WHEN, in 1964 ZANU, decided that the only way to liberate the country was to take up arms against the settler regime, they needed somebody who embodied the ideology of the land to lead the execution of the struggle.
The ZANU leadership, which had been incarcerated, needed somebody who could fulfill this mandate and, Herbert Pfumaindini Chitepo was their man.
He was a revolutionary par excellence and totally uncompromising. The Party knew that nothing would make him compromise the struggle.
Comrade Chitepo crystallised the ideology which had been brewing in our people for centuries.
This was the ideology of Lobengula and his Ndebele warriors; the ideology of the First Chimurenga warriors in both Matabeleland and Mashonaland; the ideology of the Godhlwayo regiment; the Jingeni fighters; the Gnoba regiment; the Amakondeni forces of Bibyana and the fierce fighters who routed General Carrington in the Matopos; the ideology of Mkwati and all the spiritual mediums in Matabeleland; of Nehanda and Kaguvi, of Makoni, Mashonganyika and all the indomitable paramount chiefs in Mashonaland and their Chimurenga warriors who brought the whiteman to his knees before he resorted to genocide.
This is the identity our people knew, the ideology which guided their lives; the whiteman found them living this ideology and it is why the robbery of our land was never a walk in the park and the whiteman only got temporary relief when he forced the retreat of our people by resorting to genocide.
Our people knew who they were, Musikavanhu’s people, custodians of a great gift from Musikavanhu and all it is so richly endowed with.
For this gracious gift, for this land, our people were willing to pay the ultimate price.
In 1964, ZANU declared war on Rhodesia and its leadership was arrested. The imprisoned leaders gave Hebert Chitepo the mission and mandate to lead the Party and the people’s decision to engage the whiteman militarily.
Their choice was on point.
In only two years, Chitepo’s forces engaged the whiteman heroically in the battle of Chinhoyi on April 28 1966, and six years later in 1972, he opened the north-eastern frontier.
Under his leadership, ZANLA was born and, 10 years later (1964-1974), the whiteman knew that Chimurenga warriors were back to claim their heritage.
By 1975, the imperialists knew that Chitepo was the architect of the struggle.
The whiteman hatched up détente, to steal the victory from Chitepo and the Chimurenga warriors, but Chimurenga fire was not extinguished and Chitepo was not deflected.
He replied:“There will be no talks, no negotiations, no discussions involving our movement until Mr Smith recognises the right to immediate majority rule tomorrow, next week, next year or whenever. It is now. Until we hear that man, the rebel leader of the rebel regime, speak those words, our war goes on, and it will continue until we have liberated every acre of our country. I do not know if we could even sit down with Smith until Rhodesia has gone back on the 1969 Constitution, and returned to the pre-UDI position. We are not going to be bound by whatever is decided in Lusaka, great as is our respect for the leaders who are gathering there and who have helped us so much in the past.” (Lusaka:1974)
His ideological clarity was unquestionable.
He fully embodied what ZANU was all about:
Through armed struggle, “… we shall remove that whole structure of society based on corruption, on privilege, on exploitation backed not only by the Rhodesians themselves, but backed by huge international capital.” (Melbourne:1974)
For this, the whiteman did the unthinkable; he committed a heinous crime in murdering Cde Chitepo.
Why was Comrade Chitepo such a spectacular success?
How was he able to achieve so much in just over a decade?
Why was the ZANU leadership correct in choosing him to execute the Second Chimurenga?
Why was the Chimurenga fire he lit impossible to extinguish?
Comrade Chitepo embodied the ideology of the masses of Zimbabwe.
He internalised the ideology of the people; he was perfectly in sync with the ideology of the people.
Rakava svikiro ravanhu veZimbabwe and, through him, through his understanding and commitment to their ideology; they were enabled to fight and defeat the whiteman.
Cde Chitepo was moulded with the spirit of Zimbabwe; in the depths of his spirit he cried for what the people of Zimbabwe cried for.
Cde Chitepo understood the anguished soul of Zimbabwe bleeding at being abused as slave labour by those who took their land and wealth with armed force.
Vana vacheche vatinobereka,
Vawakatipa iwe Samasimba,
Vanova ndivo vadyi venhaka dzedu,
Nhasi vokura vakasunzumara munyika yavo,
Voshaya nzvimbo dzokurarama nokuzvidekadza?
Apa nepapo pazere rufuse,
Makumbo avo ane matuzu nokupfuviswa neriri pfumojena.
Ko, vosvikepiko?
Mudzimba dzose nomumisha yose vari kutandwa pamwe nokurohwa;
Munzvimbo dzose nomumatare mose avanotongerwa, vari kungourayiwa senhunzi,
Pasina chikonzero, pasina mhosva
Pfuma yenyika nhasi yakatorwa vakagovana paukama hwavo vepfumojena.
Nhasi vari kudya mafuta ayo nyika
Isu tichidya nhoko dzezvironda
Nhasi vari kudya, vakora sehochi
Isu toondoroka sembwa ine gwembe
Nhasi vagere murusununguko
lsu todzipwa huro nemajoto
Rusununguko, Nehanda, ndorupi?
Hamungaburukirewo kwatiri here?
Harahwa dzedu dzobatwa sepwere
Munyika yawavapa, Musiki mugoni!
Havasisina rukudzo panyika.
Havasisina chavanacho. (Solomon Mutsvairo:1956)
Cde Chitepo was moulded in the mettle of his people — he was a son of the soil.
He understood the heart of his people, thus he understood it was a people’s war; it had to be waged according to the wishes and ways of the people.
It was not a war of attrition, but a war to defend a sacred gift from Musikavanhu; the precepts of Musikavanhu were the compass in this people’s war.
In this manner Cde Chitepo trained ZANLA cadres and as he prepared them to go into Zimbabwe to wage the armed struggle, he taught them that they had to ensconce with the people, first and foremost with the spiritual leadership of the land to obtain their blessings in the struggle, to study and respect the norms and values of the people and to guide their conduct based on these.
They were to engage the people as fellow fighters, not as objects to be manipulated. They had to accord them all the respect, to ask of the people for each thing they needed with trust and respect and to trust the masses to take care of their needs, to trust them as true sons and daughters and to trust and respect them as they would their own parents. They were not to commit adultery, not to be cruel to the masses; to be honest in all their dealings with the people, to extort nothing from the masses, not to be cruel, not even to the enemy nor to animals.
This ideology, these teachings, are embodied in the song: ‘Nzira dzamasoja’.
This is the ideology, the way of life, which won us the war of liberation.
Thus, under Cde Chitepo’s tutelage, the Second Chimurenga was won by winning the hearts and minds of the people.
This is the legacy which won the liberation struggle; the legacy which drew thousands of Zimbabwe’s sons and daughters to abandon all for the struggle to liberate their land, to die for their Zimbabwe.
His life and the work he accomplished for the liberation of Zimbabwe spelt out how to win the First Chimurenga and for us today, still spells out the ABC of how to build a Zimbabwe for all the people, a revolutionary socialist land in which all citizens are catered for, where no-one can be poor because the land itself is so richly endowed it is not possible for anyone to be poor.
Thus the ZANU Chitepo School of Ideology has the titanic responsibility of ensuring that Zimbabweans are imbued with the ideology of the land and live it so that they can secure their land, which was liberated at a cost (at least 80 000 lives were lost in both the First and Second Chimurenga.