THIS week I am still inspired by John Mayowe (Robert Mandebvu)’s war recollections.
My first village pungwe was in late 1977 in Unyetu.
We were very excited at prospects of finally meeting vakomana/vanamukoma/macomrades (boys/brothers/comrades).
They had arrived; the terrorists according to the African Times and other Smith mouth pieces.
From behind a granary emerged a slogan chanting gun totting silhouette in camouflages.
Sharp and confident voice, afro hairstyle and athlete build, the silhouette in some way became one of us.
But he was not. Fear gripped me especially each time I looked at the shiny bayonet mounted to his gun.
He greeted the gathering and introduced himself and the other comrades in absentia.
Soon we were taken through the paces on slogan chanting.
Next was to uplift our spirits,our morale, creating “morari” through song and dance.
Fear disappeared and in no time we had created a disco scene.
It had to take another round of sloganeering from the comrades to restore order. A lecture on objectives of the Struggle, ‘zvinangwa’ zvehondo followed.
The vices like oppression (udzvanyiriri) and racial discrimination (rusaruganda) were lived experiences.
Other concepts like imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism were quite new. It got even more mind blasting with terms like Communism, Marxism, Socialism. There was ignorant silence from the crowd.
The exception was when mudhara Forbes Matafi correctly defined the word ‘theory’.
A few pungwes later, we now understood the soon to come post-Smith Canaan.
Now I know these were teachings that probably had roots in ZANLA’s ideological school, Chitepo College in Mozambique.
The College had flourished during détente and ZIPA years as Whampoa College.
It was renamed Chitepo College by Tongogara in 1977.
It was a school meant to give a new orientation to ZANLA combatants; the enemy was not Ian Smith and his kith and kin but the system that they were using to oppress blacks.
The war was about establishment of a new social justice system.
Unless the liberation movement understood that, it risked becoming a conduit for imperialism through neocolonialism.
ZANLA had to be transformed into a revolutionary movement.
Sadly the proponents of this approach soon became victims of contradictions within the struggle and the new approach soon fizzled out.
I had left the village by then and am not sure what impact the collapse of the college had on pungwe teachings from 1978 onwards.
The unity gospel was another lesson that I picked from village pungwes. We were a one people, Zimbabweans. ZANU….iwe neni tine basa (you and me have a task to achieve).
What mattered was we were sons of the soil, vana vaNyamunhu.
The comrades spoke to the converted.
Regionalism and tribalism were no longer an issue in the village.
People had gotten over desecration of their ancestral lands during creation of Wiltshire Native Purchase area.
Those that had come from Gutu and Rusape had been fully integrated.
So while the leadership battled with disunity at village level unity was in existence and further affirmed at the pungwes.
Even at military operational area, history tells us ZANLA and ZIPRA were cooperating in areas like Gwanda and Hurungwe. 1987 was already with us.
Through pungwes we learnt about democracy, self-reliance and leadership. Committees were established through elections.
Mudhara Forbes, famed for defining ‘theory’, became our village war committee Chairman in what were perhaps the first elections to be held in the village.
Soon we ran out of chickens to welcome our fighting children and brothers.
Enter makabichi. These were prime beef brands we raided from neighbouring white commercial Charter estate farms and derisively called cabbages.
Among them were probably descendants from King Lobengula’s herd looted by the BSAC at the end of the 1893 war.
Our elected leaders were trained to exhibit hunhu; to show respect, humility and understanding.
So today when I hear our new found reputation as pompous and boastful people I realise this is another lost lesson from pungwes.
At Chitepo college comrades had been taught also about role of science in national development.
Our political and social theories had to be grounded in laws of nature. Development in the future Zimbabwe was to be underpinned by science.
There was plenty of empirical evidence globally to support this.
Rotina could not produce diesel, then and now.
Science could. Hopefully STEM will eventually get us there.
The ideological teachings were not without their own challenges. Our history is intertwined with our culture and religion.
How could this be reconciled with scientific socialism?
There always seemed to be conflict with regards midzimu and tsika.
What role for cultural diversity? What role for our traditional leadership? These were and remain difficult questions.
But for now the ideology question appears parked.
How much longer with revival of Chitepo College?
Back in the village we are looking for leaders with humility.
Leaders who will help us attend to our basics.
Someone who can help repair the ten-year-old ZESA fault at Unyetu. Tinodawo rugare. Or have my pungwe lessons become outdated?