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MUKUDZEI MUDZI, THE BOOK I COULDN’T OPEN, READ!!! Some few years ago, I met one Cde Manzunzu in then CDF’s Office, current VP Chiwenga. Previous to that encounter, we had had a discussion on ZANU’s last rebellion before Independence, that involving the likes of Rugare Gumbo,
...late Crispen Mandizvidza, Henry Hamadziripi, etc, etc, what late President R.G. MUGABE termed “Rebellion yemadzisekuru angu”. Late President’s mother, Mbuya Bona was daughter of Gutu of the Gumbo clan. The likes of Joseph Chimurenga had already died. In that context late
Mukudzei Mudzi’s name came up. “He is dead”, I mistakenly declared. “No!, he is alive”, screamed Cde Chiwenga. He worked at the Registrar General’s Office under Cde Tobaiwa Mudede, added the then CDF who also revealed both Kumbirai Kangai and Richard Chemist Hove, both late, were
...also involved, but escaped punishment by turning informants to the Party’s Security Department. The broader context to that conversation was that we were tracking down leading war veterans for soaking interviews which had seen us criss-crossing the country. We had interviewed
...several in Mashonaland Central, including the iconic Cde Vhuu, who had crossed over from Zipra alongside Rex Nhongo, Mataire (father of current Herald Deputy Editor) who farms in Mashonaland Central, Cde Herbert Shungu, real name Changata who is in the Valley in Muzarabani,
...and whose legendary operation against a unit of South African soldiers deployed to help Ian Smith - he captured and killed the whole unit close to Mazowe Bridge in Mashonaland Central - had forced the withdrawal of South Africa in the fight. We had also interviewed female
...cadres who included Cde Esteria who farms just outside Centenary. Later, surviving heroes of the historic Altena Farm attack commanded by John Pedzisa who is still alive and on the land would be covered, as was Cdes Chinodakufa and Kufamazuva who are in Mt Darwin. Cde
Chinodakufa would take his household to the war, while Kufamazuva who lives in Mt Darwin was a survivor in the bomb blast that claimed late Chitepo. Many more comrades would be interviewed, including Sekuru George Rutanhire, now late, who was a catechumen at the time he joined
...the struggle together with his newly wedded wife who I think lives in Belvedere. Cde Chiwenga then told me late Mukudzei was actually a Dhauramanzi. Gen Dhauramanzi had long passed on, leaving a widow who farms in the outskirts of Chivhu on the way to Chikomba District Offices
My face lit up. “But Mukudzei’s brother’s son is always here, Cde Manzunzu!” added the then CDF. “I can raise him now.” I pleaded that he does. Before long Cde Manzunzu was on the phone, and then at Defence House! I wasted no time and quickly fixed an interview. “Baba is not well
...though and you might find him rather incoherent as his memory is fading”, Cde Manzunzu warned me, before hobbling out of Defence House. He is on crutches. That added urgency to the whole project. Immediately after, I activated the Zimpapers and ZBC team led by Munyaradzi Huni
...and Tsododo. As agreed, Cde Manzunzu did the groundwork. We had several false starts as late Mukudzei’s health was inexorably breaking and quite unstable. Finally, a window of opportunity presented itself and we hurried to Chisipiti, turned left into Harare Drive to a huge
...peri-urban plot where late Mukudzei and his son lived. He was brought into the lounge and we set up for an interview. All the time photographers were snapping the ailing war veteran. Barely a minute into the interview, it was clear we had no story. Cde Mukudzei’s condition had
...deteriorated so badly that he just couldn’t mobilize his mind, let alone his story. In fact, we all became his children who had gathered for last moral rites from a departing patriarch!! He moralized on how to live well with others, respecting elders and older siblings. We
...exhausted all skills in the media toolbox to draw him out, all in vain. He would involuntarily mock every of our effort by dispensing same homilies, only couched differently. It became clear he was inhabiting a world far away from the theatre of war, well away from the story
...that had motivated the trip! What a disheartening encounter!! We were so near the story, yet so far from it. We tried to get his pictures
...from the Struggle but got none. All we saw were pictures of him and his late wife on their wedding day!! You can imagine the disappointment: we hoped to see a hardcore combatant, weapon in hand, body weighed down by banana-shaped magazines of AK assault rifle half concealed in
...pouches of bandolier jacket; possibly fist in the air, mouth wide open in song or slogan, all in front of Zanla guerrillas armed to the teeth and getting their last instructions before deployment to the war front. Yet no!! All we got was a soft groom in arms of a veiled bride!
We packed our weapons for the next assignment, visibly disappointed yet sorrowful that another story on the struggle had ailed and thus irretrievably lost. To tell the truth, I never gave late Mukudzei Mudzi a day longer on this side of life. Yet he lived several years after,
...only to succumb a few days ago. The will to live; the resilience of a fighter for freedom, slowly and mutely pining and wasting away. I failed; we failed, to draw him out. Broken condition stood between us and a legendary story culled from the Struggle. Soon after, my second
...boy would arrive into this world, expelled from his mother’s womb with a loud cry of pain, then a whimper and a long snore after a life-generating sweaty effort. “His name is Mukudzei”, I told his mother, now late. “But I wanted a Christian name, Jesse”, cried Olivia Idaishe,
...my late wife. “Mukudzei Jesse he shall be”, I declared with the finality of a patriarch. Rest In Peace, Cde Mukudzei Mudzi!!
