By Charles Dumba

I ONCE read an interesting story about how on January 11 1973, freedom fighters in Mount Darwin captured a white land development officer called Gerald Hawksworth and went with him to Mozambique.
I have a similar story that I will never forget, when in September 1977 we captured a whiteman in an area called Chifumira in Beitbridge and walked all the way to Mozambique with him.
His name was John Canaan and we later learnt he was a journalist.
My name is Charles Dumba.
I am 56 years old and currently live in Mbare.
During the liberation war, they called me ‘Charlie Watts’ or ‘Jimmy’.
It was September 1977 when we were based in Matibi, Beitbridge when our commanders, Cde Stopper Chiridza, Cde Maths Rimwe and Cde Zororo Duri received a communique from ZANLA’s Chief of Defence, Cde Josiah Tongogara instructing them to bring any whiteman to Mozambique.
They quickly summoned everyone to what we called the ‘Gathering Point’, a place where all sections met.
There were three sections (Two, Three and Four) operating in the area.
I was in Section Four together with Cde Toro and Cde Mazviriga.
Other guerillas from other sections included, Cde Skeva File, Cde Tanganeropa and Cde Nyasha (all late).
Thirty guerrillas from the three sections were chosen for the mission.
I was part of that team, perhaps because I had specialised in mortars after training at Takawira Base One in Chimoio in 1976.
The plan was to ambush a convoy of Rhodesians from Bulawayo going for ‘Call up’ (National Youth Service) in Beitbridge.
It passed twice a week along the Beitbridge – Bulawayo Road in Chifumira.
This we had established after surveillance.
We had also observed that the convoy always comprised of six vehicles, two pumas at the front, two in the middle and two at the back, all equipped with heavy machine guns.
I remember it was on a Monday morning when around 4 am we took our weapons and ammunition going for the mission.
We had already crossed into Chifumira and took our positions along the Beitbridge-Bulawayo Road and laid an ambush.
I had my mortar (60) and pistol.
We also had two bazookas (M90) and three RPG7’s.
The rest of the comrades had sub-machine guns.
Our ‘Killing Bag’ (area to carry out attack) stretched for about 50 metres.
We waited patiently from about 5 am and five hours later, around 10 am, we heard the sound of trucks coming.
As was the norm, tainyamura fogo nebazooka (we opened fire with the bazooka).
We hit the front puma first with an M90 bazooka and it went up in smoke.
Before the Rhodies knew it, we hit the puma at the back and there was total chaos as some Rhodies died on the spot.
However, we had a problem as the Rhodies who were in the trucks that were in the middle began to return fire using machine guns.
There were calls for us to retreat, but I vividly remember Cde Stopper refusing.
His exact words to me were “Jimmy! Iwe Jimmy nyaradza fire irikubva pamota idzo!”
I grabbed my three mortar bombs and fired in rapid succession and silenced the fire from the machine guns mounted on the pumas.
Then we heard the Rhodesians screaming and swearing: “***ing terrorists! Bastards!”
In the mayhem, Cde Stopper grabbed a white man in his early 20s and pulled him out a car and before we knew it, we were on our way back to Matibi with John Canaan.
While close to 40 Rhodesians perished in this ambush, we had one casualty, Cde Oppa Kossovo who was shot on the ankle (to date he is disabled).
All this had happened in less than five minutes.
John Canaan was pleading with us as we walked back to Matibi because he thought we were going to kill him, but we reassured him that we had captured him for a purpose.
We told him we were not terrorists, but war liberators.
We walked for two days without food before getting to Matibi.
At Matibi we knew one farm manager, called ‘Mdara Mzuri’ and we asked him to get food for John Canaan because besides being exhausted he was hungry.
Mdara Mzuri rushed to the nearby store and bought toasted bread, tinned food and biscuits among other items for John Canaan.
As for us, taidyira mupovo.
With John Canaan’s food and water available, we continued our journey to Mozambique.
As we approached Gezani towards Gonarezhou, Canaan’s shoes had been worn out and he now had blisters on his feet.
It was getting dark and we decided to rest at a posto, while Cde Dzvairo and two others were tasked to keep an eye on Canaan for the night.
I do not remember how it happened, but John Canaan escaped.
Although we panicked, an immediate search began while others alerted the villagers around to apprehend ‘any white man’ they see in the area.
It’s as if we knew he wouldn’t go far because the next morning John Canaan was captured by the povo.
The message got to us and we got him back.
This time around we tied his hands with a rope and resumed our great trek to Mozambique through Gonarezhou game reserve.
The heat, hunger and thirst we experienced in Gonarezhou was unbearable.
John Canaan turned red as the heat took its toll.
We drank our own urine, but John Canaan’s food and water reserves were intact.
All we wanted was to safely get him to Mozambique as requested by Cde Tongogara.
For two weeks, we walked in Gonarezhou dodging booby traps along the way, before we crossed the border into Mozambique through Malvernia.
All in all, it took us about a month.
We met Camaradas (FRELIMO soldiers) from Mozambique based at Tank Five Base and they shot at us after seeing John Canaan because the whiteman was regarded as an enemy.
We did not return fire and it took a while for our commanders to convince the Camaradas that we had been ordered by our leader Cde Tongo to bring the whiteman.
They organised a truck that took us to Mapai where the Provincial commander, Cde Freddy Matanga was waiting for us.
In Mapai, we surrendered John Canaan to Cde Rex Tichafa who was also a Provincial Commander and Cde Charles Dauramanzi, a member of the High Command.
That was the last time I saw John Canaan.
I wouldn’t be surprised if John Canaan met Gerald Hawksworth in Mozambique because I understand they were both released in 1980.