and Shingirirai Mutonho

THE process of reconstructing the liberation struggle story can sometimes be a Herculean task given that it is a narrative that seems to have been overtaken by events since the emergence of the Zimbabwean State in 1980, but this is before one gets a narrative of the war in Chesa.
Chesa is important.
It is historic and in many ways too.
It was in Chesa that one of the defining moments of the liberation struggle took place through the capture of Gerald Hawksworth, a Land Development Officer.
Last week The Patriot, together with the Zimbabwe Heritage Trust, went to Chesa to recapture the story of the liberation struggle.
The story this time did not belong to Hawksworth or vaGwerevende from whose homestead Hawksworth was captured, it belonged to the masses who were tormented for aiding guerillas.
The Rhodesians had answers to breaking this bond between the masses and freedom fighters.
Protected Villages (PVs).
Like many parts in Mashonaland Central whose PVs were established as a long-term containment strategy by the Rhodesians to alienate the guerillas from the masses who provided them with food, information and clothing in Chesa they (PVs) lasted less than a year from December 1977 to September 1978.
Only six protected villages were established in Chiweshe.
These were Nhoro, Nyamhara, Kangaire, Matitima, Nyatsoko and Jawara.
This was mainly because of logistical challenges since Chesa was an elite African small-scale farming community with only 600 farms.
Unlike the PVs we visited in Chiweshe, in Chesa they were less populated.
The other reason of the late entry into to the PVs was that there were a lot of farmers who were sympathetic to the Rhodesian cause because of their elite status over the Africans in rural areas.
According to one of the war veterans who operated in Chesa, Cde Jekanyika Munetsi, Chesa was renowned for food supplies.
He said there were some supportive farmers who did not hesitate to kill their beasts for the liberators because they had big herds and a lot of grain.
During those days African farmers were producing more than 360 tonnes of maize and some of the produce was taken to Mozambique to feed the guerillas in the rear.
The issue of security and the modus operandi of the District Assistants (DAs) was the same nationwide
According to John Hungwe who was in Nyatsoko PV, the DAs gave farmers a torrid time.
He said their farming activities were disturbed for the nine months they stayed in the protected villages.
He said since they were a farming community, the biggest challenge was getting to their fields, some which were 15 kilometres away.
“Walking to our farms was a big challenge because some people walked for more than 15 kilometres,” Hungwe said.
“Our crops were also left without protection against wild and domestic animals. Some of us lost a lot of cattle during that period.
“Rhodesian soldiers took more than 200 cattle from this community and they never compensated us.”
Of great interest was the story of Totfan the great DA as he is referred to by people who stayed in Nyatsoko Village.
Totfan had great respect for the ZANLA cadres.
He would pretend to search people whenever he was on duty, while allowing them to leave with food for the guerillas.
According to John Hungwe, Totfan killed two DAs while they were cleaning their guns.
“Totfan pretended to disassemble his gun while his fellow DAs Hamandishe and Dickson, disassembled theirs. Toftan then shot them and later claimed it was an accident,” he said.
Totfan made the lives of guerillas and the people of Nyatsoko bearable.
Muzorewa’s army, Pfumo Revanhu, was deployed in Chesa just before the farmers were released back to their farms to carry on with their farming activities.
The Auxiliary Forces were given the responsibility of ensuring that the ZANLA cadres would not get food from the farmers.
This, according Cde Jekanyika Munetsi, did not work because the operations of Pfumo Revanhu were limited and the soldiers were poorly trained.