For once, I was captivated. We were all sitting at our usual table in Zororo Bar. Rasta sat next to Comrade Mobiliser. Fatso was next to me. Baba VaTata came minutes later. He was breathless. His business of selling water to residents was facing stiff competition from other water barons. These last few days, he was always in a foul mood and easily irritable.
“One day, when we woke up, one of the comrades, Comrade Mukautadze was not there. He just vanished,” Comrade Mobiliser said.
It was a touching story, full of intrigue of some of the war experiences. Comrade Mobiliser sounded bitter.
“What really happened? How could one of the comrades just vanish like that?” I asked.
“You will never understand what some of us went through during the war of liberation,” Comrade Mobiliser said bitterly.
He had never told us before about Comrade Mukautadze.
“When Comrade Mukautadze vanished, he took with him three Ak 47 rifles and several rounds of ammunition. We only discovered that after a while. Upon this discovery, we hurriedly broke up camp and vanished in the bush,” Comrade Mobiliser said.
“The fear was that our geographical location was compromised, that’s why we melted into the bush,” Comrade Mobiliser continued with his story.
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“Had that ever happened before, that one of the comrades would just wander away?” Baba VaTata asked.
“No, for our group, it was the first time. However, a few days before he vanished, he was too pensive and talked less. It was nothing to worry about, it was the nature of war, it changed people, it hardened them,” Comrade Mobiliser said.
“The hardest part of the war, in-between battles, was the long marches, days without food, lack of warm clothes, endless days of rain soaking your skin, mosquito bites, snake bites, sleepless nights, diseases and lack of medicine. All this could break one’s spirit, that’s what the war did. It was never easy to live in the bush,” Comrade Mobiliser said.
We were all quiet. I was captivated, just like the others.
I looked at his artificial leg in a new light. Comrade Mobiliser had lost his leg under siege in the heat of battle when he escaped just by a whisker.
“So what happened to this Comrade Mukautadze? Did you ever find him?” I said.
Comrade Mobiliser shook his head slowly from side to side.
“No. We never found him. But the moment he broke camp from the rest of us, we knew that he was a dead man. He not only broke the rules of war, but he also compromised our location to the enemy,” Comrade Mobiliser said.
“Only later, during midday, we heard the exchange of gunfire beyond the Zuru Mountains. The unmistakable sound of AK 47 did not last. We all knew what it meant.” Comrade Mobiliser paused.
He looked tired, but he had a lot to say. The pain in his face was obvious to us all. He often complained of nightmares during the nights. The nightmares made him scream sometimes as the ghosts of war haunted him.
I had a feeling that by sharing his war time experiences, his motive was to expunge the heavy burden he carried in his chest. The majority of the war veterans never received counselling after the demobilisation exercise. They suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
“After the short exchange of gunfire, we tried to put as much distance as possible between us and the Rhodesian forces. We all knew that Comrade Mukautadze had been killed. But an hour later, the whole sky darkened with helicopters, hovering over our heads. The Rhodesian soldiers were hot on our trail. Our cover was broken. We were completely surrounded in the Zuru Mountains,” Comrade Mobiliser said.
“So what happened next?” Fatso asked. We were all curious to learn of the outcome of the pursuit by the enemy forces in the savanna grasslands.
“My throat is dry,” Comrade Mobiliser suddenly said. He wanted more beer.
This time, I quickly leapt to my feet and ordered more beer.
“The Rhodesian forces were hunting us from the air and also had ground forces with sniffer dogs tracking us across the savanna plains,” Comrade Mobiliser said as he took a long gulp of the beer.
As to what happened afterwards, the story will continue next time.
*Onie Ndoro
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