Someone Wishes to Speak to You

by Jeremy Mallinson

  ‘You see Addie,’ he said rather shyly in an attempt to avoid any misunderstandings and to be as pragmatic as possible, ‘I do very much enjoy your company, and would indeed like to see you again, but in this state of mind I just don’t think I can handle a relationship. I genuinely hope we can become the best of friends.’

  Addie greatly appreciated Mathew’s frankness and spontaneously, and gave him another generous kiss. With a smile that highlighted the two attractive dimples on her cheeks, she confirmed that she too would be very happy to develop a friendship without romantic complications.

  By midday they returned to the park’s headquarters, where they found the Group Captain and Montgomery sipping a cool glass of Castle lager. As Addie’s father had so much enjoyed his conversation with the park’s director, he had asked him to join them for lunch. ‘I would be delighted to accept,’ said Montgomery. ‘The Leopard Rock is renowned for its five-course Sunday lunches, they do an English carvery – roast beef, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings – all the trimmings, as they say. It’s got such a good reputation, people come from as far away as Hot Springs and Melsetter.’

  During the course of the meal, the majority of the conversation between Montgomery and the Group Captain was about the ramifications of the UN trade sanctions against Rhodesia. In particular, how these had affected tourism; the significant loss of revenue from admission fees to the country’s extensive network of national parks was starting to cause a shortfall in meeting the day-to-day running costs. Mathew, not wishing to become involved with the political pros and cons of the UN sanctions strategy, spent the majority of his time responding to a flow of enthusiastic questions from Addie, who wanted to know as much as possible about what he was hoping to establish in the long term from the monkey groups that he was working with.

  When they moved into the lounge to have coffee, Montgomery started to talk about the slippage of the Portuguese security presence in Mozambique and the joint operations that were increasingly frequently taking place across the border between Rhodesia’s security forces (which included the expertly trained counter-insurgency specialists, the Selous Scouts), and the Portuguese army, against both ZANLA and FRELIMO.

  ‘Because of all these joint operations against the freedom fighters going on across the border,’ said Montgomery, ‘the Parks Department Head Office in Salisbury sent out a publication called Anatomy of Terror from the Ministry of Information. Basically, it’s a short history of insurgency terror tactics from 1972 to 1974, with numerous illustrations of some of the atrocities, quite horrendous. Although obviously it’s a propaganda tool to highlight what Rhodesians are now having to deal with, it’s also designed to alert those living in rural areas to be constantly on their guard and to inform the BSAP or local security forces about anything suspicious in their vicinity.’

  ‘Do you think Umtali or this area of the Vumba mountains may be in current danger from terrorist attacks?’ asked Addie.

  ‘I shouldn’t think so,’ replied Montgomery. ‘Not at this stage, but who knows what will happen in the future?’ The happy mood of the party had become more melancholy and in an attempt to deviate from the seriousness of Rhodesia’s escalating Bush War, Montgomery tried to take a slightly different angle. ‘It was only a couple of years ago, July 1972, that I had the opportunity to speak to Lieutenant General Peter Walls, the officer commanding the Rhodesian forces, about the security measures that he had organised for this border region of southeastern Rhodesia. I was very pleased to be able to tell him first-hand as a resident of the Vumba how effective the security forces had been against terrorist attacks.’

  ‘And long may it continue!’ said Addie.

  ‘Indeed. The occasion in question was when General Walls was invited as guest of honour at Plumtree School’s speech day to celebrate its seventieth birthday. We are both alumni of Plumtree – otherwise known as Old Prunitians. During his speech, the general highlighted the problems that Rhodesia was now facing due to what he considered to be the totally unjustified and unwarranted sanctions that had been forced on the country by the United Nations.’

  A waiter came in to refill their coffee cups, causing Montgomery to pause just as Mathew was beginning to worry that the conversation was returning to the UN sanctions. ‘So you think General Walls is employing the right tactics to tackle this cross-border insurgency?’ he asked.

  ‘His measures seem to have been effective so far. Another interesting point General Walls made in his speech was that for the good and future welfare of all Rhodesian citizens, whether European or Africans, it is of huge importance for both communities to do everything possible to act together in order to combat future terrorist incursions and possible tribal conflict.’

  With such food for thought, the time had come for Addie and the Group Captain to make their respective ways home in order to reach their destinations before nightfall. Mathew could at least be satisfied in the knowledge that he had been honest with Addie and hoped that though in its infancy, the seeds of a genuine friendship had been sown.

  6

  Chief Chidzikwee

  On 25 April 1974, a left-wing military coup ousted the right-wing dictatorship of the Portuguese Prime Minister, Marcello Caetano, which immediately threw into doubt the future of Portuguese overseas provinces, in particular Angola and Mozambique. While Ian Smith’s government was attempting to settle with the British and Rhodesia’s African nationalist opponents (ZANU), FRELIMO Marxist armed troops fighting against the Portuguese took advantage of the crossing of the Zambezi River in the Tete Province of Mozambique.

  The presence of FRELIMO along Rhodesia’s eastern frontiers meant that ZANLA, the armed wing of ZANU, had a safe haven in Mozambique from which to penetrate the adjacent tribal areas and so access the white farming areas of the region. During the latter part of the year, insurgency activities started to escalate Rhodesia’s Bush War on its eastern borders. When Mozambique obtained its independence from Portugal on 25 June 1975, further concerns were raised when President Samora Machel’s Marxist regime proclaimed a republic, with houses and businesses declared to be state owned, which resulted in a constant flow of Portuguese refugees crossing the border into Rhodesia.

  During Mathew’s first year in the Vumba Mountains, he developed many friendships within both the European and African communities. His friends included a number of staff from the small Umtali Museum, who helped him to identify various plant and invertebrate species, and the vets and laboratory staff who analysed the samples he sent on a weekly basis. Through Edgar Chidzikwee and Joshua Dombo, he gained a workable knowledge of the Manyika language and took the opportunity to meet a number of their friends.

  Umtali had first come to the notice of both the Portuguese and British colonial powers in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when prospectors discovered gold in the Penhalonga Valley. Both nations were vying for the attention and favour of Chief Mutasa, the dominant ruler in the area. The name Umtali is derived from the local word mutare, meaning ‘piece of metal’. Following the granting of concessions by Chief Mutasa, a group of pioneers and a contingent of British South Africa Company (BSAC) police built a fort close to the chief’s kraal in November 1890. During the next decade a police camp was established, an administrative building erected in the township headed by a Civil Commissioner and, after an Anglo/Portuguese treaty, a rail link between the eastern coastal port of Beira in Mozambique and Salisbury was started in 1897.

  George Pauling (a British engineer working for BSAC, which had acquired the construction rights) completed the rail link from Beira to a point on the boundary of British territory, but was then confronted by a major geographical hurdle. How could a train negotiate the steep gradient of Christmas Pass to reach Umtali? The township was 10 km north-west of the pass in the Penhalonga Valley. After having advised Cecil Rhodes (Prime Minister of the Cape at that time) of this dilemma, Rhodes visited Umtali and it was decided to relocate the small township 15 km south-east of Christmas Pass where t
he railway could service the settlement and continue its construction onwards to Salisbury. In 1902, the first part of Cecil Rhodes’ dream was achieved when his planned ‘Cape to Cairo’ railway reached Salisbury from the Cape via Bulawayo, a through link of over 2,000 miles connecting Cape Town with Beira.

  The new town of Umtali was surrounded on three sides by mountains, with Christmas Pass to the north-west, the main route to Salisbury. The township attained its city status in October 1971 and had recently become the centre of extensive commercial forestry operations, as well as agriculture involving the production of coffee, tea, and the cultivation of a range of deciduous fruit. The new Cecil Hotel had only recently been completed to replace the original building next door. With the expected increase of ZANLA activities from across the border, Rhodesia’s military presence in the region had been significantly supplemented by territorials and the old Cecil Hotel building had been taken over as the official headquarters of 3 Brigade (Manicaland).

  Whenever Mathew visited Umtali to deliver his various samples or collect provisions, he either lunched at the Cecil Hotel or at the Umtali Sports Club, of which he had become a member. On these occasions, Mathew would take the opportunity to play tennis with staff attached to either the Provincial Commissioner’s (Manicaland) headquarters, or the District Commissioner’s office in Umtali. He became particularly good friends with a District Officer (DO), Jerome Prior, who was responsible for the area that included the Vumba Mountains. Jerome, known to his friends as Jim, had been educated at England’s oldest public school, the King’s School, Canterbury and Hertford College, Oxford before going to Rhodesia just prior to the country’s UDI. He had immediately fallen in love with his adopted home and fully concurred with the frequently quoted comment that Rhodesia was ‘God’s Own Country’. They not only played tennis together on a monthly basis, but Jim had also shown considerable interest in Mathew’s primate comparative field studies and, whenever he undertook one of his regular tours of duty in the Vumba area, he always visited the Castle Beacon camp.

  Now that the threat of terrorist insurgency was deepening, Mathew was aware of the many changes that were taking place in Umtali. During the last twelve months, the relaxed attitude of its citizens had become more apprehensive and despondent. The majority of customers in the bars of the Cecil Hotel and the Umtali Sports Club were members of the military security forces from the Rhodesia Light Infantry (RLI) and BSAP personnel, which included officers of the CIO. At these venues, Mathew found that (in spite of a new emphasis on self-censorship) the conversation usually centred around recent terrorist incursions from across the border and how best to combat the insurgency resulting from the recent escalation of the Bush War.

  Although Mathew had been frequently asked about his views on the Royal Navy’s blockade of Beira in connection with the UN international trade embargo on Rhodesia, he did everything possible to remain totally apolitical on all such matters. At times, he could not help thinking that if the worst possible scenario were to occur, with the Western powers being pressurised by the African Commonwealth countries to invade the country in order to overthrow the Smith regime, how ironic it would be should his brother’s Household Brigade of Life Guards become involved. In particular, with British forces having to fight against so many of their fellow countrymen, the majority of whom had either come out to the colony of Southern Rhodesia from the UK with their parents, or had more recently emigrated to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (FR&N) to settle. The majority of these immigrants considered they were there to help with the development of the country into a significant trading partner for the UK and other Commonwealth countries.

  Edgar Chidzikwee was the second son of a tribal chieftain, a distant descendant of Chief Mutasa. Mathew’s first meeting with Chief Chidzikwee took place at the beginning of 1975 at one of the Tribal Trust Lands (TTLs), known as Mutasa North. The tribal area of the Umtali district stretched from the north-west to the south-west of the city, a large tract of land prescribed by law to be used and occupied exclusively by the black population of the region.

  Before the meeting, Edgar gave Mathew some background information about the traditional hostility that there had always been between the Ndebele tribal chiefs in Matabeleland and the Shona tribes of the eastern part of Rhodesia, and the various degrees of conflict within the Shona sub-ethnicities.

  Chief Jeremiah Chidzikwee lived in a small, whitewashed bungalow with a red-painted corrugated-iron roof, within the midst of an assortment of thatch-plumed windowless rondavels. The kraals were surrounded by the ubiquitous poultry, enjoying dust baths or scratching the earth in an attempt to locate any previously overlooked morsels. As Mathew’s Land Rover drew up in front of the chief’s house, an assortment of skinny mongrel dogs got up from their midday slumbers in the shade to start a chorus of barking, while a number of scantily dressed children gathered around the vehicle to see who had arrived within their midst. Two spiky acacia trees stood like sentries on either side of the steps leading up to the small, mosquito-netted veranda, and a boulder-strewn tall kopje acted as a backdrop to the bungalow, flanked on either side by tall strands of yellow elephant grass.

  Edgar introduced Mathew to his father at the foot of the steps. ‘Mangwanani,’ said Mathew, making the traditional Shona greeting. The chief took his hand in a vice-like grip and led him into the bungalow. ‘Meet Emmanuel, my eldest son,’ said Chief Chidzikwee in a clear English accent (which came as a relief to Mathew as his limited Manyika would not have allowed a very fluent conversation). He went on to introduce a number of his extended family, although there were no women present. ‘Can I offer you a glass of the village-brewed “seven days” beer?’ asked the chief. ‘We make it by simmering maize and rapoon millet with well water. Or you may prefer a bottle of the European Castle lager – it doesn’t taste as good, but it’s up to you.’ Wishing to be as polite as possible, Mathew opted somewhat apprehensively for a glass of the home-brewed ‘seven days’ beer, in the hope that it would be sufficiently palatable for him to consume without any undue mishap.

  The chief was a well-built man, over six feet tall with skin as dark as coal and eyes set back in deep sockets of loose skin. He was wearing a Western-style navy-blue pinstriped suit, a white shirt with a maroon silk tie with a matching handkerchief loosely hanging out of his top pocket. His highly polished black shoes demonstrated how well he wished to present himself when he was receiving a respected visitor. Edgar had said that he had told his father a great deal about why Mathew was in Manicaland, and why he had decided to undertake his studies in Castle Beacon, but despite this, the chief maintained a steady flow of questions.

  At the start of their conversation, Mathew found it quite unnerving that the chief’s rather bloodshot eyes never for one moment left his own, set as they were in deep sockets behind the thick lenses of his horn-rimmed glasses. Mathew found it impossible to decipher the chief’s expressions in order to identify his mood or his thoughts. ‘So tell me,’ asked the chief, ‘what is your main reason for having chosen the Vumba Mountains for your studies?’ He could not help feeling that his host was trying to establish whether his reason for being in this border region with Mozambique was genuine, or whether he was carrying out his field investigation as a front to cover the fact that he was subversively involved with counter-insurgency activities with the BSAP, or acting as an agent reporting to the Umtali headquarters of the CIO and the RLI.

  ‘The rest of you, go now. I wish to speak alone with Dr Duncan,’ said the chief to his sons and other family as he refilled Mathew’s glass for the second time. Once the others had left, the chief came straight to the point. ‘When you first arrived and set up camp, I received a brief report about you from one of my Shona/Manyika tribal informers. I read that on your arrival in Rhodesia, you stayed in Salisbury at the residence of the UK Senior Representative in Rhodesia; you have been seen with the Curator of the Victoria Museum; you had a meeting with a professor at the University of Rhodesia; and before
you came here, you did some field work in Zaire. I have now received a subsequent report about you, which states that while you were studying at a university in the USA you were actively involved in the Civil Rights movement. You are known to be a liberal-minded European.’

  Mathew was extremely surprised to hear such a résumé of his background, but considered at this stage of his relationship with the chief that it would be inappropriate to ask him where and from whom he had managed to glean so much correct information. As the chief revealed to his guest just how much he already knew about his background, he carefully watched Mathew’s every reaction to what he said. Chief Chidzikwee suddenly moved his chair closer and, staring straight at Mathew, said, ‘Does your presence in Manicaland have any other objectives but those connected with your academic studies?’ Mathew quickly responded to this politically loaded question.

  ‘Chief Chidzikwee, as with my time in Zaire – where I was also fortunate enough to be granted a visa and a permit to undertake field work – I had been preoccupied with my PhD studies and did not wish in any way to become involved with the politics of a foreign country. . . I always share the results of my research activities with the relevant authorities of the country in which I’m studying.’ After a slight pause, the chief rose from his chair, grabbed Mathew’s right hand firmly with both of his and enthusiastically pumped it up and down. ‘Everything my son Edgar has told me about you is true! He calls you his young eccentric British gentleman of a friend, whose only apparent interest in life appears to be the monkeys that he spends so much of his time studying.’

  Before Emmanuel and Edgar rejoined their father and Mathew on the veranda, the chief mentioned in the strictest of confidence his concern about the increased level of terrorist insurgency from across the border. ‘Some of ZANLA’s freedom fighters have started to come in to the villages of the region, putting pressure on some of the younger members of the tribal communities in Manicaland to become directly involved with their terrorist activities. Ten months ago Herbert Chitepo, the National Chairman of ZANU, was murdered – I was educated with him at St Augustine’s Mission School at Penhalonga. As far as I am concerned, Chitepo’s death was the consequence of the mutual suspicions among the tribal groups within ZANU. His murder represents the climax of the struggle for power between the Manyika and Karanga Shona tribes; his death has led to the Karanga becoming supreme in the party’s command.’