A collection of personal diaries believed to belong to the late ZANLA commander, Josiah Magama Tongogara, have emerged nearly four decades after the much-feared—but wildly loved—liberation war fighter died in circumstances that are still a mystery.
The diaries went missing after Tongogara’s death in December 1979 in what officially has been reported as a road traffic accident, although it is widely believed that his colleagues eliminated the general as part of a tussle for key positions in an Independent Zimbabwe. “I can confirm that a collection of diaries has been brought to us by someone whose late uncle was a big someone within the system,” a senior war veteran source said.
“From what we have established, when Tongogara was killed, the diaries were removed from his personal things and were kept by a very senior somebody within the system and when that somebody also died in mysterious circumstances, these diaries ended up being picked up by a relative who became very curious, especially after he kept having dreams of Tongogara instructing him to take the diaries to the leadership of war veterans “when the time is right” so that the nation can know how he died,” said the respected war veteran who was expecting to be arrested as part of President Robert Mugabe’s orders to crush any dissent against his misrule. The diaries are emerging at a time when the war veterans have “rebelled” against Mugabe’s leadership, exposing him for the ruthless dictator that for many years ordinary Zimbabweans have known him to be.
The diaries also come just before the nation celebrates Heroes’ holiday. In her book, Re-living the Second Chimurenga, war veteran and former Cabinet minister, Fay Chung, who collected Tongogara’s personal effects after his arrest by Zambian authorities on suspicion of his alleged role in the death of ZANU chairman, Herbert Chitepo, and smuggled them to camps in Mozambique, said Tongo methodologically recorded each and every important and personal event that took place during the war. After Tongo’s death, the several volumes of these personal diaries disappeared. The diaries could shed light on a number of events that have remained shrouded in mystery. “From the diary, Tongogara new that his death was given. The last entry in the last diary was made on December 22, 1979,” the war veteran source said.
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