adminThe Herald, April 27, 2005
ON April 27, 1898 the district surgeon of Salisbury wrote: “I certify that I have examined the body of Nianda, upon whom sentence of death has been executed, and that life is extinct.”
“Nianda was none other than our gallant defiant and fierce heroine of the First Chimurenga, Mbuya Nehanda, the legendary spirit medium (svikiro) from Mazowe.
“She had been apprehended and hauled to her Majesty’s court in March of the same year, alongside Zindoga, Hwata and Gutsa for the alleged murder of one Hawkins Pollard, the brutal white Native Commissioner of the British South Africa Company (BSAC) who resided near Mazowe and terrorised natives in that district”.
Mbuya Charwe the medium of the Nehanda Spirit and Sekuru Gumboreshumba, the medium of Kaguvi were arraigned in the High Court of Matabeleland, which sat in Salisbury on February 20, 1898 and were subsequently convicted on March 2 1898 in a case entered as “Regina (British Queen) versus Nianda”.
Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi were sentenced to death by hanging. Before Mbuya Nehanda was taken to the gallows, one Father Richertz, a Roman Catholic priest was tasked with converting her and Sekuru Kaguvi to Christianity.
Sekuru Kaguvi was baptised and given the name Dismus — “the good thief”, the name of the thief who was saved by Jesus on the cross.
It is said that Mbuya Nehanda refused to talk to Fr Richerzt apart from reminding the startled Roman Catholic priest that “My bones will surely rise again.”
LESSONS FOR TODAY
• Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana was a svikiro or spirit medium of the Shona people. Nehanda was so powerful and well respected that when people had any social concerns, they would not go to her directly. Instead they went to her assistant who was given the name Nechombo.
• Mbuya Nehanda was honoured, with a memorial statue that was officially unveiled by President Mnangagwa at the intersection of Samora Machel Avenue and Julius Nyerere Way on Africa Day.
• The honour accorded to Mbuya Nehanda and other heroes and heroines of the First Chimurenga/Umvukela was long overdue. It also spoke very strongly into Zimbabwe’s stance as a Pan-African state.
Online Reporter