By Mavis Mapara

HAILING from Mazarura Village in Mutoko, my father Osward Mapara whose Chimurenga name was ‘Albert Matsika’ was born on March 15 1956 at Mutoko General Hospital.
He did his primary education at Bondamakara.
My father told me that since his parents had no money for him to carry on with his education, he only got to Grade Five in 1968.
He spent almost six years at our rural home, before taking the decision to come to the then Salisbury (Harare) in search of work and stayed with his uncle who was a gardener in Borrowdale.
Although during those days it was hard to secure a job because of discriminatory employment laws by the Rhodesian government, my father in 1976 eventually got a job as a grilling machine operator at Pomona Bakery in Borrowdale which was owned by a Greek national named Morgan Zafanai in 1976.At Pomona Bakery he worked for six months before he was sacked after a scuffle with Zafanai who had clapped him for mistakenly breaking a florescent light which he was servicing.
My father said he picked a broom and thoroughly beat Zafanai who was rescued by a supervisor named Costa Musiiwa.
Zafanai is said to have proceeded to his office and took a pistol intending to kill my father, but Musiiwa took my father to the delivering bay and advised him to hide.Father said he spent more than two hours hiding and was rescued by a van from Staunton Farm which had come to collect stale bread for pigs.
Since it was only Musiiwa who knew where my father was hiding, he took advantage of the van and got inside without being noticed by the driver and his workmates.
That is how my father escaped from Pomona Bakery.
Due to the routine at the bakery gate that all employees were to surrender their identity cards before entering the premises and collect them after working hours, my father was forced to leave his identity card behind.
He went back straight to Mutoko the following morning as he was labelled a dangerous man and was on the police wanted list in Salisbury.
In Mutoko he met another shocker. His parents, he said, had been murdered and their homestead destroyed by the enemy, while his sisters had run away.
He immediately left for Rusape where he put up with his friend Cosmas Machona.
According to my father, that was the moment when the revolutionary spirit caught him and he decided to join the liberation struggle.His friend did not take time to introduce my father to the comrades operating in Nyamaropa.
In 1975 my father together with other boys who also wanted to join the struggle started the long journey to Mozambique from Nyamaropa by foot.
They passed through Kairezi Estate where they rested for two days and reached Sarashoga a Frelimo base after a week of hard walking.
They were received and vetted by FRELIMO soldiers and after a brief stay at the base, they were escorted to another FRELIMO base called Villa Katandika where they stayed for two weeks waiting for transport to Mango base enroute to Doroi where a new base was opened in January 1976.At Doroi, my father was chosen to go to Nachingwea in Tanzania where he was to receive basic military training for six months.
In 1977 on December 24 after training, he was deployed in Mt Darwin at Nehanda Sector as a section commander.
While operating in Mt Darwin, they fought many battles with the Rhodesians and many comrades died.He told me that he will never forget the battle in Dande area in which he sustained serious injuries on the right arm and left leg before received treatment at Kataria Base in Mozambique where he was also rehabilitated until independence in 1980.
Father said he failed to go to the Assembly point with other comrades because of the injuriesHe is one of the members who left during demobilisation and got employed at Hunyani Paper until 2002 when he retired.
My father is a beneficiary of the Land Reform Programme.
Based at Chester Farm in Beatrice, he is now into commercial farming.