Passing away. Soon, the last of the former heroes
Cosmas Gonese was once a hero.
I am struck by a report in The Zimbabwean Thursday April 14 on the facts surrounding the burial of Cosmas Gonese. His colleague, the 'self-styled' National War Veterans Association chairman, Jabulani Sibanda is offended by the 'provincial hero' status accorded to Gonese. I met Gonese but I never heard of Sibanda until his `self-styled' role as the much disputed head of the NWVA. This was in the, post-Independence later days of the terror meted out to fellow Zimbabweans by these `Veterans' - many of whom must have still had `milk on their noses' if they were among Zimbabwe's liberation fighters before 1980. But Gonese WAS a liberation fighter. I knew him briefly when Dr Inez Daneel brought him to my house to visit my late husband, hydrological engineer, T B (Brian) Mitchell. Cosmas wanted help with the establishment of dams to serve the needs of his fellow, returned liberation fighters ln the Masvingo area. I was in the business then, as always - until I reluctantly left my country - of recording and publishing the names and deeds of Rhodesia's and then Zimbabwe's nationalist leaders. Cosmas struck me as a well-motivated and highly intelligent human being, keen to deliver the fruits of the struggle to his fellow ex-fighters. Brian, as an official in the Ministry of Water Development could only offer him the best technical advice. My part was to buy a large quantity of stationery and postage stamps for him and advise him to get his followers down to letter-writing to as many diplomatic missions, churches, NGOs, businesses and individuals of goodwill as they could identify and ask them to help them with the quick funding of hundreds of small dams for the irrigation of crops in dryland areas. Cosmas went off hopeful that the work could to be done quickly in the communal lands.
I never saw him again except for a brief sighting across some crowded conference hall more than a decade later. I can only surmise that he and his friend Sibanda and so many of the returnees from the bush war were observably (and tragically) fighting each other for position and easy access to unearned, instant wealth derived from the profits of other people's labours...Do I need to go on?
How naive I was with my advice. Poor Cosmas, intrinsically decent, is dead. I wish his family well and hope that they will know that so many so-called heroes of the struggle betrayed Cosmas Gonese and others who started out with high ideals.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
I am struck by a report in The Zimbabwean Thursday April 14 on the facts surrounding the burial of Cosmas Gonese. His colleague, the 'self-styled' National War Veterans Association chairman, Jabulani Sibanda is offended by the 'provincial hero' status accorded to Gonese. I met Gonese but I never heard of Sibanda until his `self-styled' role as the much disputed head of the NWVA. This was in the, post-Independence later days of the terror meted out to fellow Zimbabweans by these `Veterans' - many of whom must have still had `milk on their noses' if they were among Zimbabwe's liberation fighters before 1980. But Gonese WAS a liberation fighter. I knew him briefly when Dr Inez Daneel brought him to my house to visit my late husband, hydrological engineer, T B (Brian) Mitchell. Cosmas wanted help with the establishment of dams to serve the needs of his fellow, returned liberation fighters ln the Masvingo area. I was in the business then, as always - until I reluctantly left my country - of recording and publishing the names and deeds of Rhodesia's and then Zimbabwe's nationalist leaders. Cosmas struck me as a well-motivated and highly intelligent human being, keen to deliver the fruits of the struggle to his fellow ex-fighters. Brian, as an official in the Ministry of Water Development could only offer him the best technical advice. My part was to buy a large quantity of stationery and postage stamps for him and advise him to get his followers down to letter-writing to as many diplomatic missions, churches, NGOs, businesses and individuals of goodwill as they could identify and ask them to help them with the quick funding of hundreds of small dams for the irrigation of crops in dryland areas. Cosmas went off hopeful that the work could to be done quickly in the communal lands.
I never saw him again except for a brief sighting across some crowded conference hall more than a decade later. I can only surmise that he and his friend Sibanda and so many of the returnees from the bush war were observably (and tragically) fighting each other for position and easy access to unearned, instant wealth derived from the profits of other people's labours...Do I need to go on?
How naive I was with my advice. Poor Cosmas, intrinsically decent, is dead. I wish his family well and hope that they will know that so many so-called heroes of the struggle betrayed Cosmas Gonese and others who started out with high ideals.
Copyright © 2004 Diana Mitchell
posted by Diana Mitchell | 5:12 PM
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