Online Reporter
Colonel (Retired) Ernest Mganda Dube
THE talk of a dead man’s spirit, more so, of a Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA), manifesting long after his death, is regarded in Matabeleland as one of the folk tales often recited by old men or women to unwitty young children.
As a result, many people of this region (Matabeleland), including former ZPRA fighters themselves, have grown not to believe in the concept of spirit medium manifestations that range from mhondoro, svikiro, to other spiritual prophesying mythical issues.
Nevertheless, growing up under the tutelage of my uncles, the Moyo-MaMpande people, whose founding parent Malume, married to a San woman of Mengwe-Butwa dynasty, whose oracle was at first a black ox but later a black he-goat named Tategulu, I later distanced myself from following or understanding these atheistical practices. As such, the atheistical practices of my uncles and others in general, have never been an area of my enquiry and or interest.
I then came to know of the atheistical spiritual realm manifesting in the former ZPRA war-dead in the mid-2020s, when one Honourable Member of Parliament from Hurungwe sought me as a former ZPRA who operated in his province, to help him find a lasting solution to my comrades’ haunting spirits that have unsettled many families under his parliamentary oversight.
In fact, the Honourable Member of Parliament asked me to conscientise the rest of the people in Matabeleland and Midlands, where most of the fighters used to come from, to come to Hurungwe and counsel their war-dead spirits.
On 9 May 2025 I found myself joining the leadership of Fallen Heroes’ Trust, a Non-Governmental Organisation, as we heeded to Chief Mzilawempi’s save our souls (SOS) call, to counsel a family known as Munyavira Zaranyika under Sabhuku Kawara, who since 1986 has been under an alleged spiritual attack by a former ZPRA fighter, known as Cde Webster.
On arrival at Grand Parade Farm along Karoi-Kariba Road, approximately 40km from Karoi, I met Chief Chundu and members of the Fallen Heroes’ Trust, who included a spirit medium nicknamed by the local community as Amai Chimurenga.
The next day, early in the morning before driving to Chief Mzilawempi’s place, I was taken to the two graves where comrades Banda (from Gokwe) and Soweto (Filabusi), the two comrades who were the first to be extracted from a cave in Chitindiva next to Govere’s homestead, under Chief Chundu.
I was then told that those two comrades, who spoke through a spirit medium were never to be taken to the countryside of their birth, but needed a farm in Chundu where they were to remain interred alongside the community they fought with.
As such, my ritual introduction to the lying dead never bothered me much, save for my emotional attachment to the cause of their death. I bid them farewell with resolute typically of comradeship and murmuring “lalani kahle masotsha ka Zapu — long live ZPRA fighters.”
I guess they responded, “Long Live.”
By 11am, we had reached Chief Mzilawempi’s area of jurisdiction, which lies approximately 40 or so kilometres south of Karoi. As the name “Mzilawempi” implies, there is no doubt that this area or wherever he migrated from within Zimbabwe, has been a passage of lines, a military term for military men passing through in pursuit of their enemies.
One oral tradition suggests that this is the place where early Nguni warriors of the early 1830s passed through, identified either as the Zwangendaba group or that of King Mzilikazi’s Ndebele. Let’s leave this for our next article discussion, but focus on the ZPRA war-dead spirit manifesting in the Munyavira Zaranyika family.
Mashonaland West Province has been a ZPRA theatre of military operations, code-named Northern Front, which was sub-divided into three theatre command regions known as Region 1 to 3. Each region was further sub-divided into three theatre commands known as Zones.
As such, Northern Front (NF) was the area to the north of the railway line that ran from Salisbury (Harare) to Plumtree.
On 10 May around 11.30am, Chief Mzilawempi and his companion Chief Chundu, and a 12 or so member delegation guided by Fallen Heroes’ Trust, set next to Munyavira Zaranyika’s family, as the Chief introduced us and the purpose of his engagement efforts.
In ChiShona, he emphasised on, kuyananisana, meaning to resolve their conflict with Webster, a ZPRA war-dead’s spirit. The immediate traditional leader to the Zaranyika, Sabhuku Kawara also arrived in time for the Chief’s counselling engagement.
The matters of fact that then emerged from the engagement were;
The late sister to Munyavira Zaranyika started developing trance episodes in 1986, where a ZPRA dead comrade known as Cde Webster was the cause of her trances.
The founding father, the late Zaranyika, is the one who had relocated from some place far away to come and settle into this area in 1982. The three Zaranyika brothers were his sons who, whilst around 10 and 14 years of age in 1984, allegedly picked up a military bag containing bandages, pills and a blanket and a few other things they could no longer remember. They went on to take the bag to their homestead, where they opened it and utilised the goodies.
On being questioned how they came to pick up the bag, following a hare chase, which their dog was pursuing and if ever there was a human corpse, the three Zaranyika brothers pleaded loss of memory of the details. The plea on the loss of memory continued as they responded to how their father reacted to the news of the bag.
The senior Zaranyika’s wife then interjected by saying her husband and his brothers were not honestly telling the story, as her husband’s sister would run to the hill and come back dressed in military khaki jacket and start hailing words in Ndebele.
Notably, the elder Zaranyika would intermittently interject accusing his wife of lying, in that they would speak to the ZPRA combatant, who was speaking through her sister in isiNdebele, yet Cde Webster spoke in clear Shona. He further ordered his wife to shut up since she came into her marriage in 1984 and knew nothing about the bag. The wife, however, would have none of it as she disclosed further the laxity of her husband in finding a solution to their traumatic experiences.
Chief Mzilawempi reached to ground in ritual command, telling the dead ZPRA Webster to rise and fight for himself, a situation he reiterated had his blessing. By this time, the situation had developed into an uncontrollable spiritual hysterical intensity.
On hearing the tough words from Chief Mzilawempi, the Fallen Heroes Trust spirit medium fell into a trance, speaking in the voice of Cde Webster (of Filabusi), demanding the belongings, which he had upon death.
From the Zaranyika family side, an average young daughter to the senior Zaranyika also went into a trance speaking in the voice of the deceased grandfather, advising his sons to return whatever they had, which belonged to the deceased combatant.
After this episode of trances, Chief Mzilawempi further warned the family not to dare try to tamper with the hill where Cde Webster’s bag was found, which is also suspected to be the place where his corpse was buried.
To this effect, the delegation later drove off to visit another place approximately 10km away at Nyamutora School, where a ZPRA war-dead corpse was swept into the open by either rains or winds, resulting in the community picking up the worn-out head and pieces of bones.
This sums up the sad story of the ZPRA war-dead spirits crying in caves and riverines of Hurungwe, with only Chiefs and their communities fighting tooth and nail to preserve the little still traceable of their war heroes.
Bongani Ndlovu