HE was born on September 25 1951 and he became an angel on April 12 2016, wrote the family on Cde Alexander Kanengoni’s memorial on June 25 2016, exactly three months to what would have been his 65th Birthday.
The theme was centred on his love for life, his perennial laughter and his love for people.
The great freedom fighter loved life, laughed everyday, but this was not frivolous, as testimonies to his love of people poured in from all walks of life.
The children were so proud of their father who ever held no-holds-barred discussions with his children, male and female, drawing them so, so, close to him, telling them the dangers of the blessings of the male-female partnerships, moulding them.
Without that, Lizzie (Kanengoni’s daughter) says, it is not possible for children to form respectable partnerships, enduring relationships.
She wanted everyone to know she is who she is because of a most affectionate and principled father.
There is something special about a man who can combine sweetness, gentleness and principle, all rolled into one.
He is the kind of man who left all to go and give his all.
He had just started work as a temporary teacher and the family had rustled up resources to help him get started, but when he got paid, he took it all home.
He gave his sister a brown suit and a musical record.
When she asked him who the suit was for, he said for his father, she was astonished.
The sister asked him why he would do that when he did not have anything decent to wear to his job.
His reply was he wanted him to have it and the record was for him and his mother to play and enjoy together.
She needn’t worry about him, he explained.
He had decided to go and free the country.
His sister was heart-broken.
She pleaded with him not to go, but to no avail.
He was going to take the train to Mutare and cross into Mozambique from that end. When she told her husband, he followed him up and found him in the Mutare-bound train.
He too pleaded with him without success.
He had made up his mind to go.
He had not made this decision in a euphoric moment, he meant it with his whole big generous heart.
Sometimes people get carried away with their lies about the liberation struggle; that it was the destitute clutching at the last straw so they would not be swept away in the torrents of troubles.
Cde Kanengoni could have been comfortable as a temporary teacher and even more comfortable when he eventually trained and joined the elites among the African population, for teachers and nurses were the African elites in Rhodesia, but the day he got paid he left it all behind.
Instead of stocking up money for the unknown journey to Mozambique, he bought his father a suit.
He bought a music record for his parents to enjoy.
It is a story from a novel, as beautiful as the stories he wrote; but this time it is a page from his life.
Even as he was leaving for the struggle where death was certain, he could still be romantic – what a special guy!
This is the kind of special person that Cde Kanengoni was.
You would drop by his office sometimes and chat and laugh so much and as you said goodbye, he would reach into his bag and give you a burger, the one he had brought for his lunch.
You would feel so guilty, but the gesture was so sweet you couldn’t say no.
He would give you the sweet novel he read so many times, many years ago, tell you how special the book is, his incandescence telling you this is the best that he wants you to enjoy.
Cde Kanengoni went to the liberation struggle because he was just someone special.
A passionate man, he could not be anything, but true to himself.
He loved passionately, and this passion made joining the liberation struggle inevitable for him.
As a teacher he was passionate, as a writer you could not fail to fall in love with his teaching, his writings, you could trace his soul in what he wrote and of course his face told it all; to love with all passion, to do everything to protect everything so special, to fight until the last breath for everything so important, Zimbabwe, family, friends.
He was the truest you could find.
When family members say he was the pillar of strength in the family, he was.
The love that made him go to the struggle is the same love he shared with all, but while most can love only family, he put his country first in a manner that could have cost him his life.
A hen can give away her eggs and still carry on with her life, but when a pig gives its pork, it is no more.
Cde Kanengoni did not choose easy options in life, he always gave his all whatever the situation demanded; in his love for Zimbabwe and in sharing everything he had with family members.
He made each person feel special; but only the special ones can make others feel special.
The preacher said freedom fighters were able to fight for Zimbabwe’s freedom because they were selfless, but Zimbabwe’s child of today is selfish, a tragedy he bemoaned.
He said it is because we are not raising them properly, we spare the rod and spoil the children, but Cde Kanengoni’s children are not in this basket.
Cde Kanengoni was loving, but love cannot hide truth.
What was not correct he confronted head on, as a teacher he never swept any dirt beneath the carpet.
He taught his children something that Tinashe his son shared with us.
He said his father had said: “I do not go to Church, but the greatest prayer is how you treat others.
“To love others is the greatest prayer the Almighty left us.”
Indeed Cde Kanengoni fulfilled this.
He loved his country above all else, he sacrificed for others and his family has this as the greatest to cherish in the interim, before they are reunited with their father whom they crowned an angel.
We are proud of you Cde Kanengoni, always!