By Henry Chiwaura

AS Zimbabwe commemorates the deaths of its gallant daughters and sons who were massacred and butchered by unrepentant Rhodesians during ‘Operation Dingo’ or the Chimoio Massacre of November 23 1977, let us look back and trace what the Government has done in order to preserve, document, conserve and preserve this site of liberation memory.
From early 1997, the Government of Zimbabwe started to make specific arrangements to address concerns of liberation war burial sites in neighbouring countries.
National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ), whose mandate is to manage the country’s heritage, was tasked by the Government to spearhead the graves identification and rehabilitation programme.
The liberation struggle is an important component of Zimbabwe’s heritage which is to be preserved for future generations.
Establishment of a liberation war museum at Chimoio was a milestone achievement, with Zambia’s National Heritage Commission pledging to gazette Zimbabwe’s liberation war shrines as national monuments in their country.
The conceptualisation of managing liberation war heritage graves, in and outside Zimbabwe, started soon after independence and concretised in 1999.
A task force was set up on April 24 1998 and lasted up to May 13 1998, aimed at grave identification in Mozambique.
The task force comprised the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), NMMZ and Mozambique officials.
The Zimbabwe Government then initiated Memoranda of Understanding between NMMZ and National Heritage Conservation Commission of Zambia and the National Directorate of Culture in Mozambique that year.
Fallen Heroes’ Graves and Shrines Rehabilitation in Mozambique was commissioned by former Presidents Joaquim Chissano and Robert Mugabe, of Mozambique and Zimbabwe respectively, in August 1998.
The Fallen Heroes’ Graves and Shrines Rehabilitation Programme comprised identification of grave sites and condition surveys.
A task force comprising war veterans was set up and its initial mandate was to identify and quantify the war graves at various camps in Mozambique and Zambia.
In Mozambique, the task force covered Gaza, Sofala and Manica provinces, covering liberation war camps such as Kombomune, Mapai, Chicualacuala, Barrageu, Chibawawa, Samakweza, Nyadzonia, Doiroi, Chimoio, Mavonde and Tembwe, among many others.
The programme was also geared to rehabilitate graves, with about 140 graves recorded in Mozambique alone.
Construction of monuments of fallen heroes, rehabilitation and upgrading the quality of the graves was also part of the rehabilitation programme.
In Mozambique, focus was on the Chimoio shrine because it had the largest number of graves as well as being ZANLA’s High Command centre.
In Zambia, work was done at Freedom Camp and Nampundwe.
The Zimbabwe traditional leadership, through the Council of Chiefs, performed traditional ceremonies in Mozambique and Zambia.
Examples of exhumations and rehabilitations in and outside the country included those of the late Cdes Nikita Mangena and Philemon Taurayi Makonese who were reburied at the National Heroes shrine.
Recently, exhumations and rehabilitation have been conducted in many parts of the country, such as the Chibondo and ‘Butcher’ sites in Mt Darwin and Rusape respectively.
One important component of the liberation war heritage programme is the establishment of museums to tell the story of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.
Museum exhibitions at Chimoio and Freedom Camp, in Mozambique and Zambia respectively, are such examples.
The physical preparations to construct Chimoio Museum started in 2005 with an excavation team led by this writer, a surveyor, an assistant, custodian and two locals. The reason for choosing ‘White House’ was because of the attention given to it by the Rhodesian forces during bombardment and that it was the only structure that could be used to house the proposed museum.
White House building was one of the buildings used by the ZANLA High Command during the liberation struggle.
When the idea was first mooted, NMMZ officials thought that the ‘White House’ housed the ZANLA High Command.
To the contrary, the building was used by a group of young women and base commandant Cde Bethuen.
Commanders used to live in pole and dagga structures close to the ‘White House’.
One of the surviving commanders said the most important structure at the camp was the officers’ mess where briefings were done.
The officers’ mess was a palisade of wooden poles covered with grass thatching (Cde Bethuen pers com).
The reconstruction of ‘White House’ was carried out on the basic belief that it would bring nostalgic feelings to the survivors of the bombings as well as housing the museum.
The building was once a farmhouse on a farm called Adriano. ZANLA headquarters was sited at a farm called Adriano donated by the Mozambique Government led by FRELIMO. It was, therefore, easier for the liberation movement to use the facilities on the farm to execute the war as the farm was close to Zimbabwe.
As noted earlier, the move by ZANLA from Zambia to Mozambique led to the occupation of Adriano Farm and establishment of Chimoio Base as its command centre.
It is alleged that the late General Solomon ‘Rex Nhongo’ Mujuru and Elias Hondo negotiated with FRELIMO to be granted permission to build Chimoio Base.
The site was established after Detente and Mgagao document pronouncement.
Detente was a period when all parties to the liberation war ceased hostilities in December 1974.
The aim was to bring about a black Government in Zimbabwe, friendly to the West and hostile to the Soviet bloc (Chung, 2007:84).
The ‘White House’ excavation revealed the house floors and a lot of artefacts were recovered at the site.
The excavation was carried out in a period of three weeks.
As we were camped there, we experienced the mystic side of Chimoio.
Before we embarked on the journey to Chimoio, I had heard stories about how Chimoio is sacred.
Some workers from CBC Construction Company, who built the memorial shrine, told us of their experiences with the supernatural at the site. One of the workers consistently experienced hostilities from the departed souls and had to withdraw from work.
Two of my team members claimed to have seen guerillas marching and singing almost every night.
One of my team members was traumatised to the extent that he feared night time. I also witnessed a Zimbabwean visitor’s car burning mysteriously after he had scolded the dead combatants.
A breakdown recovery vehicle called to assist also caught fire as soon as it arrived on the scene.
The man alluded to the fact that he wronged the spirits and sought the services of the elders from the closest village.
The locals around Chimoio Camp would not dare stray into the camp as they believe strange things were happening within the site. Our base camp for the excavation was cited in the middle of Chimoio shrine and locals thought it was very weird since, to them, the place is sacred.
Chimoio’s sacredness is a way of protecting itself from human threats and to date, this has worked tremendously.
As we enjoy the fruits of our independence, let us not forget that there are people who sacrificed their lives.
Some of these people are in marked graves, some remained missing, while others lost their limbs.
It’s now 41 years after the Chimoio Massacre.
Lest we forget!