War vets mourn Sister Janice McLaughlin – Chimurenga’s woman of courage Sister Janice McLaughlin (right) during her exclusive interview with General Josiah Magama Tongogara and his wife

Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa

The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association has received the news of the passing on of Sister Janice McLaughlin at the New York headquarters of the Maryknoll Sisters Catholic Order with shock, sadness and pain.

Sister Janice had a deep and abiding love of Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular.

She used her devout Christian faith to boldly and fearlessly fight for the just cause of African freedom and independence.

Sister Janice first came to Rhodesia in 1977 just when the Chimurenga armed struggle of ZANLA-ZIPRA was gathering decisive momentum.

The battlefield successes of the joint guerrilla armies were stretching and pinning down the racist white Rhodesian army. Increasing clueless in defensive capacity, it resorted to heinous massacres within Zimbabwe and indiscriminate  raids of aggression targeting Mozambique and Zambia.

Sister Janice found herself in the cross hairs of Ian Smith and his generals.  Working as press secretary of the Catholic Peace and Justice Commission, she witnessed first hand the atrocities committed in rural war zones. After all the faithful followers of the Catholic Church were among the hapless victims.

Sticking to the bar set by Bishop Lamont, the Catholic Church took the lead on exposing the unfolding war crimes.

The racist regime could not countenance let alone entertain being exposed and accused by a white woman missionary of American stock.

Sister Janice was thrown into jail, then rudely expelled from Rhodesia as a lover of kaffirs and their communist sympathisers. This was after all the height of the Cold War against both Soviet Marxist Communism and the Chinese Maoist “Yellow Peril”.

Undaunted Sister Janice found her way back to Africa. Destination: Mozambique which was the rear base of ZANLA, the larger of the two guerrilla armies.

She whole-heartedly embraced our armed struggle at a time it was unimaginable for an American white woman to break ranks with the establishment in Washington.

The American foreign policy was steeped into the doctrine of Henry Kissinger. It was determined to maintain white supremacist regimes in perpetual ascendancy against the advancing national liberation movement for freedom and democracy.

The arrival of Sister Janice in Maputo created a buzz among the guerrilla camps. The political orientation bequeathed by Chairman Chitepo had taught us that much as we were fighting Rhodesia racists, our struggle was not a racial war.

What balm and vindication it was to see this woman of faith and courage come to join our ranks.

I was lucky to be part of the team that worked with Sister Janice under the direction of Comrade Webster Shamu. He was head of our party Information and Publicity Department reporting to Comrade Edison Zvobgo.

Exhibiting the sincerity of her beliefs, Sister Janice requested and was granted an exclusive interview with General Josiah Magama Tongogara. It was published for the outside world by our “Zimbabwe News’’ and aired on the Voice of Zimbabwe Radio Mozambique.

She dispelled the image of the venerated ZANLA general as “blood-thirst communist terrorist” as peddled by racist Rhodesian propaganda to a facile and gullible Western audience.

Such victories of the hearts and minds of the international audience were as important as those on the battlefield. They garnered and generated more moral and material support.

This was crucial to an armed struggle that subsisted on the charity, handout and donations of progressive nations and fair minded individuals and groups.

The cover of the Zimbabwe News that carried Sister Janice McLaughlin’s interview with Gen Tongogara

Corollary, such endorsement by the likes of Sister Janice helped raise global resentment against the practitioners of racist and apartheid minority rule regimes of Southern Africa.

The warmongers of the West that were giving succouring to this unjust political order found themselves facing mounting domestic and diplomatic pressure to cut clandestine links with Salisbury and Pretoria.

There is a premium placed on the work of faith and conviction as evinced by Sister Janice. A premium that abetted the combat effort of armed freedom fighters.

After independence, Sister Janice accepted the invitation of the newly independent Government. This time she embraced and championed the educational literacy drive that would vault Zimbabwe to star recognitions by the United Nations Cultural and Scientific Organisation-UNESCO.

She was a key member of the team that harnessed the organisational flare spawned by the war effort to the cause of building schools and training teachers across the land.

The performance of the Zimbabwe Diaspora is but a sampling of what the stupendous literacy  drive of the post-independence effort delivered to the nation and humanity at large.

Sister Janice was an amalgam of devout Christian faith married to activist engagement for the cause of  freedom, democracy and general human progress. She wrote yet another chapter for the Catholic Church and its championing the cause of justice and freedom.

As young freedom fighters at the battlefront, we took heart at the thought that we were not alone in our sacrifice for a better and more humane socio-political order. That our struggle mirrored universal and noble aspirations cutting across nation, race, religion, creed and colour.

As the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, we view Sister Janice as an example of the uniquely good that Americans can offer should they decide to promote the positive attributes reminiscent of their historical background of 18th century revolutionary credentials.

We will thus be writing to HE President Mnangagwa requesting that the ruling ZANU PF party accords due recognition and fitting status to the life of sacrifice and the immeasurable good works of Sister Janice to the cause of the national liberation movement of  Zimbabwe in particular and Africa at large.

 Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa is the chairman of Zimbabwe National War Veterans Association — ZNLWA.

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