Flame

Florence, Marian Kunonga, an impulsive teenage peasant girl from the Mashonaland countryside, flees after her father is detained by the Rhodesian Security Forces and joins the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). Her friend Nyasha, Ulla Mahaka, accompanies her, and the two cross the border to a ZANLA training camp in neighboring Mozambique, where they assume new revolutionary identities: Nyasha becomes Liberty, and Florence adopts the name Flame.

During guerrilla training, Flame becomes pregnant after being raped by Comrade Che, Moise Matura. Though devastated at first, she resolves to raise her infant son within the camp. A Rhodesian air strike later wipes out Che and their child, leaving Flame with a sharpened resolve to devote herself to the war effort. She throws herself into the training and soon distinguishes herself in several ZANLA raids targeting infrastructure and commercial farms, proving her commitment to the cause.

As the war winds down and Robert Mugabe is elected in 1980, the mood in the country shifts, but many unemployed ZANLA veterans—including Flame—feel abandoned by the new government. Flame relocates to Harare, where Liberty has used her background as an intelligence officer to secure a lucrative administrative post. The reunion between the two is strained: Flame seeks financial assistance, while Liberty no longer believes in the collectivist lifestyle and mutual support that once defined their guerrilla days.

Five years after the war, Flame and Liberty attend a Heroes’ Day celebration in a Zimbabwe that has grown more authoritarian and corrupt. They continue to greet passersby with the old pan-African slogan, “A luta continua” (“the struggle continues”), even as their lives reflect the painful transition from militants to citizens in a nation that has changed around them.

A luta continua (“the struggle continues”)

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 11:29