By Dr Irene Mahamba

AS I mentioned last week, after the tragic death of Comrade Tongo in a car accident on the December 26 1979, we were deeply hurt, but we were at peace despite our enemies, particularly those from the West, predicting the collapse of ZANU and ZANLA as a result of the death of our military supremo.

But we were at peace amongst ourselves, the combatants and the leadership.

We grieved for our supremo comrade Tongo, but we were not disturbed by the evil intrigues speculating the murder as a result of power struggles within the party. 

We knew what was being said, but it did not affect us, it did not disturb us, the aim was to derail us but it did not work.

We continued to make preparations to go home, to go through all the difficult hurdles to lead Zimbabwe to independence. 

Our combined, resolute force to see Zimbabwe to independence was not dented in any way, though we grieved. 

The lies about foul play did not cause disharmony among us as intended, the lies of the enemy were not new to us, we had seen the worst of these when we lost our Chairman Comrade Herbert Chitepo in 1975 at the hands of the very enemies who were in the forefront of making accusations, whose only purpose was to destroy ZANU.

We knew that the purpose was to dissipate our strength, cause divisions by inciting and nursing alarm and despondency, causing consternation, disunity and then the enemy would use these crevices to implode ZANU, deplete our strength and so derail our purpose. 

But ZANU was mature, we were not distracted, we were not dissuaded from being who we were, thus we were able to avoid the enemy’s deadly snare.

When ZANU maintained its integrity in the face of this tragedy and the onslaught of the enemy it became easier for the masses to be at peace and not fall into the enemy’s snares whose sole purpose was to steal our hard won victory by engineering mayhem.

Journalists from the West passed through Maputo on their way to Zimbabwe. 

Some sought interviews with us mainly to find out our predictions about the situation that was unfolding at home, about comrades getting into Assembly Points. Would the ceasefire be effective, would voting be peaceful, could ZANU really win the elections and anyway would the British accept a ZANU victory?

We were not nonplussed about such journalists , we knew what their agenda was, we were confident about who we were, the tireless work that had forced the white-man to the table to negotiate his terms of surrender lest we walked into Munhumutapa Building gun smoking as was inevitable.  

We knew the masses were not so gullible as to be affected by the fear engendered by the prophecies of doom. 

They had worked hand-in-hand with ZANLA, walked every inch with the combatants to victory, they had seen the white-man die day-after-day, they had seen him defeated in battle after battle, so they knew with absolute certainty they had won irrevocably and therefore they had to be strong and steadfast in the march to independence and not accept to be distracted, confused and derailed by confusionist pundits. 

ZANLA was strong as always, they were seasoned fighters, purified in the crucible of so many struggles engineered by the enemy, they knew their heart, the heart of ZANU, the heart of the struggle, they were at peace, and strong, no-one was going to wrestle the trophy from their hand at the last minute.

One of these journalists, a Briton, bluntly challenged us that four miracles had to take place for ZANU to ascend to power.

1. That ZANLA would not get into Assembly Points, according to him a miracle was needed for that to take place since ‘there were suspicions about ZANU’s involvement in Comrade Tongo’s death’ conveniently forgetting that these were their intrigues and not part of us.

2. That a ceasefire would not hold given the suspicions and hostilities that had festered for years among the contenting forces, only a miracle would make this possible he posited.

3. That the people would not vote peacefully, he believed and trusted that the removal of the liberation forces from among the people into Assembly Points would frighten the masses, result in chaos, and fuel inter-party infighting, a miracle was needed for the people to remain calm, peaceful, and vote peacefully he said.

4. That ZANU would not win the elections given all these issues he believed militated against ZANU and further that even if ZANU won,  the British could never accept a ZANU victory and it would be so easy for the British to squash ZANU as it would be captive in Zimbabwe with all its leadership and forces.

The same journalist passed through Maputo after the elections and independence only to express total amazement and disbelief that all the four miracles had taken place.

He had with him a copy of a book, hot from the press titled ‘A VERY SHORT THOUSAND YEARS’.  

Ian Smith the fascist architect of Rhodesia had boasted, ‘not in a thousand years would there be African rule in our land’, the land of the Africans. The thousand years turned out to be  excruciatingly short for those of the Rhodesian Credo.

‘Zimbabwe is a land of miracles’ Mabweadziva would have told this British journalist. But they believe in white superiority and so they cannot appreciate others for who they are.