By Princess Eugene Majuru

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa recently condemed the statue of First Chimurenga national heroine Mbuya Nehanda which is due to be erected in Harare CBD stating the statue should be re done as the artist exagerated Nehanda’s looks. Over the last couple of weeks Zimbabweans have expressed their views on the statue which they described as a modernised Nehanda, a slay Queen who didn’t resemble the iconic Mbuya Nehanda.

President Mnangagwa, a listening President has taken on board the concerns raised by Zimbabweans. Mnangagwa said Nehanda’s statue should have wrinkles on the face but did she really have wrinkles? A black and white image of Mbuya Nehanda shows the heroine standing in front of a wall and from the image we see she is forward facing in the full glare of the sun. We also see her shadow on the wall which makes us certain the sunshine was in abundance at the time the picture was taken. A closer look at the picture shows Mbuya Nehanda was frowning due to the angle she was standing in full glare of the sun. It would be helpful if the artist re doing the statue could work on a frowning Nehanda rather than a wrinkled Nehanda. Other edits to be made to the statue include the material around her body should be made to look baggy and avoid dressing her with tight body hugging material which brings out her shape because no one has ever seen her shape. Images that we see of her show her dressed in a free fitting material wrapped around her, statue should look the same then we can say we have statue of Nehanda. The artist needs to be generous with the material of ther dressing. See image below:

What do we know about black people’s skin? We know that black people do not age very fast like the white people do. History on Mbuya Nehanda says she died in her 40s so was she an old woman?

In the shona language from Zimbabwe we know that ” Mbuya” means grandma but the word mbuya does not suggest everyine called mbuya is an old woman. Even young women are called Mbuya depending on the relationship with the one who calls them “Mbuya”. We also know that women who play spiritual role played by Mbuya Nehanda are also referred to as ” Machembere” this however does not mean that woman is an old woman. Why was Nehanda called Mbuya? Was it because of her age or because of her spirituality and the powers she possessed? Was it out of respect because she was a spirit medium?

From Zimbabwe’s rich history we know that Charwe Nehanda Spirit Medium existed (1862-1898). This gives us a guide on her age.
The first spirit medium of Nehanda in Zimbabwe was Nyamhita daughter of Nyatsimba Mutota who came some 600 years ago from Guruuswa and their first port of call was Great Zimbabwe where Mutota was handed over the reign of Mwenemutapa but could not live or stay there after he was instructed by spirit medium of Mukwati to find somewhere else to stay with his family, He finally moved to Tuwuyu Tusere (Bakasa area Guruve) a place where Nyamhita passed on and years later the spirit medium of Nehanda possessed Charwe, who was later on accommodated by Chief Mbari who instructed his brother Makombe and chief Rusike to supervise construction of her homestead (zumba) in Mazowe gomba area where there is Lowdale farm today at Cherunje hill (Shavarunzi).

Zimbabwe’s President Mnanagwa is highly commended for finally addressing Zimbabwe’s outstanding cultural issues. The repatriation of the remains of Zimbabwe’s First Chimurenga war heroes is also a hot topic at the moment in Zimbabwe, we recently saw Patrick Chinamasa demand for the return of the heroes remains. The remains were stolen by British colonialists as war trophies and have been displayed at The Natural history museum for many years. Since Zimbabwe started requesting for the remains, the remains have since been removed from public display and await repatriation to Zimbabwe upon completion of remaining formalities. The completion of the repatriation process is being hampered by the current covid -19 pandemic. A Zimbabwean delegation led by Dr Godfrey Mahachi is expected to travel to England to discuss and finalise repatriation.

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