Who are our real heroes and heroines

But the question today is do Zimbabweans know some of these gallant sons and daughters who toiled to give us freedom? ..
The world nowadays has seen a lot of heritage and history being diverted and reaching extinction with most upcoming generations focusing on false realities and other minors being perpetrate and exposed by the fast evolution of the internet and other diversion instruments.What is supposed to be known by the Zimbabwean is the heritage and background of the people who gave us the freedom to articulate free will today.
Here is a list and some information about people who fought and did something for zimbabwe in the liberation struggle to be where we are today:
1. JOSIAH TONGOGARA
Tongogara was born in Selukwe on 4 February 1938. He was involved in a fatal car accident which claimed his life on the 26th of December 1979 soon after the Lancaster House Agreement which gave birth to independent Zimbabwe.
Tongagara grew up residing in Shurugwi, on a farm which was owned by Ian Smith‘s parents.Tongogara’s parents were employed at this farm and subsequently Tongogara became also an employee on that same farm. He was educated up to standard six and after failing to be enrolled for his secondary education, he left the country for Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia) and this was in 1960.
It was believed that the death of Percy, Tongogara’s brother influenced him to join the nationalist movements becoming a politician-cum-military genius. Percy drowned in the Kafue River and Tongogara believed that this was a result of a political foul.
Tongogara began his revolutionary activities in 1963 in Zambia working in ZANU PF’s youth wing awaiting to be sent to China to receive military training.After completing his training, he led the first group of people to undergo military training in China in 1966.
In April 1975, Tongogara was arrested and detained in Zambia.Whilst in prison, he was signed the agreement which was forwarding the formation of a joint military force, the Zimbabwe People’s Army (ZIPA) which was to be composed of guerrillas from ZANLA and the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), which was the military wing of ZAPU.[2] In 1976, Tongogara was acquitted and he managed to attend the Geneva Conference which was held in the same year.(PINDULA)
Several mysteries have been invented pertaining the death of Josiah Tongogara but what matters today is the appreciation and reflection of the work and life of this great hero.
2.JOSHUA NKOMO
According to Wikipedia and Britannica Nkomo was born on the June 19, 1917, in Bukalanga or Bulilima, now referred to as Semokwe Reserve, Matabeleland South and was one of eight children. His father (Thomas Nyongolo Letswansto Nkomo) worked as a preacher and a cattle rancher and worked for the London Missionary Society.
After primary schooling in Rhodesia, he went to South Africa to complete his education in Natal and Johannesburg. Returning home in 1945, he worked for the Rhodesian Railways and by 1951 had become a leader in the trade union of the black Rhodesian railway workers. In 1951 he also obtained an external B.A. degree from the University of South Africa, Johannesburg.
became increasingly political, and in 1957 he was elected president of the African National Congress (ANC), the leading black nationalist organization in Rhodesia. When the ANC was banned early in 1959, Nkomo went to England to escape imprisonment. He returned in 1960 and founded the (NDP); in 1961, when the NDP was banned in turn, he founded ZAPU.Nkomo helped lead the guerrilla war against white rule in Rhodesia, but his forces played a relatively minor role compared with those of Mugabe, who headed ZANU. The two groups were joined in an uneasy alliance known as the Patriotic Front after 1976.
After white-ruled Rhodesia became black-ruled Zimbabwe in 1979–80, Nkomo and his Ndebele-supported ZAPU were increasingly eclipsed by Mugabe’s ZANU, whose base of support was the majority Shona people. ZANU resoundingly defeated Nkomo’s ZAPU in the 1980 parliamentary elections. The parties’ relationship remained strained, and overt ethnic strife broke out between the Shona and the Ndebele people after Mugabe dismissed Nkomo from the cabinet in 1982. After a complete breach between the two leaders for a few years, they agreed in 1987 to merge their respective parties in order to try to achieve ethnic unity in their country. In 1990 Nkomo became a vice president under Mugabe, but Nkomo was only a figurehead in this position—genuine political power was wielded by Mugabe, who remained Zimbabwe’s chief executive. In 1996 Nkomo was diagnosed with prostate cancer. His deteriorating health forced him to retreat from public life, although he continued to hold the title of vice president until his death in 1999. An autobiography, Nkomo, the Story of My Life,was published in 1984.
Joshua Nkomo is also known as “MDALAWETHU” is by far one of the known fallen heroes and his legacy loves on until today.
3. SALLY “Sarah Francesca Hayfron” MUGABE
Sally was Born in 1931 in the Gold Coast now known as Ghana, then a British colony. Sally and her twin sister, Esther, were raised in a political family, which was part of the growing nationalist politics in the colonial Gold Coast. She Attended Achimota Secondary School, she went on to university to study before qualifying as a teacher.
Sally Hayfron Mugabe was a trained teacher who asserted her position as an independent political activist and campaigner. She demonstrated this activism as early as 1962 when she was active in mobilising African women to challenge the Rhodesian constitution which resulted in her being charged with sedition and sentenced to five years imprisonment, part of which was suspended.
She met her future husband, Robert Mugabe, at Takoradi Teacher Training College where they were both teaching.(Wikipedia)
In 1978 she was elected Zanu deputy secretary for the Women’s League. In 1980 she assumed a new, national role as wife of Zimbabwe’s first black Prime Minister. She was elected secretary-general of the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front(Zanu-PF) Women’s League at the party’s congress in 1989. Amai Sally Mugabe founded the Zimbabwe Child Survival Movement and launched the Zimbabwe Women’s Co-operative in Britian in 1986.
How did Sally Mugabe Die? She died of kidney failure on the 27th of January 1992 in Harare.
Sally Mugabe left behind the legacy of a nation’s mother figure who had passionate care for th less privileged especially women and children. Due to her commendable work through the Child Survival Movement initiative, Sally was posthumously honoured as her face was put on the Zimbabwe Postage stamps in year 2000.[3] A school in Harare was also named after her due to her role as the motherly figure of the nation who had compassion for the less privileged. A residential area in Harare was also named Sally Mugabe Heights due to her commitment towards the empowerment of women particularly widows and single mothers. Critics have argued that Grace Mugabe’s humanitarian works through the Grace Mugabe charity work in Mazowe and Danhiko projects are just a continuation of Sally’s philanthropic works.
More people helped Zimbabwe gain independence some of them being Samuel “Mayor Urimbo” Mamutse, Lameck Makanda, Daniel Nyamayaro Madzimbamuto, Edgar Tekera and Alfred Nikita Mangena. The Works and lives of these fallen Heroes is appreciated and reflected on the Heroes Day and it is the right thing for every Zimbabwean to at least know who put us where we are today…. – by Kumbirai Kevin Mwenye
originally posted : kknetmedia.wordpress.com

Post published in: Education