By Dr Arthur Makanda

ZIMBABWE is going to celebrate the 34th anniversary of the Heroes’ Day holiday.
A holiday set aside by the Government to reminisce and reflect on the work done and sacrifices made by the fallen and living gallant fighters of the war of liberation.
The paying of the ultimate price of losing one’s life by the children of Zimbabwe is something that cannot be taken for granted.
Our children died.
The country’s children died to liberate us.
Some lost limbs and some can no longer live the full stretch of their lives owing to the vagaries of the war they experienced.
Comrades and friends, pane vamwe vasipo who must have been with us in a free Zimbabwe to found families, to enjoy the fruits of their sweat, but 34 years after we attained our independence, we still have not brought back their remains and souls.
Listening to one song that the comrades used to sing and the promises that they made, the song sounds hollow if we as a country don’t bring their remains back from wherever they are lying.
One recalls a song we used to sing whose lyrics go as follows:
“Baba Mugabe woyee
Tungamirirayi vana mumakomo x2
Vaende kumusha
Hona tondofirepi x2
Isu Mozambique hatidi
Tinondofire kumusha
Tondofirepi
Isu Tanzania hatidi
Tinondofire kumusha”

And the other version of the song was:

“Ambuya Nehanda woyee
Torai vana muende navo kumatare x2
Tovige kumusha
Tinondovigwepi
Isu Mozambique hatidi
Tondovigwe kumusha
Isu Tanzania hatidi
Tinondovigwe kumusha.”
While Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and other countries provided us with rear bases, it was clear in the minds of the comrades that they would either want to die at home where their people are or if they fail to reach home alive their colleagues would take them and bury their remains at home in an independent Zimbabwe.
We have failed our comrades.
This Heroes’ Day holiday we dedicate it to talking about getting these comrades from wherever they lie for decent burial at home.
Each time we approach the Heroes Day holiday, visits are made to Chimoio and Mkushi camps, but not even a single visit has been made to Doeroi, Mavhudzi, Chibawawa and other places where sons and daughters who went to join the war of liberation lie.
These places must now be jungles, we have abandoned our children.
That is why they wanted to be buried home.
One of the conversations that was recorded by the Fallen Heroes Trust from a comrade who manifested through a family member pleaded on behalf of all the comrades who lie in the forest.
Their wish was to be brought back home from foreign lands.
“Asi chido chemoyo yedu naivo ma comrades acho achitaura mumhepo kune anenge auya varikutaura kuti anenge atorwa, vasara vacho inonga itori hondo kuti dai taendawo kumusha. Hatisisina zvedu chatingawana asi kuti deno mangotipawo ruremekedzo rwokuti tichengetedzwe zvakanaka. Tizivewo kuti nyika yatairwira yacho hatina kuzosvika, asi takachengetwa muZimbabwe yacho yatakarwira.”
Is this a tall order if we consider all the resources that the country has and dreams to host the World Cup.
We can appeal for resources for the purpose of this exercise from the ancestors, and surely pasi rinotinzwa.
There is a song that normally brings me mixed emotions and memories.
“Baba Chitepo gamba redu x2
Takawira gamba redu
Gamba reChimurenga
Zvizvarwa zvese zvemuZimbabwe
Mhuri yose yemo muZimbabwe
Yakatambira hondo,
Hondo yeChimurenga
Ngatipemberere ngatifare

“Baba Chitepo gamba redu x2
Takawira gamba redu
Gamba reChimurenga
Vamwe vakafira mumakomo
Vamwe vakafira paChimoio
Munzizi, mumapani,
Masango eZimbabwe
Zvandibaya moyo ndochema”

Let’s give a thought to these songs as some of our fallen heroes are still singing mberere mberere nenyika, vamwe vakagarika zvavo mudzimba umo in their dead state and wandering souls.
There is a lot that remains unresolved if we do not perform the appropriate rituals and exhumations from the neighbouring countries.
The country has not given thought to what really is happening in those former rear bases.
It is alleged some comrades are still marching in their dead state.
A story by one Cde Tichatonga who was exhumed by his relatives in the jungle of Chibawawa is a clear testimony.
The relatives and the Fallen Heroes Trust members tell us that after leading the group to the place of death where Cde Tichatonga fell, they say they were asked to walk some distance to where Tichatonga’s commanders were buried to report on the exercise that was about to be carried out, otherwise they would be breaking protocol and they would be denied permission to take the comrade home.
After the ritual they were yet confronted by another problem, they had to make promises to her dead fellow comrades that they would return to collect them.
A year down the line, that promise has not yet been fulfilled.
In the metaphysical sense, our country is still uncleansed; there is blood in the water that our people drink; there is blood in the grass that our cattle graze; there is blood everywhere where the war raged.
The ancestral spirits cannot move freely in such an uncleansed land therefore how they can protect and provide for Zimbabwe is limited.
It takes us all to believe.
One wonders why we wallow in the belief of demons, but refuse to see the other side of our own story.
Families have been united through these manifestations and exhumations that the Fallen Heroes Trust has carried out.
Have we ever thought of the taboo that we committed by burying our men and women in the same mass graves?
During the war circumstances forced us, but after the war are we not able to exhume their remains. cart them home and have our own pathologists separate the bones and find some place where we can decently rebury them separately.
In commemorating this Heroes’ Day holiday comrades garai pasi tirangarire magamba akafira muhondo yeChimurenga.