HomeOld_PostsTime to document the history of our heroes

Time to document the history of our heroes

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RECENTLY I went to the National Archives intending to research on our national heroes as my contribution to the upcoming Heroes Holidays.
Uncertain of where to start, I chose the heroes panel which is located just by the entrance.
After browsing through the display two heroes caught my attention; George Rubatso Marange and Daniel Madzimbamuto.
To the former I was attracted by the missing information caption while to the latter by what I assume is a typographical error, “one of the largest serving detainees.”
I had a quick discussion with the archivist on duty about availability of information on the two heroes.
The archivists recommended Madzimbamuto, noting that his family had donated his personal papers to the Archives.
A quick Google search also confirmed that Daniel Madzimbamuto’s exploits as a nationalist were well covered whilst there was very little on George Marange.
It is for this reason that I opted to begin with George Rubatso Marange.
I intended to spend a good day getting to know and understand George Marange, the man and his works.
I buried myself in the information catalogues but soon my enthusiasm turned into despair.
My efforts only yielded a short biographical note from A Guide to the Heroes Acre, fleeting references in justice files, a newspaper obituary and a thick Christian Care file.
There was nothing in the oral history collection.
Is that all we shall hand to future and posterity on this fine hero?
I wondered.
Could we be witnessing erasure of history under our watch?
If the record of this hero is so truncated in our historical repositories a few years after his death what will be the case 50 years from now?
By tea time I was done with all the files except the thick Christian Care volume. The paucity of information alarmed me.
My thoughts drifted to my late father.
Fifteen years ago I lost my father.
My father’s life was not easy to understand.
His own life time struggle for education manifested itself in his obsession with ‘school’ and ‘course’ as life’s only important bridges.
He was a disciplinarian.
This he generously enforced by word and hand.
His hand and voice traumatised me.
Father never lost an opportunity to remind us of his educational excellence. Ambuya spoke about her struggle to keep father in school, fighting against poverty and truancy.
Father never lost an opportunity to remind us about his academic achievements. Father’s contemporaries spoke of his boxing prowess kudhibha on cattle dipping days.
One day when we were ravaging through Ambuya’s metal trunks we retrieved father’s school record; exercise books and reports.
He was gifted.
Clearly his life story has many versions.
Today some of the versions have been passed on.
Most are lost.
The school record is lost.
Besides unrecorded memories all that is left is a marked grave, Death Certificate, a few photographs, house card and estate distribution statement.
At this rate what will survive into the next generation?
It is a scary thought.
George Rubatso Marange is remembered in the Heroes Guide as a veteran nationalist and politician who died in 1997 aged 67.
This entry briefly chronicles his life, ancestry, education, political activism in SRANC, ZAPU, PCC and PF, detention and post-independence political career in ZAPU and ZANU PF.
It is an impressive political CV of a veteran nationalist and detainee.
With this background information I took to the Christian Care file.
It is a thick volume which I hoped would make up for whatever I had missed.
By the time I was through with this volume I now realised there was a missing mountain, not being kept in the Archives.
It is a mountain of information that could have been collected through oral history.
Maybe in party or family archives parts of this mountain may be found.
On its own the thick file can be quite misleading.
It is essentially a welfare, not political, file.
My findings can be grouped under politics, friends, family, education and health.
It is a compilation of information generated and kept by people who felt sorry for George Rubatso Marange, but may not have necessarily agreed with him and his cause.
Under politics the bits and pieces available in this file are of a nationalist who suffered immensely under Smith’s emergency laws.
He entered detention in 1964 before tasting final freedom in 1979.
He was moved between Wha Wha , Marandellas, Gwelo prisons and Gonakudzinga Restriction camps.
The authorities manipulated the law to interchange his status between detention and restriction.
Over a 16 year period he was only free for less than sixteen months.
At one point he was Deputy Secretary for Finance in PCC.
George Marange’s life story attracted the attention of many friends, both individuals and organisations, from abroad.
These included Amnesty International, International Defence Fund and International Red Cross. Families in German and Sweden also offered to adopt this nationalist and his cause.
Christian Care did not show enthusiasm in helping George Marange access such help for political purposes.
Through these friends the Marange family received support for school fees, rentals, clothing and health.
His wife Mavis Sachikonye, mother in law and two children, Edwin and Tikko, are generously covered in the file as recipients of international welfare support.
Others mentioned include other in laws and his parents, cousin and uncle.
In detention our hero was very much concerned about his wife’s health, welfare and children’s education.
George Marange retained parental interest and control throughout imprisonment. His wife eventually left for overseas study and work.
Mother in law and children remained and feature prominently as next of kin.
After 1980 an entry shows he remarried, Mrs Thembani Marange.
When our hero went into detention he was already a qualified teacher.
He however remained committed to continuous education.
Economics and social welfare were areas of interest.
Clearly the archival sources show a great nationalist whose history is not in the Archives.
He is not the only nationalist missing from our history chronicles.
Unless we document the history of George and others we shall bequeath to posterity faded history.

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