The story of Elias Chirambai, alias Cde Jikinya Masendeke
MY name is Elias Chirambai, and this is my story.

I was born on March 27 1957 in Chirambai Village under Chief Murinye, Masvingo Province.
I did my primary education at Muchemwa Primary School. In 1971, I dropped out of school due to financial constraints. Thereafter, I relocated to Gweru, then Gwelo, where I secured a job as a gardener.
In September of 1971, my white Rhode-sian employer took me on a fishing expe-dition to Gwemhuru Dam.
In the course of his fishing, my boss’ line snagged on a submerged log and he forced me to jump into the crocodile infested dam to unhook it.
Fearing for my life, I put up some resistance, but he pulled out a pistol and threatened to shoot me.
I had no option but to wade into the croc-infested waters. Fortunately, I man-aged to free the hook without harm from the man-eating reptiles.
That incident gave rise to my hatred for the whites. I quit my job shortly afterwards and relocated to Harare, then Salisbury, where I secured a job, again as a gardener, in Waterfalls.

some youths, among them Alexio and Jimmy Madzvara, from Mount Darwin who told me about the exploits of freedom fighters operating in their home area. Their stories not only fascinated me but heightened my interest to join the liberation struggle.
In January 1977, with the little savings we had squirrelIed away, Jimmy Madzvara and I embarked our long journey to Mozambique to join the liberation struggle.
We boarded a bus to Mutare before proceeding to Tamandai, Chipinge, a few kilometres from the border with Mozambique.
We crossed the border under cover of darknesss without incident.
Along the way, we met a cattle herd-er, who told us that boys and girls who crossed into Mozambique to join ZANLA forces sought assistance from a tradition-al leader by the name Chengozi Mupedza-hasha.
We stayed at Chengozi’s homestead for a week before FRELIMO soldiers came to pick us up during their routine operations along the border. We were interrogated by the FRELIMO soldiers before they took us to Madhafu, a ZANLA transit base, where we met fellow recruits.
From Madhafu we walked to Doiroi where we found ourselves in the company of yet more ZANLA recruits, awaiting to go to either Tembwe or Chimoio for mili-tary training.
I finally got the opportunity to go to Tembwe after six months of waiting.
I received my three-month military training at Tembwe before I was deployed to ZANLA’s Manica War Province where I operated in Rusape detachment.
Whilst at our base on Mutoko Moun-tain, a mujibha or war collaborator ar-rived with information to the effect that Rhodies were drinking beer at Dohwa shops.
Armed with that information, Cdes Black September, Wellington, Santana, Simbai, Chisara and myself planned an ambush.
We asked one of the mujibhas to act as a double spy, that is, to report our pres-ence to the Rhodesian soldiers.
The gods must have been smiling on us as things went according to plan. Un-fortunately, we met the Rhodies before we reached our ambush site a few metres from Nyatanga homestead.
Here, there was an exchange of heavy gunfire for about 20 minutes.
My fellow comrade, who was in charge of the mortar 60, was hit after shelling twice at the enemy and was badly injured.
I covered my fellow comrade’s retreat to a huge muonde tree about 20 metres away. Fire suddenly ceased from the enemy’s side and this gave me the opportunity to carry off my injured comrade to safety.
I met Cde Simbai who helped me carry a fellow comrade out of the contact zone.
After walking for about three kilome-tres we came across a young man who was in a state of panic and hiding under his firewood-laden scotchcart.
We asked the young man to ferry our injured comrade to the village. But no sooner had he fulfilled this mission than the sky was filled with ugly killing ma-chines — about four helicopters and two fighter jets.
The Rhodies’ reinforcements from Grand Reef in Mutare had arrived. And soon bombs were raining on Nyatanga homestead.
We did our best to maintain our posi-tions and did not return fire as we were now hopelessly outnumbered.
The bombardment lasted of about 30 minutes before quiet returned to the countryside. Despite the heavy bombard-ment we suffered only one casualty.
The death toll on the Rhodies’ side was much higher. According to our mujibha, at least eight Rhodesian soldiers perished in the encounter.
Cde Simbai and I found our away to the gathering point where we were reunited with fellow combatants.
Compiled by Emergencey Mwale-Kamtande