Reminescing the Zhii era

One of the pioneers of the armed struggle that freed blacks in this country from colonial bondage was Clark Mpofu (CM) an ex-Zipra combatant.

Sunday News Correspondent, Dumisani Sibanda (DS), caught up with him at his home in Bulawayo's Nketa suburb, on Wednesday, and had an interview with the man- who in 1965 escaped from Grey Street Prison now Bulawayo Prison with three other comrades, the fiery Moffat Hadebe, Keyi Mpofu and Elliot Ngwabi. They had been detained for political activism and sabotage missions. Below are excerpts from that interview for your reading pleasure.

DS:Thank you Mpofu for your time. Briefly, who is Clark Mpofu and how did he become part of the liberation struggle that led to the independence whose fruits we enjoy today?

CM: I was born in 1938 in Nkayi and attended school at Zinyangeni Mission in the same district. When I was doing Standard Six our teacher told us that Gold Coast- that is what Ghana was called then- had become independent. Black people in Ghana could now rule themselves. This was inspiring and made some of us wish the same for our country.

Later on in the 1950s, when I had moved to Bulawayo, my uncle-that is my mother's brother Alfred Mathendele Sibanda had been arrested at Marandellas now Marondera in 1959.

DS: The one that was a builder by profession and was called Bhilida after his trade?

CM: Yes. He was an ANC member and had been arrested for political activism in1959 and detained. So when the National Democratic Party was formed in 1960 led by Joshua Nkomo with Morton Malianga as his deputy and George Silundika as Secretary-General, I joined it as a youth. When the National Democratic Party came on to the political stage it electrified the atmosphere, it was very effective. We had people like now President Robert Gabriel Mugabe-coming from Ghana- as the spokesperson of the party. What followed were spontaneous riots and burning of property, the Zhii era. There were casualties some of our colleagues were killed. The whites would shoot to kill.

DS:What then happened?

CM: This forced the holding of a Constitutional Conference in Harare chaired by Duncan Sandys ( Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations) and it gave blacks 15 seats in Parliament while whites were allocated 50 seats. This was totally unacceptable because we were demanding one man one vote. This led to a stalemate and there was a referendum on the draft constitution issue and it produced a NO vote. Joshua Nkomo took the results to England and a British aristocrat, he met there said the country was "too industralised and could not be left to inexperienced hands''.

DS: (interjecting) Inexperienced hands meaning blacks?

CM: Yes. Nkomo came back and said if industry was going to stand on the way of majority rule then it would have to be destroyed. Just that statement, fired us up, the youths, destroy factories, burn things. Consequently, the National Democratic Party was banned in 1961. The party was proscribed.

Zapu was then formed and there was a meeting first at MacDonald Hall in Bulawayo's Mzilikazi Township and then all the leaders had to take turns to address the crowd at Barbourfields. When the late First Lady, Sally Mugabe spoke, some of us thought she was Nkwameh Nkrumah's representative, not knowing (laughing)

DS: (laughing) Not knowing what?

CM: That she was Mugabe's wife. President Mugabe was eloquent too. What you admire now is nothing compared to then. Herbert Chitepo chose to speak in Shona. Takawira spoke so fiercely and charged who is Whitehead after the Prime Minister. After the meeting, some of the leaders Enos Nkala and Dumiso Dabengwa were arrested.

DS: At that time how else were you fighting the enemy?

CM: We were using petrol bombs. One of our cadres, Shadreck Nkomo, was attacked at night, his house in Makokoba was bombed- obviously by the enemy- because although he was injured in the blast he was arrested and charges preferred against him.

DS: What happened to you then?

CM: In 1962, I was sent to Zambia and trained in the use of explosives, landmines, hand grenades and spent the Christmas of 1962 being trained by Makhiwani of Umkhonto WeSizwe (ANC'S armed wing). In Lusaka, Sikhwili Moyo gave me a trunk full of materials for making grenades, parcel bombs , even time bombs. We were four ; Amen Chikwakwata, John Mondiya Ndlovu and Elias Ngugama. I travelled by train to Bulawayo.

DS: There were no suspicions?

CM: No. It was early 1962 and when I got to Bulawayo Railway Station, I was met by Gorden Butshe and Ethan Dube.

DS: Where did you take the trunk with such dangerous things ?

CM: We took it to R7 Mzilikazi, your grandmother's house, in other words my aunt's place.

DS: You mean late liberation heroine Gogo MaSibanda, that is Bafazi Moyo, the daughter of Mathendele?

CM: Exactly. The following day, we took it to Matobo Hills using the Old Gwanda Road and that is where we cached it.

We then returned to Bulawayo via the Bulawayo-Beitbridge Highway.

DS:So were the bombs used?

CM: At night we would organise 40 youths for the operations. We were using gel- lite bombs.

DS: How lethal were these Gel Lite bombs?

CM: They could destroy railway lines.

DS: What were the targets?

CM: We had booby traps with electric detonators for the whites.

DS: What were you hoping to achieve?

CM:To instill fear in whites so they would succumb to our demands such as one man one vote.

DS:Did you achieve your goal?

CM:No. That is why we went to Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo to complain that we wanted to use guns now as they were more effective than our sabotage methods. I knew Moyo as he also lived in Makokoba, on 10th Street and I lived on Seventh Street. He used to give me books to read.

DS: What type of books?

CM: He would give me books on politics, on Mau Mau in Kenya for instance. Did you know Mau Mau means African Underground Movement? Other books were on how to organise the party, some by Adolf Hitler. Hitler said you go to the people if you want to win. In fact, I gave a transit camp in Zambia, which I commanded the name Dose House because Hitler who used to live like a vagabond. He used to call where he slept Dose House.

DS: Back to your story on your disillusionment about your sabotage methods. What happened?

CM: In 1962, Zapu was banned. At that time President Mugabe was the party's spokesperson deputised by Danny Ncube. In Zanu, Ndabaningi Sithole was National Chairman, Herbert Chitepo who was a lawyer by training had gone to Tanzania to be the Director of Prosecutions. But as I was saying we realised that sabotage was not working. In 1963, we were told to skip border, myself, Ethan Dube, who was chairman of Makokoba, Ackim Ndlovu, who was chairman of Mabutweni and Dumiso Dabengwa, who was chairman of Mpopoma. Myself and Butshe, slept at Dabengwa's house and then boarded a train and went to Chilenje in Zambia, there John Bhebhe had a dry cleaning shop at Materu suburb. After two weeks we were joined by Mbejelwa Moyo and within a week we were joined by James Chatagwa, who was brought to us by David Mpongo who was trained in Cuba.

From there Mpongo, took Butshe, Chatagwa, Moyo and myself to Mbeya in Tanzania. The representative in Tanzania was Abraham Nkiwane. We met Joshua Nkomo who was accompanied by Chikerema. We held a closed door meeting and explained that the sabotage tactics were not working. We wanted war. After some arguments, Nkomo asked us where we wanted to go for training and we said Cuba because of the influence of Mpongo, who had been trained in Cuba. We told him we were not compromising on the issue of war.

Life was tough. We would beg for food from Tanzanians. We left Mbeya for Dar-Es-Salaam each carrying just an orange. It's a long distance but we got there and met Nkomo with the rest of the leadership.

It was arranged for us to go to China via Soviet Union with a stopover in Cairo, Egypt.

DS: What happened when you got to Soviet Union?

CM: We were taken to Kremlin, there we saw the body of Lenin, he was embalmed you know. They told us you waste a lot of land, why don't you build sky-scrappers because land is a finite resource. From Moscow, we flew to Peking in China, that is how it was known then not Beijing. We thought we would be taught how to fight there and then given arms but instead we were being taught history. We were told- now with a group of six which had Luke Mhlanga we were the first group to come in such a large number. They said we were more than Fidel Castro of Cuba who started his army with 12 guerillas. The Luke Mhlanga group found us having done a crash course in history. Instead of teaching us how to fight and giving us arms, they taught us agriculture. They told us when we become independent and rule ourselves, we would need to produce food. They said you can't develop if you have to buy food from other countries.

DS: Why do that?

CM: They said they had suffered. They would pick skins and eat without caring of what animal. They were poor even in the capital city you would see bicycles all over and a car was a rare commodity. But look at what China is today, an economic power house that can even bail out United States.

We were taken to factories and we were told we would need industries when we become independent and only by getting the necessary knowledge and technology to produce capital goods for export would we prosper. We were also taken to a town where Mao Zedong was born.

DS: At what point did the split in Zapu happen?

CM: It happened when we had almost spent a year in China. Those who were Shona speaking like Dauramanzi opted for Zanu.

DS: Are you saying people were split along tribal lines?

CM: No, people would tend to align themselves to people they know. Zipra did have Shona speaking people like Rex Nhongo who was trained by Zipra. After a year in China, we went to Tanzania before some us proceeded to en-route to Zambia.

Next week, we carry the second and final part of the interview, where Clark Mpofu relates how he, Moffat Hadebe, Elliot Ngwabi and Keyi Mpofu escaped from Grey Street Prison where they had been detained for political activism in 1965, in a jailbreak that hit headlines and attracted one of the biggest man-hunts in Rhodesia. Don't miss next week's copy of Sunday News as we take this historical journey.