By Zimwriter.
On 27 April 1898, the district Surgeon for Salisbury signed the certificate that read
“I certify that I have examined the body of Nehanda upon whom the sentence of death has been executed and that life is extinct.”
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He was acting on the judgement given by Judge Watermeyer who had said
“The witch was to hang by the neck till she was dead. If she came out alive she would hang again and if she still came out alive, she would hang again and again and again.”
For societies whose traditional culture is primarily oral, the only history is memory. Not to remember is to accede to the erasure or distortion of collective experience. To repress memory is to re-enact and perpetuate oppression. Are Zimbabweans being fair to the memory of Nehanda? Is her legacy being properly preserved? What images come to mind at the mention of the name Nehanda? The hangman’s noose around the neck of an emaciated woman? Representing what? Justice? Whose Justice? Jungle Justice? Nehanda was hanged for her resistance to colonial rule and she has remained an icon of resistance to white domination amongst the majority of Zimbabweans.
Noone doubts the power and influence of Nehanda during her time. According to Samupindi “her name was song and her word was law”. During the second chimurenga her spirit propelled freedom fighters and united the masses. Her real name was Charwe, Daughter of Mhutsa. Mhutsa is a descendant of the Rwizi clan from Chitungwiza home of the famous prophet Chaminuka. During her time Nehanda had to be consulted on important national issues. She was a svikiro/spirit medium of the mhondoro lion spirit of rain making. “She was highly respected for her ability to sift issues and her deep sense of circumspection and understanding of human perception as well as a formidable foresight”
*Nehanda The spirit Medium*
Nehanda united, organized and inspired a people physically and spiritually. Nehanda is mostly revered for her spiritual guidance and inspiration across generations. According to Vambe, “spirit possession” is the ritual myth that establishes the link between the departed ancestors and their living descendants. Spirit possession celebrates the myth of eternal return and regeneration and has the capacity to resist, disrupt and reshape official public values. Spirit mediums have an important part in the belief systems of Zimbabweans. It could be the reason why pentecoastal churches and apostolic churches thrive even today because Zimbabweans believe in the existence of an active spiritual world.
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Deep is the spirit belief system amongst Zimbabweans. The Chinhoyi Seven combatants are believed to have been enroute to Chinhoyi caves to consult the spirits of the land and tell them that the war had begun. Dhiziri pachinhoyi saw large entourages of important people descending on Chinhoyi to “see” the spectacle and pay respects to the spirits of the land for “timely intervention“ in a crippling fuel crisis. When Zimbabweans are faced with calamity, all too often they consult the spirit mediums. The most respected of the spirits is the Lion spirit/Mhondoro which was the one Nehanda was a medium for. According to Historian and Journalist, Martin Meredith, the smith regime started to take the freedom fighters guerilla war seriously when their intelligence gathering machine reported that Chief Rengayi Tangwena assisted a Spirit medium to cross into Mozambique. This brought fear into the settler populations who still remembered the legend of Nehanda and it is one of the reasons why Tangwena was punished by being evicted from his land.
*Nehanda The Soldier & Political Activist.*
Nehanda organised the masses to resist settler rule. During her trial for the murder of Native Commissioner Pollard, she said:
“My people are important and if you don’t see their relevance I can’t help you, I am afraid. I told my people to stand their ground against these foreigners who were snatching away their land, their cattle and their heritage. Plundering and routing in the process. They have decimated us as they did the Ndebele, now the land is the playground of vultures. Bones and decaying carrion are the verdure in the valleys. But I warn you! I warn you! Oppressor! that these bones will one day rise and wage a thunderous war to reclaim their heritage. I warn you! I warn you! I warn you! “
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She waged a war and presided over tactical decisions to attack the white settlers. She recruited armies and encouraged armed struggle even when she was facing death.
“It is hard to be dispossessed of your land. Harder to stand trial for it. Sorrowful to have to die for it, a feat capable of endurance once. I have my regrets . That I cannot stand to fight when there is so much need for a fight. That I am a woman. Regrets of defeat.”
*Nehanda The Prophet*
“The war is lost but the spirit lives on. These bones will rise up one day and fight”
History will show that indeed the “Bones rose” and waged a bitter war which finally brought majority rule to Zimbabwe in 1980, eighty two years after Nehanda was “hanged by the neck till she were dead.”
Women have a major stake in encouraging and struggling for a more just order. Through media and literature, society portray certain norms and customs which they view as important. It is constructive to consider what women do to redress what they view as injuries and oppressions in society. It is unfortunate that no nation in the world gives women and men the same access to the rights and resources of the nation state.
*Sources:* Yvonne Vera, Charles Samupindi. Martin Meredith.
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