Oral Histories of Imprisonment, Detention and Confinement during Zimbabwe’s Liberation Struggle, 1960-1980

Enos Nkala (Leading Nationalist and Founding Member of ZANU) Interviewed and Transcribed by Munya Munochiveyi, Central Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

MM: … (Interview starts with an ongoing discussion) My first question for you is, before you went to prison or before you were detained, where were you living and what was your job? How would you describe your social life before imprisonment: were you married, with children?

EN: Okay, I went to Harare (Salisbury was the colonial name) in 1953 to work as a clerk for a company called TA Holdings. I was coming from the rural areas – I grew up in rural

Filabusi and I am Ndebele. I went to Salisbury because I knew some of my former school-mates who had gone there to work. As a young man, I also felt I had to get out from a familiar environment and old associates, some whom I thought were un-ambitious people. So I went to Harare, and met up with some Ndebele boys who had come from this region (Matebeleland). One of them was a clerk at TA Holdings, and he is the one who got me a job there. I lived in the African township of Mbare, which was a crowded neighborhood. When I lost this job, I worked for a newspaper called the Daily News as a vendor for two months. However, because I had some education, I was promoted to become a writer for of the newspapers that this media stable published which was called the Bantu Mirror. This newspaper used to publish Ndebele articles and I became one of the writers and also did some editorial stuff. The chief editors of the paper were Jasper

Savanhu and Lawrence Vambe. When these two left, Nathan Shamuyarira became the chief editor. Perhaps we were looked down upon as lowly writers and this actually motivated me to do some correspondence education. After I got a national diploma, I left the newspaper and joined an insurance company that sold insurance to African professionals such as teachers, agricultural extension officers (demonstrators), and others.

I worked with colleagues such as James Chikerema (also a leading nationalist) and

Joshua Nkomo, who was employed at Old Mutual insurance company. This job enabled me to move from earning about (Rhodesian) $6,000 to about R$30,000, plus commission.

So within a short space of time I bought a car, my first car. This was 1956 and you would appreciate that if you had a car at that time, you were special. After some time, I became involved in politics following the formation of the Youth League led by James

Chikerema, George Nyandoro, Paul Mushonga, and others. We joined this political grouping and supported its thrust for self-rule. The Youth League became an important forerunner for the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress (SRANC). Joshua

Nkomo accepted the nomination to lead this new political organization. The SRANC was launched on the 12th of September 1957. We were younger than the Joshua Nkomos and other leaders and so we were kind of youth activists, the “running boys”. The SRANC concentrated their efforts both in the rural and town areas and people admired its leaders’ courage to challenge the status quo. In 1959, the government banned this organization. Its leaders were bundled into detention and most were sent to Khami. I was not in Salisbury this time and so I was not detained. Also, quite a number of activists were not detained since they were not in the leadership of the SRANC. We formed a dancing club based at

Stoddart Hall in Mbare and the funds we raised went towards sponsoring the new

National Democratic Party (NDP), which was formed on the 1st of January 1960. By some coincidence or accident, I was made Secretary General for the NDP. Michael

Mawema was the leader because had gone into exile after the government had banned the SRNC and detained its leaders. At the time of the banning of the SRANC,

Nkomo was outside the country – attending the All Peoples Conference in Accra, Ghana which had been called by Kwame Nkrumah – and he remained outside the country on self-imposed exile. We urged Nkomo to stay outside the country and appeal for international support for our cause. The NDP was more vibrant compared to the SRANC, and as activists, we were very vigorous and perhaps sometimes very reckless (laughs).

We also concentrated in the rural and town areas, organizing demonstrations and rallies, which led to arrests and so forth. In September, we held the first NDP Congress, and

Joshua Nkomo was back at that time and became its President. This was at Cyril Jennings

Hall and there was a day that I shared a platform with (Robert) Mugabe, who had come back from Ghana where he was employed as a teacher. Mugabe spoke very well - as you know he is somewhat very eloquent. We tried to persuade him to join us but he was reluctant, giving the excuse that he had a binding contract with his employer in Ghana.

He later agreed to become our Secretary for Publicity. I was made a deputy Secretary for

George Silundika, perhaps because I was still very young. A year later, the NDP was banned too and its leaders sent into detention. We were released three months later though, and we formed the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU). I’m giving you a sequence of events to contextualize the political climate of that time. ZAPU was banned in 1962 and we took a resolution that we were not going to form another party for some time. This is what led to the birth of the rival Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) because some of us thought that the resolution not to form another party was foolish. We were thinking of an armed struggle and I was one of the people who thought Joshua

Nkomo was messing up by coming up with the idea of not forming another party. ZANU was thus formed, in my house, and I was elected its Treasurer. I held this position for the coming thirty years, even during the time when I was in detention. That is the brief background of my involvement in politics.

MM: That is a useful background. In fact, there is now no need for me to ask about your involvement in African politics before you got arrested. I guess I can say that you were one of the leading nationalists…

EN: Lets put it this way – at the formation of ZANU, was the

President, Leopold Takawira was the Vice President, was the Secretary

General, and I was the Treasurer General. Those were the top four positions. I was at the top, and somehow people thought that I could do the job (laughs). I was really young and at the prime of my age.

MM: Okay. So let us talk about the specific circumstances surrounding your several arrests and detention.

EN: Well, the common charge was “making subversive speeches”. The laws were such that anything you said could be interpreted as subversive and so on. When ZANU was banned in 1964, we were all bundled into detention. I had been in detention previously, but this latest detention was to be the longest detention for me. I spent eleven years in detention. We were first sent into restriction – a place had been designated for us at Sikombela. We stayed there for a year and then just before and his associates declared their (UDI) Unilateral Declaration of Independence on the 11th of November

1965, we were bundled into prison at Salisbury Remand Prison. Sikombela was different because we could have visitors and we were able to smuggle out letters. In fact, it was during our time at Sikombela that we managed to smuggle the most important document to Hebert Chitepo who was in that led to the formation of the Revolutionary/War

Council.

MM: You did that from Sikombela? How did you do that?

EN: (Laughs). Well, the whole executive of ZANU was at Sikombela (see picture). A few were out of detention. Since the key people were at Sikombela, we used to meet and strategize. In one of the meetings, we took a resolution that we should send an elaborate document that would lead to the creation of a War Council under the chairmanship of

Hebert Chitepo. So we smuggled out that document. The document was typed – we had typewriters in Sikombela.

MM: So Sikombela was such a liberal environment?

EN: Yah, you can say that. Some would actually go out to drink and come back (laughs).

At first, we were not even guarded. I really do not know how they thought they could monitor us. The whole ZANU executive was detained in Sikombela, and the ZAPU leadership was detained at Gonakudzingwa. The ZANU leadership was considered to be too “hot-headed” since we had left ZAPU, and this is why we were separated. This is also why we were all taken to Salisbury Prison just before UDI. We remained there until

August 1974. We came out briefly in 1974 during the détente period, pending some political negotiations which later took place in Victoria Falls. At this time, our forces were already fighting in the north-east parts of the country. South African leaders had threw their weight behind the 1974 conference to seek a political solution to the escalating Rhodesian crisis because South African forces were suffering heavy casualties in clashes with our guerrillas fighting for independent rule. I remember that at that conference, Ian Smith was treating us as if we were his “kitchen boys”. We had to tell him to stop being foolish and that we were not his “garden boys”. The conference broke down and the war continued.

MM: So, did you go back to prison after this conference?

EN: We knew we were going to go back in prison after this conference. We were released briefly on the 12th of December 1974, and soon after that, in March 1975, Hebert

Chitepo was killed in Zambia. We agreed that Robert Mugabe and Edgar Tekere should seize the opportunity of this temporary freedom from prison and go out of the country, replace Chitepo, and continue with the war. That is how Mugabe went to the war.

Morrice Nyagumbo and I remained and we went back to detention. Otherwise, if we had not let Mugabe and Tekere go, all of us would have gone back to detention. We had anticipated that our freedom was going to be just a brief spell. MM: And still you were not charged of anything in a court of law?

EN: Detention had no court of law – there was just a law that was applied to detain

“subversive” individuals.

MM: Okay. I would like to talk about your own personal experiences in detention because all along I think we have been mainly talking about the collective experience of detention. So firstly, how did you feel being detained for the first time?

EN: Well, you see, when you are in a leadership position in a liberation struggle, you always have a sense of anticipation and this creates a sense of resistance in you. So we didn’t really bother being detained because we had already anticipated that detention will come. It didn’t bother me and I take that all of us were not bothered. We were always jovial, we were joking, we were studying, we were reading and so forth.

MM: Okay. Could describe to me how you spent a typical day in prison?

EN: Well, in Salisbury Prison they put us on what was called the “European Scale” (a typical Rhodesian jail had three different scales for prisoners, viz, Scale One

(Europeans), Scale Two (Coloreds/Indians), and Scale Three (Africans). These scales determined prisoners diet, the labor they performed, the cells they lived in, and general treatment. In Rhodesian prisons, the “European Scale” was obviously the most privileged). On this scale, we ate almost everything that a white man eats, e.g. bread, magarine, jam, etc. The food was okay, and we had spare time to study and read.

MM: And is this the prison that you spent all your years in detention?

EN: I spent most of my detention years in there until I was moved to Gwelo Prison in

May 1974 when we were caught with a radio.

MM: And were you treated on the same scale in Gwelo prison?

EN: Everything remained the same. We carried the same rights we had in Salisbury prison. We did not perform any prison labor because we were not sentenced prisoners.

MM: Given Rhodesia’s racial atmosphere, did you feel any kind of racism in Rhodesian jails?

EN: It was there but we were very resistant and aggressive. In fact, prison officers were somewhat afraid of us.

MM: And how was your general welfare in prison, such as your health? EN: I suffered from ulcers when I was in prison and that is how the radio was discovered.

I was supposed to be taken to a doctor and when this white prison officer opened the door, was listening to the radio because Portugal had fallen.

MM: And how did you get this radio?

EN: We smuggled it in through the black guards. These guards also helped us to smuggle letters in and out. In fact, smuggling was so rampant that it led to the firing of one of the prison’s superintendents called Mr. Ruff. After the radio was discovered, prison officers questioned me wanting to know how we had obtained the radio. I told the officers that there is no way we could have gone out to shop for a radio – I told them that they are the ones who gave us the radio! I told my colleagues that if we were questioned about the radio, we should all say that it was Superintendent Ruff who gave us the radio. We also planned to implicate him as our agent who smuggled other stuff for us. When top officials from the Special Branch came to investigate the issue of the radio, we said that

Ruff had given us the radio. He lost his job over that – we told the investigating officers that this man (Ruff) was a criminal. We accused him of being paid by Hebert Chitepo

(ZANU leader in Zambia) so that he could smuggle things for us. All these were lies, of course.

MM: And what sort of relations did you have with the black guards who smuggled your material in and out of prison? EN: Well, we understood that most of them were just working in the prisons because they had to have a job. Otherwise, they understood and supported us. The ironic thing is that most of the black guards at this prison were always hungry. We used to send them food from our cells. Since we were located in the upper cells of the prison, we would tie the food on strings and lower it down to the guards. That was the same with our letters – we would tie the letters and send them down to the guards, which they would smuggle out of the prison. When we received letters, they would tie them to these strings and we would pull them up. We were always in communication with Chitepo and others outside the prisons.

MM: So this flies in the face of the common assumption that since prisoners were kept incommunicado, therefore prisoners were out of touch with the outside world?

EN: Well, we were kept incommunicado but when you deal with a human being, he is by nature manipulative, and by nature very creative. So we created ways of subverting the system.

MM: And how about visitations?

EN: We could have visitors from Mondays to Fridays, and my wife did visit me. We saw each other through a wire mesh.

MM: And how did that make you feel? EN: Well, we were used to it. You see, when you are a nationalist leader, you should guard against negative feelings or you will crack down. You should always be positive.

We were full of joy and all that. Those who bogged down or gave in could be released, but there was a price to be paid such as becoming an informer (for the Rhodesian security forces) or something like that. So for the true leaders, you guard against negative feelings and so on.

MM: Okay, let us talk about violence in detention/prison. Do you remember any specific incidences of torture on yourself or others?

EN: No, but one time I beat up a white prison officer. (MB: What had happened?). I think he had made an unpleasant remark and then I attacked him. I punched him and he tumbled onto the ground. He did not retaliate but went to file a report. I was separated from others, tried in a prison court, and given 14 days of solitary confinement. We were not really tortured. I also remember Mugabe was given 25 days of solitary confinement after some incident.

MM: So your stay in Rhodesian prisons never changed your views about Rhodesia?

EN: Not at all, not at all. Our stay in prison really strengthened our resolve. MM: And what sorts of things did you do or others do to challenge the prison authorities?

EN: Well, there were many incidences. I remember (Maurice) Nyagumbo was sentenced to canning because he beat up the prison superintendent so badly. So it was not me alone

– there were others.

MM: Okay. How did you spend your spare time in prison?

EN: I read a lot and did some school work. I did B.Comm degree by correspondence whilst I was in prison. We were sponsored by an organization called Christian Care, which paid for our studies. We received books from our sponsors and even borrowed from the national library.

MM: And what would do with you leisure time – when you were not reading?

EN: We had little leisure time but when we did we used to play card games and tsoro (a traditional game in which two opponents try to out-maneuver each other by moving objects such as stones or bottle caps on a checkered surface resembling a chessboard).

We used to do this when we were tired. There was also a prison Chaplain who ministered to us. But otherwise, we had little leisure time.

MM: We talked earlier about how you tried to keep in touch with the outside world.

What happened after that radio was confiscated? EN: We were transferred to Kwekwe prison. I had a relative who was working in

Kwekwe town and he used to bring us food and other things. Within two weeks of our transfer to this prison, this relative of mine brought us another radio through the guards

(laughs)!

MM: So you maintained a good rapport with these guards?

EN: Very much so. And, you see, a good lot appreciated what we were doing.

MM: And you said some of the letters you smuggled out were destined outside the country…

EN: Even with the boys who were in military training in China or Libya and wherever, we had information that would come to us in the prisons. We were kept well-informed.

MM: And you once told me that you kept your ZANU position even though you were in prison. So were you also involved in strategizing the liberation war?

EN: Very much so. Of course, I could not contribute to the day-to-day conduct of the war, but I made important suggestions to those at the front. We smuggled letters to

Chitepo and other war leaders, and even told them about our well-being in the prisons. As the Treasurer General, I coordinated the use and distribution of certain funds too specific people whilst I was in prison. I also authored authorizations to distribute party money to families of detainees.

MM: I was going to ask you about how incarceration impacted on your family…

EN: Yes, it did impact to the extent that we were not together with my family but the children were educated, clothed, and taken care off. (MM: Where did they get this help from?) They were assisted by Christian Care and funds from the party.

MM: So your family never reached that point of near-destitution…

EN: Ah, no…

MM: Because according to some of the letters that I have been reading in the Archives that were written by other detainees, their families reached points of near-destitution.

EN: Well, apart from Christian Care, some of our families were taken care of by the party. Ordinary detainees and their families did not have access to some of this funding.

MM: And when were you finally released from prison?

EN: Remember I was briefly released in 1974 for those political talks, after I had spent about 11 years in detention. After the talks broke down, we knew some of us were going to go back to jail. But during my short period of freedom, those of us who remained in the country after Mugabe and Tekere had gone to replace Chitepo worked hard to ship out young men to go and join the struggle outside the country. I was re-arrested in 1976 and sent to detention. However, if the police had discovered that I involved in shipping out people to go and join the struggle, I would have been charged. I was finally released in 1979 in order for me attend the Lancaster House negotiations for independent rule.

One thing that characterized us was lack of bitterness, because if we were very bitter when we got independence, we would not have pronounced the policy of reconciliation.

It was not easy for our fighters but we had to make a stand.

MM: So immediately after independence, you continued to be involved in politics…

EN: Yes, I was the first minister of finance for the new government.

MM: The reason I am asking about your post-independence life is because in my conversations with other ex-detainees, they tell me stories of how their socio-economic lives were shattered by the long years they spent in detention…

EN: Well, even our lives were shattered but not to the same extent as those other ex- detainees.

MM: So as someone who was in the first independent government, do you have any idea how many of these detainees coped with their shattered lives after independence since the only financial help they got from the government was as late as 2001 or so? EN: I think there was a sense of negligence on our side. We should have, umm… well, there were too many of them, and we also had to take care of the guerrillas who were coming from the bush to assembly points in the country. We had the work of convincing these fighters that we were pursuing the policy of reconciliation, and it was not easy to convince them as we encountered strong opposition among them, and even threats.

Without that, the war would have continued.

MM: But unlike ex-detainees, these ex-guerrillas were given demobilization funds at that time…

EN: Well, yes, and some of them were drafted into the army. As the minister of finance, I worked out the mechanics of giving demobilization funds to those who did not want to join the army. Some of them were reckless, I must say.

MM: But my concern is that no one spared a thought about ex-detainees – I mean those who sacrificed much of their lives in detention…

EN: Well, I think that is where we were negligent. But we tried to employ some of them and arrange correspondence courses for them so that they could be absorbed into the public service sector. However, just as in any situation, you cannot cover everything a hundred percent for reasons of negligence or through forgetting. MM: Well, thank you for having this conversation with me.