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I Nterviewwith E Nos N Kala

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I Nterviewwith E Nos N Kala 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 Joshua Nkomo 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, Ndabaningi Sithole was the President, Leopold Takawira was the Vice President, Robert Mugabe 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 Ian Smith 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 Zambia 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.
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