Legends of the liberation war

SEKURU Kaguvi was one of the First Chimurenga leaders who operated in the Goromonzi area of Mashonaland. He was in fact one of the most influential political-cum religious leaders who led the resistance crusade of the indigenous precolonial African societies on the Zimbabwean plateau against the colonisation of the land.

Sekuru Kaguvi worked closely with his contemporary politician and religious leader Mbuya Nehanda in co-ordinating the armed rebellion against the so-called Vapambepfumi Vasinamabvi meaning plunderers of wealth without knees.

Kaguvi was hanged together with Mbuya Nehanda in Salisbury in 1898 on allegations of banditry and rebellion by the Bristish South Africa Company government founded by Cecil John Rhodes.

Sekuru Kaguvi was also known as Gumboreshumba. In the local Shona language, the name means the claw/ foot of a lion. He lived in the Chikwaka Mountains near Goromonzi on the heart of the heart of the Mashonaland province He was married to a daughter of Chief Mashonganyika whose kraal was some 4,8km to the south of the Goromonzi Hill and he also had wives from the kraal of headman Gondo which is also in the vicinity of Goromonzi Hill. He became known as a supplier of good luck in hunting and was able to speak to people “from the trees and the rocks”.

Kaguvi effectively joined the colonial resistance in October 1896 with the influence of Mbuya Nehanda. This was after the initial resistance campaign by another religious leader Mukwati, who commanded the Matabeleland shrine at Matopos.

Kaguvi sent messengers to the spirit medium, Mukwati, who lived in a cave in the Matopos and who was the medium of the Supreme God, Mwari.

These messengers were sent to obtain medicine to destroy locusts but they came back to Mashonaland with the news that Mukwati had revealed that the Shona people should rise up against the whites in the same way as the Ndebele were doing and that Kaguvi would have the same powers to kill the whites as Mukwati had.

The British South Africa Company had, by end of 1896, recognised the importance of the “spirit mediums” to the rebel cause.

The spirit Nehanda is said to be the mhondoro, a royal mudzimu (ancestral spirit) or “lion spirit”. At one

⬤ time this spirit resided in Nyamhika, one of the daughters of Nyatsimba Mutota, who was given the name Nehanda at birth. Nyatsimba Mutota was the first leader of the Munhumutapa state.

Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana (c. 1840–1898) was a svikiro or spirit medium of the Zezuru Shona people. As one of the spiritual leaders of the Shona, she provided inspiration the revolt against the British South Africa Company’s colonisation of Mashonaland and Matebeleland. She was a Hera of the Hwata Mufakose dynasty.

The arrest and trial of Kaguvi together with Mbuya Nehanda took place between 1896 and 1897. The two were convicted in March 1898. They were subsequently hanged about seven weeks later. It is believed that Nehanda was hanged first and Kaguvi was given the opportunity to witness the hanging. Kaguvi, after initially refusing to convert to Christianity, subsequently agreed and was baptised after denouncing his African Traditional Religion beliefs.

However, before Nehanda was hung she promised the Europians that her bones would rise against them.

Who was Nehanda?

Living in the Hills around Mazowe, Zimbabwe, were various sub-chiefs including Wata and Chidamba. In the Chidamba Village lived the famous Shona spirit medium Mbuya Nehanda. She must have had great authority even before the 1896-7 rebellion and it is interesting that no greater authority than the Anglican Church in a map drawn up showing missionary work by the church after 1888 there is a village in the area called Nehandas.

She was a powerful woman spirit medium that was committed to upholding traditional Shona culture, she was instrumental in organising the nationwide resistance to colonial rule during the First Chimurenga of 1896-7. Even Lobengula recognised her as a powerful spiritual medium in the land.

According to historical sources the original Nehanda was daughter of Mutota the first Monomatapa, who was living in the escarpment North of Sipolilo in about 1430. This some 70 odd years before Christopher Columbus discovered America and Bartholemew Dias reached the Cape. Mutota was the founder of the Mutapa state, Mutota also had a son who later became the second Monomatapa and the son was called Matope.

Matope was Nehanda’s half brother, and to increase the power of Matope, Mutota ordered his son to commit incest with his half sister, Nyamhika, who became widely know as Nehanda. This incest ritual is believed to have increased Matope’s rule and his empire, due to this Matope handed over a portion of his empire to Nehanda who became so powerful and well known that her spirit lived on in the human bodies of various spirit mediums over the years until almost 500 years later when we find it occupying the body of the Mazoe Nehanda. Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana was considered to be the female incarnation of the oracle spirit Nyamhika Nehanda.

Meanwhile, last year’s Africa Day celebrations were marked by unveiling the statue of Mbuya Nehanda.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa vowed to press Britain to return the skull of Mbuya Nehanda.

The statue “is a declaration that we stand proud of our history and identity,” Mnangagwa said at the unveiling of the statue.

MATOPE was Nehanda’s half brother and to increase the power of Matope, Mutota ordered his son to commit incest with his half sister, Nyamhika, who became widely know as Nehanda.