26/03/2024
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ZANU PF CYBER TEAM
Advancing a Patriotic State of Mind
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PRESENTATION BY: CDE. KUDAKWASHE SHAMBARE
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TOPIC: LIFE AT DOIROI REFUGEE CAMP
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On..
THE LEGACY SHOW
…a Show Hosted by the ZANU PF Cyber Team
As… We trace the footprints of our liberation stalwarts.
INTRODUCTION:
This story is a miniscule segment of a bottomless barrel of stories about a struggle in which many sons and daughters of Zimbabwe perished.
Although many more survived this struggle, they emerged with physical scars.
But for those that escaped with their lives and limb, they have remained deeply scarred in their minds and today carry traumas that defy any form of healing therapy.
LOCATION OF THE CAMP
Doiroi Refugee Camp was originally a FRELIMO farm which was donated to ZANU for the establishment of a large camp to accommodate hordes of in-coming recruits from Zimbabwe and survivors of the Nyadzonia massacre.
Doiroi camp was located in Manica Province, about 25 kilometres from Maforgo farm off the Chimoio–Beira highway.
The camp was accessed from the highway by a dust road that ends at Manuella’s Store.
THE FIRST CAMP
The early camp was established in late August 1976 after an advance team comprising survivors of Nyadzonia had proceeded to Doiroi and built a few structures like the stores, clinic, command centre, parade square and a few other barracks.
The camp housed about 15 000 Zimbabweans inclusive of the 2 000 plus survivors of the Nyadzonia attack that had occurred on August 9 1976, while the remainder represents the thousands of young men and women who had sacrificed life and limb to join the liberation war effort, while others had been recruited by ZANLA freedom fighters from the front (Zimbabwe).
The little infrastructure at the first camp comprised of a few barracks for men and women, the clinic, in-coming recruits, the security and the storeroom.
They were built from poles (king post), bamboos and grass thatch and accommodated about 150-200 people each.
People would sleep in three or four rows per barrack, squeezed together on a bare and dusty earth floor owing to the scarcity of blankets.
New recruits would sleep in the security barrack close to each other while waiting for the vetting process.
Recruits were prohibited from talking to anyone even a relative that one had known from back home until the vetting process had been completed.
They were then allocated a detachment, company and section where one would report for roll call every day.
The vetting process entailed a number of questions being posed about the situation back home and when one appeared to sympathise with either Abel Muzorewa’s ANC party or the Smith Government, one would automatically become a suspect and would be detained in the dreaded detention barrack (Chikaribotso) for up to six months before you are released and deployed to a detachment.
Personal possessions such as watches, necklaces, rings, bangles and cigarette lighters were prohibited since they could be fitted with communication gadgets by the enemy to transmit signals on the position of Doiroi camp.
Identity particulars and money were mostly confiscated by the militia who were the first contact when one crossed the border into Mozambique.
This was meant to ensure that you would not attempt to go back to Rhodesia as it was not possible to move without identification.
Tents could only be sourced by the Mozambican government which at that time was grappling with repairing destroyed infrastructure by the departed Portuguese settlers.
Bamboos were used as trusses in the construction of barrack roofs, improvised tables at the kitchen and medicine shelves in the clinic barrack.
Bamboos were the only available material for producing makeshift coffins for those who had passed on.
The kitchen was located near a dam on Doiroi River which had been built by the former Portuguese farmer.
A group of about 200 recruits that had arrived at Doiroi soon after the advance team had stayed in pigsties near the farm house which was occupied by CAITANO, a local Mozambican UNHCR representative at the camp.
There were also whole families who had actually come to seek refuge in Mozambique.
These were allocated their own place, a short distance from the main camp where they built small pole and dagga huts with grass thatch.
They got their food from the main camp.
Food was very scarce and supplies erratic at Doiroi Camp with the inhabitants mostly having one meal a day.
The main diet comprised mostly of sadza with either coconut powdered milk or dried fish (bakayawo) or African beans (ndodzi).
In some instances when there was only maize meal, the inhabitants ate sadza without relish.
There was also emergency porridge that came in powder form made from American yellow corn (maize).
The shortage of food forced the inhabitants to undertake chirenje escapades in order to stay alive.
It was from the emergency porridge and coconut milk that inhabitants experienced running stomach cases of diarrhoea that led to dehydration-related deaths.
Vegetables, fruits, bread, butter, salt and other basic necessities were unavailable and a luxury in a war situation.
The acute shortage of food supplies led to the inhabitants developing survival tactics.
In 1977, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Red Cross officials visited the camp at intervals and organised the supply of clothes and food items such as emergency porridge and powdered milk.
There was also donated black sadza which appeared not suitable for human consumption because it caused diarrhoea.
In an effort to circumvent hunger, enterprising inhabitants clandestinely slipped out of the camp and provided their labour to the Mozambican populace in exchange for food.
They stayed with the villagers doing a variety of odd jobs while concealed from camp security patrols.
Yet others would barter trade their clothes or those stolen from colleagues or the storeroom in exchange for soap, money, flue-cured to***co, ma*****na or sadza and duck relish.
Women also expertly executed chirenje just like men although some depended on their male counterparts.
A few women opted to slip out of the camp to marry themselves away to Mozambican men as second or third wives as an alternative to evade hunger.
Although some of the women were rounded up during periodically sanctioned security patrols in the Mozambican villages, others were not located and remained stuck in those marriages.
Chirenje became the mode of survival up to 1980 with people buying jeans, shoes, charcoal irons to kill lice, ci******es, bottled beer, bread rolls, soap, condensed milk and many other goodies.
Materials for chirenje escapades were pilfered from the camp store-room and comprised of donated goods that were yet to be distributed to bases like clothes, powdered milk, tinned fish, rice and gallons of cooking oil.
The early inhabitants had found a field of ripe sunflowers and maize grains left by the workers of the former FRELIMO farm before its occupation by the Zimbabweans.
The sunflowers and maize grain were roasted and eaten by the inhabitants to supplement insufficient food supplies.
In summer, the inhabitants augmented their diet with traditional vegetables that grew in the fields.
These vegetables included black jack (nhungunira), traditional leafy okra (derere) and other related wild vegetables.
Some hunted or trapped wild animals such as kudus, bucks, tsenzi and mice, while others used fish traps (duwo) to catch fish in Doiroi River.
All these efforts provided an alternative diet to the inhabitants.
Towards the end of 1977, the UNHCR started assisting the inhabitants of Doiroi Camp with food, clothing, blankets, plates, tennis shoes and medicines.
It is important to note that ZANU had informed the United Nations (UN) Agency that the inhabitants were refugees fleeing from the intensifying war and oppressive Smith regime, yet the inhabitants were genuine young men and women who had sacrificed life and limb to join the armed struggle, take up arms and liberate Zimbabwe.
However, the strategy by ZANU worked perfectly well on the welfare side of the inhabitants at Doiroi Camp, but it adversely affected the inhabitants’ status of being changed from comrades awaiting training to ‘refugees’.
When the UN Agency officials periodically visited the ‘refugee’ camp, the inhabitants were instructed to remove any military fatigues they may be donning and to act like civilians.
Some of the clothes that the UN Agency donated were of very bright colours which were targets to the Rhodesian reconnaissance planes on aerial missions to identify Zimbabwean camps in Mozambique.
The inhabitants dyed these brightly coloured clothes into dark ones using tree leaves or barks.
As there was no resident UNHCR representative at the camp, those who qualified for training under a criteria laid down by the party for a certain group of people, they were either taken from the camp by trucks or would toyi-toyi to the Chimoio – Beira highway to board waiting trucks.
The UN Agency was to play a leading role in the repatriation of the Doiroi inhabitants back home as refugees to Zimbabwe during the Lancaster House talks-agreed ceasefire period in January 1980.
On arrival at Toronto Transit Camp near Christmas Pass, the inhabitants (refugees) faced an identity crisis regarding how to address each other.
Everyone who had crossed the border to join the armed struggle had been asked to cease using his name of birth and instead choose an appropriate nom de guerre of his choice.
It was impossible to call your colleague with any other name than his nom de guerre and they went like:
‘Mabhunu Muchapera’, ‘Satan WeMabhunu’, ‘Zvitunha Pwititi’, ‘Brian Hondo’ or ‘John Chimurenga’ in the presence of Rhodesian soldiers in the camp.
The inhabitants ended up calling each other in hushed whispers to avoid being heard by the soldiers.
Cde Alex Makotore, aka Cde Bruce ‘Lee’ Taparara relived his experience at Doiroi.
"I found myself at the camp in 1976.
I vividly remember when I first arrived at this camp.
When we got to the boomgate, we were told to jump off the truck and line up for inspection.
The camp was manned by FRELIMO soldiers and young Zimbabwean guerillas.
I admired the one in jeans and in his teens who spoke with authority.
I was beginning to feel proud of my whole adventure into nowhere.
Ticha was the name of the ‘Sequranza’ (security detail).
We were given instructions as to what the whole process was all about and from there marched to some security offices on the west of the camp, which was now in our full view.
It was an old farm with a farmhouse called PaKaitano.
While still in formation outside the security office, l saw somebody I knew from Kambuzuma, Kenny Dzimwasha (KD), l felt at ease but not at home for sure.
The place was not home, in all respects.
Kenny was not in good shape as l could read from where l stood.
They were on their way to the kitchen, it was late afternoon.
The camp had pole and dagga huts thatched with grass.
This was definitely no hotel, everything pointed to affairs being hard and brutal.
I had begun to have an inkling that this was no picnic when at Chimoio this slogan statement had been repeated over and over again.
‘War is not a dinner party’.
I had wondered what they meant by that.
Now l had a clue.
There was a process called three checkups.
This was to ascertain your willingness to the cause of the war and be ‘born again’; surrender your old name and adopt a new one in the process.
I was asked what new name l wanted to adopt and l quickly settled for Bruce Lee.
During my stay close to the Rainbow Cinemas at Kambuzuma, Harare, there were two very popular movies then, Furious Monk and Enter the Dragon by Bruce Lee.
These had inspired me to choose that name.
To my surprise, there was some sort of military set-up at Doiroi and yet it was a refugee camp.
I was deployed into Company Rusununguko.
My commander was Comrade Bomber, and my political commissar was Comrade Killer.
Food was a problem, there was no food.
Malaria was killing tens per day.
Malnutrition and lack of iron in the bones, were some of the challenges we encountered.
I was one of those who ran out of clothes early and Com Bomber, as we used to call him, referred me to Com Killer, the PC whose duty was to look after our welfare.
I was taken to the logistics office for new clothes.
The clothes (mabhero) were of good quality but there was nobody to match the sizes,
I was losing weight drastically because of poor diet.
I had to tie the buckles together with a string on the new corduroy trousers I had gotten from the storeman.
There were no shoes, so l started to walk barefooted.
There were jigger fleas at Doiroi called matekenya — l suffered.
That pest would hatch in-between your toes and create a nest in there creating big sores.
I remember that during meals which we had standing at the kitchen, we would trade sadza and salt.
If you had more sadza you would trade it with one with more salt — for sadza and salt were a good combination.
There were illegal escapades outside camp by the boys at night, these would bring goodies into camp like dry fish and meat.
So you would hear the boys moving around the kitchen area shouting ‘ndiyani ane salt ndimupe jest (sadza)’, ‘ane jedaz ndimupe baks’, baks was dried fish, bakayawo.
One evening at the parade ground, my name was called out — ‘Bruce Lee’! and I responded ‘icho’! and Ronnie was also called out.
We went to the 'Commando’ (commanders quarters) wondering what was going to happen to us.
I went into an interview with Comrade Roy Wenyevhe and Comrade Gora (the late Alexander Kanengoni).
Roy was responsible for camp security.
The Camp Commander was Comrade Hambakwe (Ambassador Moses Mvenge), the Camp Political Commissar was Comrade Gora.
The other trained guerillas there were comrades Blessing and Fundisai Chirinda.
Roy gave me the history of the struggle and Party.
How I was to defend the Party’s ideology.
He told me I was now working in the Security and Intelligence Department.
The whole evening l was lectured on the importance of security.
So for me, Zimbabwe’s freedom came at a cost."
CONCLUSION
The story of Doiroi is a single thread from a vast mosaic of narratives that are yet to be recorded.
The Doiroi inhabitants were repatriated back home untrained in January 1980 as ‘refugees’, yet they had sacrificed their lives and evaded the notorious Rhodesian security forces before crossing the landmine-infested Zimbabwe–Mozambique border with one objective, to receive training and return home to fight the settler regime, but it was never to materialize.
Many former freedom fighters had at one instance stayed at the camp and gone through the suffering before striking an opportunity to go for training ahead of others.
Thousands remained untrained and idle throughout the period of the armed struggle.
Military academies in Mozambique, Tanzania and other friendly countries in Africa and abroad failed to accommodate all the young Zimbabwean men and women that were fit for training, resulting in the many of them returning home untrained.
Thank you for your attention tonight.
Ours is to safeguard our legacy.
Advancing a patriotic state of mind.
