Any child born on Zimbabwe’s soil has the right to an identity and hence that has to be accompanied with a birth certificate and a national registration card when they reach the legal age of majority.
Saturday Dialogue with Ropafadzo Mapimhidze
But this is not so for some, especially those that were sired at pungwes (night-long political mobilisation rallies) or assembly points during and after the war that liberated Zimbabwe. Some of these children are a result of rape by either white Rhodesian forces or former Zanla and Zipra combatants.
Although political parties that perpetrated that abuse will not admit openly, it is a fact that we have families that now have adult children that do not know who their fathers are. This is traumatic for both the mother and child who sometimes are stigmatised by friends, family and communities they live in.
A story in our sister newspaper Southern Eye this week carried a rather sad story about scores of children fathered by former Zipra fighters that operated in Makonde, Mashonaland West, at the height of the liberation struggle, who were battling to acquire birth certificates.
Kindnesss Paradza, MP for Makonde, noted that Zipra’s second largest base camp was located in his area of jurisdiction leaving such children in the sole custody of their maternal relatives.
These children, who are at least aged 30 or above, are going about their lives without any form of identification, because there is no political will to solve this problem.
No party wants to admit that these crimes against humanity were committed by our people and the enemy alike, hence these people are non-existent as they are not registered as citizens of this wonderful nation.
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So does this mean that these young adults have never been enrolled for school because a birth certificate is a prerequisite for anyone wanting to attend any educational institution?
Paradza read a letter from Locadia Kutamirepi Chigaro who wanted the government to remember women who made sacrifices during the war of liberation where some of them were either sexually abused or impregnated by guerillas. These women, the letter said, contributed to the war of liberation as war collaborators (chimbwidos), who cooked and ensured that these fighters were fed during the liberation struggle.
But these night vigils did not end as just feeding points because some of these women were abused sexually, leaving them pregnant. The sad thing, however, is that most of these men used pseudonyms and it would be difficult to trace them now. Some caring men, however, after demobilisation traced these women and married them. But for the majority, it was a nightmare raising a child born from such circumstances.
I remember vividly in September 1981, as I was walking around a shop called Woolworths near Linquenda House in Harare, with a cousin, when we both witnessed a scene that has remained imprinted in my brain.
We came across a woman who was yelling at the top of her voice telling a smartly dressed civil servant that he was the man that raped her repeatedly at some assembly point, leaving her pregnant.
They initially had frozen looks as they approached each other, when the woman decided to scream in anger. A scuffle ensued as the woman kept saying that she had his child. This particular man had been demobilised after spending years in the bush and finally returned home via Dzapasi Assembly Point in Buhera District.
The woman yelled so much that police came and whisked the pair away because people had now gathered at the entrance of this departmental store as the drama unfolded. I don’t know what happened thereafter, but judging from comments that arose from “spectators”, it was clear that there are many women out there that had been left with serious emotional and psychological scars stemming from sexual abuse by these ex-fighters.
This is a matter that has, however, not been dealt with effectively by the present government.
There is need for survivors of this abuse to open up and probably receive counselling.
Identity is a very pertinent issue for Africans, especially Zimbabweans that boast about their cultural and parentage heritage.
Surely, there must be people out there who will remember these comrades by the mere mention of these pseudonyms. This is an issue that is widespread in areas where assembly points were located during the ceasefire period and it is imperative for government, through the Organ on National Healing and Reconciliation, to tackle these matters.
There is also another aspect to these cases where some of these women have also experienced repeated sexual violence during the 2000 post-election era.
One woman from Mutoko said, in an interview in 2008, that she was sexually assaulted during all elections held after 2000, following formation of the MDC.
A July 2012 report by the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) confirmed that security of women during elections remained the biggest gender concern.
The spectre of sexual violence as a form of punishment is not a new phenomenon in Zimbabwe, but a continuation of old tactics used during the liberation struggle. Often, rape is systemically used to target male political activists through their spouses, the report says. The majority of men who had their wives raped in politically motivated circumstances usually divorced them once they got to know about it.
Their decisions are motivated by societal reactions to rape, where the woman is usually accused of having invited the act upon herself. In very few and rare cases does a man stand by his wife.
Although men also face sexual violence like sodomy during such periods, they are not willing to talk about their experiences, but open up when asked whether their spouses were victims. Thank you Honourable Paradza for raising this matter.
