town where ZANLA freedom fighters fought one of their most successful battles against the Rhodesians in the very early days of the Second Chimurenga in 1975.
Here is the story of that journey.
One day at 10am in the middle of winter in 1990, we left Harare for Mt Darwin, arriving at 1pm.
Before getting into Mt Darwin town, we turned left onto a tarred road that goes to Rushinga District via the Chesa small-scale farms.
After travelling for about 15km, we came to a school called Chiunye where we got out of our cars and looked south.
Behold in the short distance stood the high iconic Pfura Mountain, our destination!
This is the highest and most charismatic mountain in the area.
Because it is really grand, it was named Mt Darwin by the Rhodesian colonialist Fredrick Selous in honour of his Englishman Charles Darwin of the laws of evolution fame.
Colonialists have no shame!
However, on our part, we have failed to get rid of the name Mt Darwin to date.
From Chiunye School, we went straight to the foot of Mt Pfura, arriving there shortly after crossing a river called Mukaradzi.
On the banks of that river we saw numerous people panning for gold using wooden dishes, the way the Shona have always mined their gold from time immemorial.
Once we had entered a forest which goes all the way to the foot of Mt Pfura, we began looking for the old Portuguese port-holed fortress.
It was not difficult to find.
Slam bang, in the middle of a small thicket was the old Portuguese fortress!
It was constructed of stone and we were able to see the holes through which the Portuguese fired their guns over 500 years ago.
Dr Mudenge explained that the Portuguese used the fortress to guard the gold they looted at a nearby gold city which was called Masapa.
That city, Masapa, whose site was nearby was said to have gold everywhere during those Portuguese times.
We went up and down the old Masapa site hoping to stumble on nuggets of gold since the very streets of that town were said to once have been paved in gold.
We were unlucky, but we enjoyed the sites and sounds of the entire area.
Here and there we saw old settlements with ruined stone buildings.
The old Masapa town is a place where you find yourself transported back in time.
It’s a great place to meditate about our country’s greatness which was eventually undermined by colonisation.
We all hope to go back to the days of the gold city of Masapa when Zimbabwe was (one of) the richest countries in the world.
Anyway, we decided to spend the night at the centre of that Portuguese port-holed fortress.
We made a big fire at the centre of that ruined fortress whose walls are now mostly dilapidated, slipped into our sleeping bags and wished each other goodnight.
At midnight we had a wake-up call of the worst kind; a huge lion roar.
It grew bigger and bigger every passing second echoing off the Pfura mountainsides.
Fearing to be devoured alive, we ran away from near the embers of our dying fire into the safety of our cars.
That was the right thing to do because we learnt that lions prowl that area at night coming from a wilderness area called Mufuridzi.
The next morning we left Pfura for the banks of Ruya River to the Second Chimurenga battle site.
We had enjoyed a very wonderful visit to the awe-inspiring Pfura Mountain and the old city of Masapa.
We went to Pfura River via Mt Darwin town, a charming and bustling rural town which acts as the centre for a very large area all the way to Mozambique.
We came to Ruya Seconday School which is on the southern bank of Ruya River.
At Ruya Secondary School we found a man waiting for us with a donkey cart.
That man knew the entire battle site where Rhodesians and ZANLA forces fought a titanic battle in 1975.
We left our cars at Ruya Secondary School and got onto the donkey cart because there was no road to the battle site.
We went eastwards following the southern bank of the river until we came at an area directly opposite a bald headed rock mountain which rises from the ground like a phoenix on the northern banks of Ruya River.
We had finally arrived at the Rhodesian/ZANLA battle site.
A member of the Rhodesian Light Infantry Two Commando, narrates the battle story for us which ZANLA won convincingly.
“On July 19 1975, an unnamed territorial unit had contact with an unknown number of insurgents (ZANLA Freedom fighters) near the Ruya River.
“The troops (Rhodesian) called up Fire Force at Mt Darwin.
“On arrival at the scene, the troops began a sweep of the river line.
“As they approached the river bend, they came under fire from the concealed insurgents (ZANLA forces).
“A Territorial Army sergeant and Rhodesian Light Infantry rifleman Hennie Potgieter were killed instantly.
“Ken Lucas, Corporal Jannie de Beers Mag gunner received a leg wound.
“Reinforcements then arrived.
“At this stage it was believed that the enemy had fled.
“The dead men were thought to be alive and so Corporal John Coey an American medic was ordered to go and render medical assistance.
“The insurgents (ZANLA fighters) instantly opened up on the troops and Coey was killed almost immediately, shot through the head.
“He fell at the feet of his officer.
“Later that night the insurgents (ZANLA fighters) made a break for it.
“They ran into Jannie de Beers stick and a fire fight ensured during which de Beer was killed and one of his men wounded.
“The enemy escaped.
“This contact more than any plunged the commando into depression.”
It is important to note that this was one of the early battles of the Second Chimurenga which gave a lot of confidence to ZANLA fighters to take on the ‘mighty’ Rhodesian Army and ultimately defeat it in 1979 at the battle of Mavonde.
The question is: Can’t we erect monuments at these sites so that our children visit such places and get inspired?
In the spirit of promoting domestic tourism, Zimbabweans must be encouraged to visit interesting Second Chimurenga battle sites and places of great historical interest.
Next week we visit the Lowveld.