Freedom Nyamubaya Zimbabwe National Liberation Army in Mozambique in 1975. During the war she was one of the few Female Field Operation Commanders. Later she was elected Secretary for Education in the first ZANU Women League Conference in 1979. She is a prolific writer, having published two volumes of poetry.
Why did you leave school to join Zimbabwe National Liberation Army (ZANLA)?
There are multiple reasons. First I didnt have sufficient school fees. When I was in Mutoko after I finished my Form Two, thats when I heard about the comrades. I wasnt the same person; I wanted to do something to change society. I really wanted to be a comrade. At the time, there was a kind of fascination with the war. It was the idea that you could change something.
How have your experiences during the Liberation Struggle shaped who you are today?
I think Im blessed. If I werent in the struggle I wouldnt be the same person. It was an education in itself; it was managing to live with nothing. For a girl, you are so vulnerable, and you learn to be an adult after that. In terms of mindset, Im quite liberated. I can say what I feel, even when I know it doesnt change much.
Do you think that the situation during the war changed the status of women within our culture?
I dont think every woman who went to war is liberated like I am. If you were liberated then you were supposed to be the ones who were, in Shona, wed call them vane msikanzwa because you are asking too much and you are questioning what is right and what is wrong. A lot of women who went into the war are very much inside themselves. They dont want to be reminded, or they are scared or they dont want anyone to know about it. Its also got to do with the way we came back. When we came back, the men were heroes, but the women were not heroines. We were called prostitutes and mischievous people.
What do you think ordinary Zimbabweans should be doing to bring about their own freedom?
From an individual perspective you should be a person who has got goals for your life. Any girl or woman should start to think about her life, before she thinks about getting involved with another person. In that process you are liberating yourself. You know who you are. If anyone wants to be in your life then you will tell him or her your terms and they will tell you their terms.
How did you start writing?
Before I went to war I wrote a book called Tambudzai. It was about a lady who had problems; she was fighting all the time. I think I was writing about myself. I sent it to the then Rhodesian Literature Bureau. At the time I felt it was very unfair that I was bright but that my parents could not send me to school. Those who were not bright had parents who had money. I wondered about the justice of God. During the war, I was one of the mischievous ones, because of questioning. When I got there I was sent to prison for assessment so that the comrades could make sure that Smith did not send me. But because I was in prison, I was isolated and people did not want to associate with me. So, because I was very lonely I started writing. I wrote poetry and songs. I started a group and we sang Chimurenga songs. Then I started writing because I thought we needed entertainment and we needed to understand more about what we were doing.
What experiences in your life have informed the way you write and what you write about?
The published work is about the war. I write about those things that people dont talk about. When we talk about war there is so much emotion from the comrades. There were a lot of problems in managing ourselves, especially with women. We needed to understand how to cope with it. I write because I think theres a gap. Theres very little information on what a day was like in the camps for a woman, or what was a day was like for the comrades.
What is MOSTRUD, the organisation that you founded, and what projects are you working on?
MOSTRUD means Management Outreach Training Services for Rural Development. Right now MOSTRUD is involved with youths. We are doing something called talent development. We are in the rural areas, looking at young people who are good at sport or art. We take those individuals and help them to become role models for their communities. There are a lot of youths who for the past ten or fifteen years, have been doing nothing, so they have become gold panners, or prostitutes or cross border traders. We are looking to give them alternatives and develop their talents.
In 2007 on National Public Radio you once expressed a wish to start your own political party. Do you still want to do so?
Ive decided to concentrate on things that I can achieve. Politics is no longer about any ideologies, or policies, its not about building the country. I would like to be remembered as somebody who contributed to the development of the youth, or the development of Zimbabwe. Or even as someone who contributed to the literature on the war.
Selections from On the Road Again: Poems During and After the National Liberation of Zimbabwe (n/p: ZPH, 1998; 3rd edition)
Introduction
Now that I have put my gun down
For almost obvious reasons
The enemy still is here invisible
My barrel has no definite target
Now
Let my hands work
My mouth sing
My pencil write
About the same things my bullet
aimed at.
Poetry
One person said, you are not a poet,
but forgot that, poetry is an art and
Art is meaningful rhythm.
Now what is rhythm
If I may ask?
Some say its marching syllables,
Others say its marching sounds,
But tell me how you marry the two.
We fought Shakespeare on the battlefield
Blacks fought the Boers with their spears
These are marching syllables
And is art to some,
But how can I marry the two?
How about a different rhythm?
People die in the ghettoes,
From police raids and army shots.
Workers suffocate under coal mines,
Digging the coal they cant afford to buy
For cooking daily to feed themselves.
Poetic stuff this.
Then lets agree to disagree
Art serves.
A Mysterious Marriage
Once upon a time
there was a boy and a girl
forced to leave their home
by armed robbers.
The boy was Independence
The girl was Freedom.
While fighting back, they got married.
After the big war they went back home.
Everybody prepared for the wedding
Drinks and food abounded,
Even the disabled felt able.
The whole village gathered waiting
Freedom and Independence
were more popular than Jesus.
Independence came
But Freedom was not there.
An old woman saw Freedoms shadow passing,
Walking through the crowd, Freedom to the gate.
All the same, they celebrated for Independence.
Independence is now a senior bachelor
Some people still talk about him
Many others take no notice
A lot still say it was a fake marriage.
You cant be a husband without a wife.
Fruitless and barren Independence staggers to old
Age,
Since her shadow, Freedom, hasnt come.
Selections from Dusk of Dawn (Harare: College Press Publishers, 2001 3rd Edition)
A career for life
I am a retired soldier
Not a retired revolutionary
I still walk around armed
With tools and ideas of how to grow more maize
There are still those of us
Who consciously organize and create
Africas man-made problems and make
Our suffering a career for interested scholars
Giving Up
I felt like shedding tears
But my eyes were dry
Felt like shouting
But had no voice
Wanted to scratch
without itching
It was torturing, bitter
Painful and hot
Out there!
Difficult to give up war
Especially when you volunteered.
Secrets
Amai *I wanted to write you a letter to say;
I now can speak many languages
Chipo is at Osthisa pregnant
Theresa is now a commander
Anna lost her leg In the battle
They beat me the first day I arrived at Tembwe
I was raped by the security commander
Jim lost his big toe from the Jigger fleas
Many died at Nyadzonya from hunger
I have got a new Afrikan name now
You probably know about all these things
Last but not least I wanted to tell you
That I love you very much.
*amaimother
A Different Kind of Love
Some people loved this country so much
That they died for it
Their skeletons are scattered all over Zimbabwe
The skeletons are still dying for this country
As they turn into useful manure
The survivors do not seem to love
this country at all
Now
Zimbabwe is dying
On their behalf
Who loves Zimbabwe to save it from dying for us?
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