Back to Index
Freedom
education - Interview with Freedom Nyamubaya
Upenyu
Makoni-Muchemwa, Kubatana.net
February 19, 2010
Read
Inside / Out with Freedom Nyamubaya
View audio file details
Freedom
Nyamubaya is a writer, poet and rural development activist. She
cut short her secondary school education to join the Zimbabwe National
Liberation Army in Mozambique in 1975. During the war she was one
of the few Female Field Operation Commanders. Later she was elected
Secretary for Education in the first ZANU Women League Conference
in 1979. She is a prolific writer, having published two volumes
of poetry: On the Road Again (Zimbabwe Publishing House, Harare,
1985) and Dusk of Dawn (College Press, Harare, 1995). More recently
her short story ‘That Special Place' was published in
Writing Still (Weaver Press, Harare. 2003.) Source: Poetry International
Why
did you leave school to join Zimbabwe National Liberation Army (ZANLA)?
There are multiple reasons. First I didn't have sufficient
school fees. When I was in Mutoko after I finished my Form Two,
that's when I heard about the comrades. I wasn't the
same person; I wanted to do something to change society. I really
wanted to be a comrade. At the time, there was a kind of fascination
with the war. It was the idea that you could change something.
How
have your experiences during the Liberation Struggle shaped who
you are today?
I think I'm blessed. If I weren't in the struggle I
wouldn't be the same person. It was an education in itself;
it was managing to live with nothing. For a girl, you are so vulnerable,
and you learn to be an adult after that. In terms of mindset, I'm
quite liberated. I can say what I feel, even when I know it doesn't
change much.
Do you
think that the situation during the war changed the status of women
within our culture?
I don't think every woman who went to war is liberated like
I am. If you were liberated then you were supposed to be the ones
who were, in Shona, we'd call them vane msikanzwa because
you are asking too much and you are questioning what is right and
what is wrong. A lot of women who went into the war are very much
inside themselves. They don't want to be reminded, or they
are scared or they don't want anyone to know about it. It's
also got to do with the way we came back. When we came back, the
men were heroes, but the women were not heroines. We were called
prostitutes and mischievous people.
Listen
What
do you think ordinary Zimbabweans should be doing to bring about
their own freedom?
From an individual perspective you should be a person who has got
goals for your life. Any girl or woman should start to think about
her life, before she thinks about getting involved with another
person. In that process you are liberating yourself. You know who
you are. If anyone wants to be in your life then you will tell him
or her your terms and they will tell you their terms.
How
did you start writing?
Before I went to war I wrote a book called Tambudzai. It was about
a lady who had problems; she was fighting all the time. I think
I was writing about myself. I sent it to the then Rhodesian Literature
Bureau. At the time I felt it was very unfair that I was bright
but that my parents could not send me to school. Those who were
not bright had parents who had money. I wondered about the justice
of God. During the war, I was one of the mischievous ones, because
of questioning. When I got there I was sent to prison for assessment
so that the comrades could make sure that Smith did not send me.
But because I was in prison, I was isolated and people did not want
to associate with me. So, because I was very lonely I started writing.
I wrote poetry and songs. I started a group and we sang Chimurenga
songs. Then I started writing because I thought we needed entertainment
and we needed to understand more about what we were doing.
What
experiences in your life have informed the way you write and what
you write about?
The published work is about the war. I write about those things
that people don't talk about. When we talk about war there
is so much emotion from the comrades. There were a lot of problems
in managing ourselves, especially with women. We needed to understand
how to cope with it. I write because I think there's a gap.
There's very little information on what a day was like in
the camps for a woman, or what was a day was like for the comrades.
Listen
What
is MOSTRUD, the organisation that you founded, and what projects
are you working on?
MOSTRUD means Management Outreach Training Services for Rural Development.
Right now MOSTRUD is involved with youths. We are doing something
called talent development. We are in the rural areas, looking at
young people who are good at sport or art. We take those individuals
and help them to become role models for their communities. There
are a lot of youths who for the past ten or fifteen years, have
been doing nothing, so they have become gold panners, or prostitutes
or cross border traders. We are looking to give them alternatives
and develop their talents.
In 2007
on National Public Radio you once expressed a wish to start your
own political party. Do you still want to do so?
I've decided to concentrate on things that I can achieve.
Politics is no longer about any ideologies, or policies, it's
not about building the country. I would like to be remembered as
somebody who contributed to the development of the youth, or the
development of Zimbabwe. Or even as someone who contributed to the
literature on the war.
Listen
Visit the Kubatana.net
fact
sheet
Audio File
- War
and the status of women
Summary:
Language: English
Duration: 9sec
Date: February 19, 2010
File Type: MP3
Size: 154KB
- Writing
and life experience
Summary:
Language: English
Duration: 20sec
Date: February 19, 2010
File Type: MP3
Size: 314KB
- Politics
Summary:
Language: English
Duration: 17sec
Date: February 19, 2010
File Type: MP3
Size: 275KB
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|