During the war, we were very much protected by our mhondoro spirit, Dumbu. He played a major role on our side, because my father used to go there every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
During the war people were fighting, but there was not much happening in our area. But the Rhodesian soldiers were coming near our home, and gathering there. At our place in Guruve, our home is up on a hill. We were at the boundary between the farms and the communal area, and our home was just built close to the road. And that’s the place where they were meeting.
And my father reported this to our mhondoro spirit, and the mhondoro said, “Move from there. Go further down.” And we moved from there. When we finished taking all our things from the village we moved to the other side of the road, and we went a little bit far away from the road.
The very same week, the soldiers came, and they burned down all the houses from our old place to the growth point. But we were lucky, because we had moved away from the road.
And my father reported this to the spirit also. And the spirit said, “OK, nothing will come again.” And that was their last time, and we didn’t see the soldiers coming again. My brothers were mujibhas, so they know better than me. I was in Harare. But I know they were okay, until the war ended.
That’s when I had a dream, while in Harare. That was 1979. In that dream, I was back at my village. It was like I wasn’t in town, I was in the village. And I saw what I was told by the dream.
There was a tall person in my dream. He was so tall that my head only came up to his knee. He said, “Do you know me?” I said, “No, I don’t know you.” So he said, “I’m Chaminuka.” I said, “Chaminuka?” He said, “Yes. I am just passing through here, and I want to tell you something.” I said, “Okay, tell me.”
And he said, “I’m coming from Geneva. The leaders of the liberation struggle are there, and they are going to rule.” I said, “Are we going to rule?” He said, “Yes, the war will be over soon.” I said, “But how did you come from there?” He said, “I came by foot.” I said, “From Geneva, walking? It’s so far away!” But then I looked at him, and I saw how long his boots were. I said, “Yes, it’s true, you can walk!”
So he said, “Yes. I need to leave you these four things: You shall rule, you shall exult, you shall forget, you shall suffer. I will leave you these four things, and you will see them.”
Yes, I saw it. I saw what happened. People didn’t realize why the war had been done. And when people had played this role of fighting, what were we going to do for the fighters? We didn’t know what to do. We were just happy, “We are ruling!” And yet there are things we should do.
I tried to think of what to do, since I was told by the dream. But there was no one to talk to about that. People were excited. We were ruling. Even those guys from the bush were excited that we had finished the war. But there were still some things that had to be done there.