WHEN Mbuya Nehanda, at her execution on April 27 1898, ominously predicted: ‘My bones shall rise’, her executors must have either ignored her prophecy or dismissed it as wishful thinking influenced by primitive beliefs.
They must have revisited their contempt on April 28 1966 when what are considered the first shots of the Second Chimurenga were fired at the Battle of Chinhoyi.
The settlers had killed her in cold blood, hoping this would put to an end any attempts to resist white colonial rule.
They were wrong.
Killing African leaders, no matter how gruesome the murders were, was not enough to douse the spirit of nationalism within the indigenes.
Africans had been defeated by the settlers mainly because of their superior weaponry.
And indeed by 1966, the majority of blacks were convinced armed struggle against the settlers was suicidal.
At best, blacks were expected to limit their protests to stone-throwing riots.
Thus the Battle of Chinhoyi in which seven liberation fighters stood toe to toe with the combined might of the Rhodesian army and air force the whole day must have brought in a new awareness as prophesied by Mbuya Nehanda.
The rising again of her bones must have had two contrasting effects on the settlers and the indigenes.
Our oppressors must have been jolted into realising that Africans were capable of using the very gun they used to suppress them to end settler-rule.
On the other hand, indigenes were this time convinced whites were not that invincible after all.
True, all the seven gallant fighters at Chinhoyi perished.
But appreciation of their bravery did not, as the story of their gallant resistance revived the aspirations of the oppressed blacks.
That is why by the time a full scale guerilla war was launched in December 1972, the majority of blacks now believed that it was possible to beat whites at their game.
This was not so before 1966.
And when freedom fighters applied the Maoist theory of them being the fish and the povo being the water, the armed struggle headed in one direction.
Victory was certain.
The victory was not only in the finishing up of the job started by Mbuya Nehanda and those who perished in the First Chimurenga.
Another dimension was in the unification of people by blood.
The blood shed by the Chinhoyi Seven and that spilled by subsequent freedom fighters helped in justifying the need to defeat a common enemy – colonialism.
Not only that.
The unity achieved through fighting a common cause is the same unity that has seen Zimbabwe resist machinations by our erstwhile colonisers to effect illegal regime change.
The enemy though, is good at changing tactics.
But then that is not an exclusive ability of our colonisers.
For we would not have won the liberation war if we had not adjusted with times.
The tactics and instruments we used in 1898 were very different from those of 1966 at the Battle of Chinhoyi.
Those who attacked Altena Farm in 1972 and the petrol tanks in 1978 chose their targets and method of attack as dictated by the times.
As we once more come to another April 28 today, we should spare a thought for those seven liberators who sacrificed their lives as they ventured into new territory by facing whites using the gun.
When we reflect on their contribution, we should cast our minds to April 18 so that we give meaning to our independence.
This day offers us another opportunity to reassess our commitment to the safeguarding of our valued sovereignty.
We salute the Chinhoyi Seven!