Are Chiwenga’s actions explainable through examining the mind of an Ex Military Man?

By Dr Brighton Chireka

As we all do what we can to mark the festive season – Marry Chiwenga is languishing in prison with her bail hearing postponed. One would have thought that being the wife albeit estranged, of a Vice President she would be spared this traumatic experience. Alas for Mary the complete opposite is true. Her marriage to the Vice President seems now the reason why she is still in prison.

Many people are wondering how can a husband do this to his wife. Most reasonable people would wonder why one would not just divorce someone but would go the extent of getting them arrested and allegedly take her children away as well.

In searching for a reason I have tried to understand the mind of Vice President Chiwenga particularly through his experiences as an ex military man as I am sure these have played a part in shaping the man we see today.

To allow me to do this I want you to come with me to January 1987 to Rusununguko High School near Marondera in Zimbabwe, there I was as a new student starting my form one education. My father took me to the school and as soon as he left I was in tears. The tears were not of missing my parents but it was tears of fear of what I saw. I saw “big men and women” who were fit to be teachers but were students. Some of them were old enough to be my parents.

My fear quickly ended as most of these seniors students were very friendly to us new students. We called each other comrade but those seniors students we called them Mukoma ( Brother). I got on well with most of them and was intrigued by their stories about the liberation war. Some of these senior students were refugees that were in Mozambique and some of them were war veterans that took part in our liberation struggle.

Our school was one of the eight pilot schools for Zimbabwe for foundation for education with production (ZIMFEP) programme which was initiated by the first Minister of Education and Culture, Dzingai Mutumbuka. Mutumbuka argued that there was little relationship between what is learnt in school and real life problems. He did not like the gap that separated theoretical knowledge from its practical application.

Zimfep was set up from experiences in the refugee camps during the armed struggle as a non governmental organisation to experiment with the concept of Education With Production ( EWP) at eight farm-based pilot schools in 1981 and our school was one of them. These schools initially catered for educational needs of returning refugees and war veterans but later provided education to the general population of school children which enabled us to join the school.

The raising of the flag was a special occasion. The war veterans would march to the flag post and raise the flag . No one was allowed to walk during that process. This was called “gosawo”. Anyone who was caught walking around during the raising of the national flag would be punished severely.

Some of the war veterans would use military techniques to punish us if we violate the rules associated with the raising of the flag. The punishment that some of these ex combatants would mete out at students who would have failed to stand at “ attention” during the raising of the flag was shocking. They would treat these students as if their were “ sellouts “ during the war.

No students dare break the rules as no one would want to be subject of disciplinary action of some of these ex-combatants as they knew no limits. This made me join the war veterans in raising of the flag and I would march with them. I was taken to the nearby bush for training on how to raise the flag. This helped me to understand some of their thinking and why they did some of the things that they did.

I listened with interest to the stories that these war veterans were telling me . I was disturbed to notice that some of them were psychologically affected by their experiences during the armed struggle. Sadly no psychological help was available for them at our school. A handful would fight among themselves and no teacher would be able to stop the fights. Looking back now I can see that some of the war veterans were suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The effects of war were silently felt at Rusununguko and sadly no one took notice of this. Most of the war veterans that were at Rusununguko High School did not pass their Ordinary Level examinations. Only less than a dozen went for Advanced level out of a group of about 200 students. These war veterans and former refugees were capable of getting good grades had they received the necessary support that involved psychological help as some had signs and symptoms of PTSD.

It is important to take a good look at PTSD so that we can understand why some of the war veterans that are affected may behave in the way they do. This is in no way trying to justify their actions but it is my argument that they need psychological help. That help is long overdue and is now affecting our country as we are led by some people who are not for want of a better term psychologically stable.

PTSD is sometimes known as shell shock or combat stress, it occurs after one experiences severe trauma or life- threatening event. One becomes stuck and is unable to move from the event. People with PTSD may have the following symptoms: I will use war as an example of the traumatic event.

1- One may have recurrent intrusive reminders of the event like war . They will be having distressing thoughts , nightmares and flashbacks where they feel for example that the war is happening again.

2- One may try to avoid anything that remind them of the war including people , places , thoughts or situations associated with war. These people may withdraw from family and friends and lose interest in everyday activities.

3- One may have negative thoughts about themselves and the world . They may feel guilty , fearful or shameful.

4- One may be on the guard all the time , jumpy and emotionally reactive. They will be easily irritable , angry , reckless behaviour, difficulty in sleeping or concentrating and are hyper-vigilant.

I have met some war veterans who have some of the symptoms mentioned above and the sad thing is that our country has no programme to help them. WaMagaisa in his article ‘The trauma of war and its lasting effects’ said that, “Both the victor and the vanquished have to deal with the demons of war that haunt body and mind long after it ended”

WaMagaisa argues that the failure to effectively rehabilitate war veterans is contributing to the challengers we face as a country since 1980. Those who are governing us have a lot of unresolved issues from the war that is affecting their behaviour and the way they govern us. WaMagaisa argues that we should have been programmes to treat the War Veterans of PSTD.

We have had the War Veterans Compensation Fund. It is public knowledge that the War Veterans Compensation Fund was looted by the political elites with the help of the late Dr Chenjerai Hunzi. Sadly this fund was never used to support the psychological well-being of the war veterans.

Even the political elites that benefited from the fund never sought psychological help or invested in the mental health services . As I write this article we have only 12 psychiatrists working in the government which shows how we do not value our mental health as a nation.

Research all over the world has shown that war veterans experience higher levels of marital instability across their lifespan. If the veteran’s current spouse was not exposed to the wartime service , then the spouses’ lack of knowledge or understanding of their experiences may complicate their communication. In other words I am saying it was going to be a matter of time before Vice President Chiwenga and Mary part ways.

But what of his extreme ensuing actions? Research on war veterans have noted that a decline in physical health may trigger aging veterans to re-engage with their wartime experiences. One can argue that Vice President Chiwenga is going through a similar process and one hopes that he is getting the psychologically help that he needs.

Women married to war veterans have a challenge in that some may not know how to deal with them. Wives may use restrictive communication such as changing the topics away from the husbands ‘ concerns.

War veterans may want to talk about their experiences during the war so they find the restrictive communication by their wives as a sign of not caring and this increases their distress. Ideally wives of war veterans should be trained on how to communicate or interact with their husbands.

Studies by Davison and his team in 2016 proposed a phenomenon called Later Adulthood Trauma Reengagement ( LATR). They propose that most affected war veterans in later life ( 60 years and above) adaptively re-engage or perhaps engage for the first time , with their wartime memories in an effort to find meaning and build coherence.

During this process some war veterans may successfully resolve their past which leads to acceptance , understanding and development of wisdom. Sadly some affected war veterans fail to resolve their past experiences leading to despair or depression.

War veterans affected need psychological help in order to carry out life review. During life review older people reflect on their life experiences in a structured way. They confront , with through and meaningfully integrate painful memories such as those trauma , into self understanding. When individuals can identify meaning in the aftermath of a threatening experience, they tend to be better adjusted psychologically.

We know that in later life many combat Veterans are confronting and adaptively reworking their wartime memories in an effort to find meaning and build coherence and they need psychological help to manage this .Recognising when Veterans are engaged in the LATR process represents an opportunity for those working with these Veterans to offer them different modalities of assistance if warranted (e.g., psychoeducational, psychotherapeutic ) in order to maximise healthy aging.

As a country we need to look at how our war veterans are re-engaging with their past military experience. There is need for psycho educational or psychotherapeutic interventions to help our war veterans age healthily.

It is my argument that we are being led by some people that have had military experience but were not fully integrated into society and also we have not prepared them for LART.

We are now suffering as a nation because of this oversight. We have witnessed the way the crisis of doctors was handled . We also witness the shutting down of internet and now on a socio-domestic micro level we are seeing a wife being disciplined like a soldier.

We may not agree with all of Mary’s life choices but what is being done to her is shocking to say the least. It is a shocking display by our Vice President and other war veterans particularly those in government. Such minds need urgent psychological help sooner rather than later.

Dr Brighton Chireka is an International Health Consultant, GP Partner & Clinical lead of SKC CCG. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. Dr Chireka is the Founding Chairperson of Zimbabwean Diaspora Health Alliance (ZDHA) and also a Founder Trustee of CC Foundation in Zimbabwe which offers scholarships to students from deprived backgrounds.