Cephas Msipa presents fascinating read in auto-biography

Cephas George Msipa, one of Zimbabwe's living pioneer freedom-fighters, will officially launch his book, In Pursuit of Freedom and Justice, in Bulawayo this Friday.

Msipa, 85, lives in Gweru in the Midlands province. A veteran of the liberation struggle, CG, as we normally call him, wrote his memoirs and published them in book-form late last year.

The auto-biography is fascinating, and most unwittingly presents CG as a man whose life's pillars are four social passions: the acquisition of education, the emancipation of his fellow black people,    the welfare of his family, and his philanthropy that led to the formation of the CG Msipa Foundation.

CG is rightly and legally a native of Mberengwa District, but by upbringing a citizen of Zvishavane.

Both Zvishavane and Mberengwa districts are in the Midlands Province, and are more cosmopolitan than the neighbouring districts. CG's late wife, Charlotte nee Matabela (Masuku), was of Nguni descent.

Those two factors, the cosmopolitan characteristics of his socio-geographical origins and the dual ethno-cultural environment of his marital life most probably shaped CG's social and political attitude.

No wonder he played the leading role in uniting PF-Zapu and Zanu-PF in 1987 through the December 22 Unity Accord.

This led to the withdrawal from the Midlands and the Matabeleland provinces of the unpopular Five Brigade, generally referred to as Gukurahundi.

CG's autobiography clearly narrates how the man is a product of two cultures, one Karanga with its roots in Mberengwa, and the other in Insiza among the Ndebele speaking people of one of his grandmothers.

At school, CG had to pull himself up with the straps of his own boots by working part-time for his fees as well as those of his sister.

He must have studied a great deal, hence his promotion from Standard Five to Form one, quite a remarkable academic achievement!

Qualifying as a teacher after completing University Junior Certificate (U J C) was a very enviable professional milestone at that time, and that qualification was known as "Primary Teachers' Higher Course."

Incidentally, it was originally known as the "Native Primary Teachers Higher Course" (NPTH). The word "native" was dropped in the mid 1950s when Rev Garfield Todd, founder of Dadaya Mission had become Southern Rhodesia's prime minister.

Dadaya Mission is where CG received most of his education, upper primary and secondary up to his teachers' course.

Todd was the principal most of those years. CG says school teaching was his profession by choice, and politics was his career by circumstances.

Those circumstances occurred when he was teaching in Kwekwe at Amaveni Primary School where local political circumstances somehow made him become the chairman of what was called the African Advisory Board.

He got involved in Kwekwe's municipal affairs because of the intolerable racial discrimination (colour bar) being practised by the Southern Rhodesian Government at that time.

He was later transferred to Salisbury (now Harare) where sooner than later he was closely associated with African nationalist political activities.

First was the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress which was banned in February 1959, then came the National Democratic Party (NDP) which was also outlawed in December 1961,  and then the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) proscribed in September 1962.

CG was a member of each one of those, and, like every patriot, he was prepared to "suffer, sacrifice, and serve." Those three Ss guided most liberation struggle patriots, he states in his book.

He suffered a great deal by being sacked from the teaching service, by being repeatedly arrested and detained, by being sacked from private sector jobs as was the case when he was with Lobels and later with David Whitehead.

In spite of that, CG would not be swayed from his avowed goal which was to free his country from oppression.

While he was suffering that way, CG's heart was with his beloved wife, Mai Msipa, and his children, for children were born as he was being  thrown in and out of prisons by the white minority regime.

He was employed by Lobels just to help his dear wife in the upbringing of their children. CG is obviously a very caring and loving father and (when his wife was still alive) husband.

While he was in Kwekwe, he was helped by some Indian friends to found a bursary scheme to enable brilliant but disadvantaged black children to go to secondary schools.

One of the beneficiaries of that scheme is Boyman Mancama who went to Goromonzi Secondary School, and later to the University of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

He later became a senior management official of the giant conglomerate, Anglo-America Corporation, and is highly respected in the corporate world.

Mancama is now retired and lives most comfortably and happily with his charming wife, Mandipa, in Harare. He is now an Anglican Church clergyman.

Following his appointment as the Governor of the Midlands Province, CG   launched a scholarship, the CG Msipa Scholarship Trust, a practical proof that the man greatly valued education.

The Trust is living evidence of CG's philanthropy. He sold a part of his plot in Gweru to raise the initial funds for the Trust.

By the Trust CG, although now retired, is still serving the nation of Zimbabwe by paying for the education of some of its people.

We can say without any hesitation that CG is a rare personality in that nowhere in his autobiography do we come across him yearning for or arguing about personal economic gains, rewards or wealth.

Nowhere do we hear or read anywhere about CG being closely or remotely associated with some form of corruption.

Similarly, CG remained faithful to his leader, Joshua Nkomo, from the SRANC period, into the NDP/ ZAPU era, right up to Zimbabwe's post-independence years.

Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a retired, Bulawayo - based journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734 328 136 or through email. sgwakuba@gmail.com