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‘I kept the secret’

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The story of Cde Langton Mutenje

AT the tender age of nine, I fully became aware of the activities of guerillas in Ward 25, Chirenga sub-district, Murehwa
My father, Ngondozo Mutenje, was a war collaborator (mujibha).
And he was no ordinary collaborator, not that there were ordinary collaborators, but my father had an edge over the other mujibhas in the area.
Freedom fighters would come to our homestead and together with my father, would plot their movements in the area.
One night in 1979 vanamukoma came to our homestead and were our guests for the whole night.
I stumbled upon them by chance.
The visit was shrouded in secrecy.
My father, a farm manager at the nearby Marize Farm, had made contact with freedom fighters in Malawi, his country of origin.
He was multi-lingual, fluent in Swahili, Chewa, Chiraparapa and Shona.
What made my father extra-ordinary was his country of origin, Malawi, and his frequent visits back home.
Because of that, he was a feared man.
Many in the village believed he dabbled in black-magic, the stereotype of some of the people from Malawi.
But he decided to use this to his advantage; he could work with the freedom fighters without worrying much about sell-outs.
Sell-outs were a thorn in the flesh during the liberation struggle and responsible for the loss of many lives, but in my father’s case, many feared him and believed selling him out to the Rhodesians would result in dire consequences.
Not many people could openly confront him, including blacks in the Rhodesian army; they avoided him like a plague.
Many believed if they sold him out, ‘his juju’ would alert him and dire consequences would befall the sell-out.
Being a farm ‘manager’, he had access to many resources which put him in a position to ably support the comrades with clothing, food and in some instances transport.
On this particular day in April 1979, my mother instructed us to sleep in one room with my sisters and brothers.
We chose the kitchen for the obvious reason of warming ourselves from the fire in the hearth.
We did not know why we were all spending the night in one room.
In the dead of night I woke up to relieve myself, but instead of using the available plastic container that was provided for us as an alternative urinary, I went outside.
A raspy voice tore the still night, instructing me to stop.
This instruction I did not heed.
I bolted.
The nearest room was the bedroom we had been made to vacate by my mother.
I do not even remember how I opened it, suffice to say from the raspy voice I soon found myself engulfed by several limps.
I had fallen into what felt like a giant octopus.
All hell broke loose.
It was only the instruction that came from outside, from the man who had instructed me to stop, that saved me.
Soon my father was summoned and confirmed that I was indeed his son.
The weapons that I saw in the room set my heart racing.
In fact, it pounded so much I thought it would burst.
I thought my family was about to be wiped out.
I later learnt the man outside was a comrade on guard duty.
Seeing my confusion, father promised to get me some toys on condition I did not say anything to my friends, siblings and teachers at school.
One of the freedom fighters, the leader I supposed, took me and made me sit on his lap, showering me with praises.
He said I would grow up to be a great fighter.
He gave me the name Cde Shumba, saying it signalled bravery.
The following morning I went to school and I am proud to say I kept the secret.
I resisted the urge to divulge this magical and amazing incident.
No one at Darangwa Primary School, close friends and teachers alike, got to know of this incident.
Around mid-day, Rhodesian soldiers visited our school and we gathered at the assembly point where they addressed us, instructing us to report the presence of gandangas (freedom fighters) in our area.
I just kept my secret knowing if I divulged any information, I would never lay my hands on the promised toys.
I never thought of the risk my parents were taking, my concern was the promised toys only.
After school I told my parents about the presence of the Rhodesian soldiers, which I guessed was relayed to vanamukoma.
Compiled by Emison Haripindi

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