Yithi Laba

In Yithi Laba, the author adds a highly original and eye-opening chapter to Zimbabwe's liberation struggle history. Drawing on richly detailed interviews and a host of vivid photographs, the book traces the stories of ZPRA's women soldiers, from the first pioneering group of nine, trained as equals to men in camps at Mwembeshi, Mgagao and Morogoro, to the many hundreds trained in Mkushi camp who would later make up the women's brigade. These are proud, painful tales of young women who made their way to Zambia in the midst of war, and who became formidable soldiers - technically expert, politically astute, and physically powerful. ZAPU did not send its trained women to the Zimbabwean front. Their contribution to Zimbabwe's liberation struggle was nonetheless immense, and recognition is long overdue. ZPRA's women soldiers were subjected to the brutal terrors of Rhodesian air force bombings, terrible experiences which they recount here, and which still haunt their lives. Women also served in a host of specialist military and political roles, including as instructors and in security, intelligence, and administration, amidst a male-dominated war. The author has done us a great favour in bringing together these accounts in an extraordinary, collective story.