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FOR long since the country gained independence, there had been calls for Altena Farm to be declared a national heritage site or a national monument given its symbolical in the history of the Second Chimurenga.

In a Statutory Instrument 128 of 2024 issued last week, the Ministry of Home Affairs and National Heritage declared Altena Farm and other 13 sites as national monuments.

Altena Farm is located in Mashonaland Central on the north-eastern side of Centenary Business Centre and 30km west of Mt Darwin.

It is under Chief Chiweshe Mukorekore. The farm holds a special place in the history of the country in that it was the first target to be hit by ZANLA combatants as they signalled their presence to properly start guerrilla war on December 21, 1972. 

The attack on Altena Farm occurred in the early hours of December 21, a few days before Christmas during the Second Chimurenga. 

Altena was a tobacco farm owned by Marc de Borchgrave, a white Rhodesian who was notorious for ill-treating his workers.

It was not a coincidence that the farm was targeted by the combatants as earlier reconnaissance had revealed de Borchgrave’s notoriety. The attack signified the proper beginning of the war despite occasional threats presented by guerrilla movements in Rhodesia around the 1960s. 

Rhodesian intelligence, which had been monitoring ZANLA’s activities and preparations, grew curious when they sensed a “drying up” of information from black informants over a four-week period in November 1972.

However, Rhodesian military superiors brushed off this sudden “drying up” because of their sense of superiority. They had sophisticated weaponry, which instilled a false sense of invincibility based on earlier successes. 

This false sense of invincibility was shattered when a group of 10 ZANLA fighters led by Cde Rex Nhongo attacked Altena Farm. ZANLA had planned four attacks to take place simultaneously. 

When the group of 45 ZANLA fighters entered the then Rhodesia through Dande from Mozambique, they immediately split into two groups. 

One group was led by Cde Nhongo and the other by Cde Kenneth Gwindingwi. The one led by Cde Nhongo stayed in the Centenary area, while the Gwindingwi group headed to Mutoko. 

It was unfortunate that the Mutoko group was caught up by Rhodesian forces before executing their mission. They are said to have overstayed at a dam. Some of the cadres were killed, others captured and the rest managed to escape and retreated to Mozambique.

Upon hearing of the fate of the Gwindingwi group, Cde Nhongo regrouped his squad at the summit of Mavuradonha Mountain and later split into two groups. One was led by Cde John Pedzisa and the other one by Cde David (J.V) Todhlana.

It was Cde Pedzisa’s group that managed to execute its mission timeously when in the wee hours of December 21, 1972 they attacked Altena Farm throwing the Rhodesian forces into panic mode.

The Pedzisa group had already established a presence in the Chiweshe communal lands and were armed with AK47s, hand grenades and one light machine gun.

A list of white farmers in the Centenary district was drawn up and de Borchgrave was among them. 

Around three o’clock that morning, the guerrillas cut the telephone lines and laid a land mine in the driveway. Hand grenades were also used in the attack. There was extensive damage to the farm house and Borchgrave’s eight-year-old daughter and wife incurred some serious injuries. 

Borchgrave is said to have managed to set off to neighbouring farm to seek assistance in the dead of the night. 

Having been satisfied with the attack, the ZANLA combatants retreated, but burned down the farm owner’s store during the withdrawal. 

Cde Nhongo was later stopped and questioned by some members of the British South African Police, but was let off as his identity documents were in order and had no weapons with him. 

The significance of the Altena attack is seen in the manner in which the Rhodesian Forces reacted. They tried to pursue the retreating combatants, but failed to locate them. They only managed to get hold of two young local recruits who out of inexperience had hidden in some caves. They were captured and tied to a helicopter, flown around the area until they died. This brutal and barbaric act was meant to deter locals from supporting the guerrilla fighters.

Despite this public display of brutality, the Rhodesian forces still failed to get information on the whereabouts of the ZANLA fighters that had attacked Altena Farm.

It was clear that the fighters had endeared themselves with the local community.

It was the attack on Altena Farm and the failure by the Rhodesian forces to solicit credible information on the movements of the ZANLA combatants that a decision was made to launch Operation Overload.

Operation Overload was specifically undertaken to block the advances of ZANLA combatants from the Chiweshe area towards the then Salisbury, the capital of Rhodesia in early 1974. Collected punishment had earlier on been inflicted on the local populace in 1973 when the Rhodesian regime herded people into “protected villages”, which they infamously named “Keeps”.

Over 49 960 local people of the Chiweshe Tribal Trust Land were forced into 21 “protected villages” to try to cut off contact with the freedom fighters. 

Rhodesian security forces transported villagers to the “Keeps” where they were required to build new homes with materials salvaged from their original homesteads. All homesteads in evacuated areas were destroyed and the villagers were not compensated. The relocations were completed on August 15, 1974. The situation in “Keeps” was deplorable. They were overcrowded with no sanitation facilities leading to outbreak of diseases.

A similar evacuation operation was launched in Madziva area where 13 500 villagers were relocated into eight “protected villages.”

All these desperate measures by Rhodesian Forces failed to stop the war momentum that had spread out in the Chiweshe, Mt Darwin and beyond. The Altena Farm had ignited a revolutionary flame that the Rhodesian struggled to extinguish. The war was to spread throughout the country with thousands of sons and daughters of the soil volunteering to join the war.

It is these sons and daughters that Zimbabweans would be paying homage to on August 12 as the nation commemorate Heroes Day. And in paying tribute to the role played by Mashonaland Central as a province, President Mnangagwa said the “province bore the longest brunt of our liberation struggle, even then without flinching.” 

President Mnangagwa said this during last year’s Independence Celebrations that were held in Mt Darwin, Mashonaland Central. On the Altena attack, the President said “it was a fitting reminder of where the decisive phase of our struggle began.”

“Current and future generations, must know through Altena and more such landmarks which this province carries, heroic sacrifices of a brave generation which brought us independence,” President Mnangagwa said.

The declaration of Altena Farm as a national monument is the fulfilment of President Mnangagwa’s desire to ensure that such places of historical significance remain etched in the people’s minds for eternity. It is such sites that bestows rootedness in the people to resist any machinations meant to undermine the country’s hard won independence.