It’s dawn in Bulawayo, and a small team is already on the road. Their mission? To save pieces of Zimbabwe’s history before they fade away.
In 2025, the ZPRA Liberation Archives team logged thousands of kilometres across Zimbabwe, seeking out liberation war veterans in remote villages and bustling townships alike. With camera gear and notebooks in tow, they knocked on doors of humble homesteads and listened to living legends recount their stories of the liberation struggle. Each trip was a race against time, an effort to digitally preserve memories of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA) and ensure future generations can hear these stories firsthand.
For history lovers, this year-long journey offered a rare window into untold tales of courage, sacrifice, resilience, and also betrayal and disappointment. The highlights for the year were the August trip to Zvimba District in Mashonaland West to interviewGogo Julia Gowo, a 91-year-old grandmother who had quietly supported the liberation struggle in the 1960s and 1970s, and the drive to Osabeni Village in Mangwe District where we met Seven Dube, the legendaryIsotsha Eliphethu Mntwana. Arriving at Gogo Julia’s homestead to find her proudly clutching a long-treasured Joshua Nkomo “Father Zimbabwe” badge was heart-warming and a sign we were about to capture a priceless testimony.
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Seven Dube was famously photographed holding a baby he had saved from a bombed camp in Zambia towards the end of the liberation war, earning the nickname Isotsha eliphethe umntwana (The Soldier Carrying/Cuddling the Baby). Meeting this quiet, soft-spoken ex-combatant whose iconic picture symbolised the drive behind his comrades’ sacrifices was a very humbling experience. These were just two of many exciting expeditions.
The team crisscrossed provinces, from the bone-rattling dirt roads of Nkayi to the tarred lanes of Zvimba, all in pursuit of history. We ventured wherever stories led us, be it a distant village or a city suburb. Each stop brought us face-to-face with a veteran or witness eager to share memories.
Village courtyards became open-air studios. These trips were not glamorous as they involved long hours, potholes, dust, but they were pilgrimages of remembrance. The road trips made history feel real and local, uncovering stories hidden beyond the well-trodden paths of official narratives.
Once on site, the team’s priority is simple: let the veterans do the talking. In 2025 the ZPRA Liberation Archives recorded over 100 interviews with those who lived the liberation war. Many of these individuals had never been publicly interviewed before.
Some were former guerrilla fighters; others were unsung civilians who aided the cause. Every interview felt like opening a time capsule. For instance, Gogo Julia Gowo’s voice rang out with clarity as she described smuggling food to guerrillas and keeping ZAPU party materials hidden during crackdowns.
Despite her age, she spoke with energetic conviction: sharp, strong, and full of life, a living archive of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. The project also shone a light on overlooked heroes. Viewers heard from women fighters and supporters who had ‘carried the weight of the struggle alongside their male counterparts,’ yet seldom found their names in history books.
One episode honoured these women’s contributions, ensuring their bravery is acknowledged as an integral part of Zimbabwe’s freedom story. In another interview, a veteran known by his war name “White Tshuma” (Mceliseni Ncube) recounted his journey as a young freedom fighter from training camps abroad to guerrilla operations at home. Other memorable interviews featured the likes of Hebert “Va Nkomo” Nkomo (nicknamedEat Rugare), who shared gripping battlefield anecdotes, and Susan Ncube (war nameNokuthula Ndlovu), a female ex-combatant who described the camaraderie and challenges of life in the camps.
Each story added a new patch to the rich quilt of Zimbabwe’s liberation history. What made these encounters powerful was the emotion and detail the storytellers conveyed. Veterans spoke not only of battles and sacrifices, but also of everyday acts of solidarity such as the meals villagers cooked for fighters, the songs that lifted weary spirits, and the coded messages that kept everyone one step ahead of the enemy. As one listener remarked, these were ‘true untold stories that unite us as people,’ a refreshing antidote to the one-sided war chronicles many grew up with.
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