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An Innocent Woman, Unjustly Accused? Charwe, Medium of the Nehanda Mhondoro Spirit, and the 1896–97 Central Shona Rising in Zimbabwe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

D. N. Beach
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Extract

The rising of the Ndebele and southwestern and central Shona people against colonial rule in the 1890s has become one of the classic cases of such resistance. Yet, since the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980, very little fresh research has been carried out on the subject. This paper re-examines the role of Shona religious authorities in the rising, especially that of the medium of the Nehanda spirit of the Mazowe valley in the central Shona area. In just over a century, the figure of “Mbuya Nehanda” has become the best-known popular symbol of resistance to colonial rule in modern Zimbabwe. She has been commemorated since 1980 in statues, street names, a hospital, posters, songs, novels, and poems, and is soon to be the subject of a full-length feature film. This paper examines the historical basis behind the legend.

This legend runs as follows: the historical “Nehanda” was supposed to have been the daughter of the founding ancestor of the Mutapa dynasty, who lived in the fifteenth century. Her ritual incest with her brother Matope gave supernatural sanction to the power of the Mutapa state. After her death, she became a mhondoro spirit, and this spirit possessed a number of mediums (masvikiro, singular svikiro). During periods of possession by the spirit, the svikiro was regarded as speaking with the voice and personality of the original Nehanda and not with her own. In the last part of the nineteenth century one medium, Charwe, was responsible for the organization of resistance to the government of the British South Africa Company and the settlers in the Mazowe valley, and in particular for the killing of H.H. Pollard, Kunyaira, the extremely oppressive Native Commissioner of the area. This resistance began in June 1896, and from then until her capture in late 1897 the Nehanda medium was a major factor in the war. Tried and sentenced to death in March 1898, she refused to convert to Christianity and struggled right up to the moment when she was hanged.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 25 , 1998 , pp. 27 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1998

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References

Unless otherwise stated, archival references are to the National Archives, Zimbabwe.

1 No single reference can attempt to cover the legend, but see: Mudenge, S.I.G., A Political History of Munhumutapa c. 1400-1902 (Harare, 1988)Google Scholar; Beach, D.N., The Shona and Zimbabwe 900-1850 (Gwelo, 1980)Google Scholar; idem., A Zimbabwean Past, (Gweru, 1994); Lan, D., Guns and Rain, (Harare, 1985)Google Scholar on the “original” Nehanda; Ranger, T.O., Revolt in Southern Rhodesia 1896-7: a Study in African Resistance (London, 1967)Google Scholar, Mutunhu, T., “Nehanda of Zimbabwe,” Ufahamu, 7 (1976), 59–70Google Scholar, on Nehanda in 1896-98; Martin, D. and Johnson, P., The Struggle for Zimbabive (London, 1981)Google Scholar, Zimbabwe Epic, ed. Douglas, R.G.S. (Harare, 1982)Google Scholar, for Nehanda in modern nationalism; Mutswairo, S., Mapondera, Soldier of Zimbabwe (Harare, 1983)Google Scholar, for an example of fiction.

2 N 3/31/4, Native Commissioner, Goromonzi to Chief NC, 30 June 1906; an expatriate teacher in the Mazowe area reported that the Shinyumira spirit is thought to be a shave spirit, with skills in hunting, and possibly in war, usually held by the Nehanda medium in addition to the Nehanda spirit (Personal communication from C. Hambrouck, n.d., late 1995.)

3 S.401/334, Preliminary examination of Dekwende, 7 June 1898, evidence of Pemimwa, 7 June 1898.

4 S.401/252, Preliminary examination of Nianda, 12 January 1898; Neusu, K., “Nehanda: the History of the mhondoro and svikiros,” unpublished BA Honours dissertation, University of Zimbabwe, 1985, 7.Google ScholarMbuya is stated to be a normal title for a possessed medium in general (personal communications from Dr. P. Gundani and Prof. S. Mutswairo, 4 August 1995.)

5 Ministry of Local Government, Division of District Administration, Harare, Per/Hwata, NC Mazoe to CNC, 27 March 1936; S.2953, Queen versus Nianda and Wata, evidence of Matoke, 2 March 1898.

6 Neusu, , ‘Nehanda’, 5Google Scholar;Sunday Mail, 6 February 1983.

7 Kerr, W.M., The Far Interior (2 vols.: London, 1887), 1:138.Google Scholar

8 MLG, DDA, Delineation Report, Mazoe, 1968; MLG, DDA, Per/5 Hwata, NC Mazoe to CNC, 27 March 1936.

9 Beach, , Zimbabwean Past, 12–44Google Scholar; idem., Mapondera 1840-1904 (Gweru, 1989), 16; idem., “As origens de Moçambique e Zimbabwe: Paiva de Andrada, a Companhia de Moçambique e a diplomacia africana 1881-1981,” Arquivo 13 (1993), 42; Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Lisboa, Andrada Expedições, J.C. Paiva de Andrada ao Ultramar, 8 de dezembro de 1889, “Sertõ;es 32.” The medium's gender was not given, however.

10 N 9/1/4, Annual report of NC Mazoe, 19 April 1898; MLG, DDA, Per/5 Hwata, NC Mazoe to CNC 27 March 1936 and Meaker, E.P., “Hwata History,” late 1940sGoogle Scholar; Burke, E. E., “Mazoe and the Mashona Rebellion, 1896-97,” Rhodesiana 25 (1971), 4–5, 10Google Scholar; Smith, R.C., “The Africa Trans-Continental Telegraph Line,” Rhodesiana, 33 (1975), 5–8.Google Scholar

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12 Beach, , Mapondera, 21, 23–24, 27.Google Scholar

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14 Hist. Mss. AL 1/1/1, Report by Lt. Fairbairn, 11 September 1896; Chivanda, , “Mashona Rebellion,” 7.Google Scholar

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16 S.401/252, Preliminary examination of Gutsa and Musarurwa alias “Pig,” 12 January 1898; N 1/1/6, NC Mazoe to CNC, 23 November 1897.

17 British South Africa Company, Reports on the Native Disturbances in Rhodesia 1896-97 (London, 1898), 87, 92, 98.Google Scholar 17 June for the Mazowe Shona, but the first authentic news of the rising—after several false rumors—reached the whites the day before, and some took precautions. Burton, J.R.A., ed., “‘Matabele Jim’—the Trials and Tribulations of an 1894 Settler,” Heritage of Zimbabwe 15 (1996), 107.Google Scholar

18 Beach, D.N., War and Politics in Zimbabwe, 1850-1900 (Gweru, 1986), 85–86Google Scholar; 138-41.

19 Pollard was near the telegraph camp at Matitima just after 26 June (BSAC, Reports, 64Google Scholar). This was about 80 kilometers NNE of his next known stopping place at Chipadze, which was 60 kilometers due NE of Charwe's village. I think it unlikely that, given the need to skirt the siege of the Abercorn/Tafuna laager, and his troubles south of Chipadze, Pollard could have arrived at Charwe's before 30 June or even early July.

20 Beach, , War and Politics, 138–41.Google Scholar

21 S.401/340, Regina vs. Mpingashutu, 30 August 1898, S.401/377, Regina vs. Malkop, 22 November 1898.

22 S.401/215, Regina vs. Zawara, 3 December 1897, Preliminary examination of Zawara, 23 November 1897. S.401/254, Regina vs. Mvenura, 3 March 1898; S.401/258, Regina vs. Mabidza et al., 8 March 1898.

23 Hist. Mss. AL 1/1/1. Statement of Tom, 22 June 1896, Statement of Zhomette, 28 June 1896.

24 Hist. Mss. AL 1/1/1, Statement of Machine, 3 July 1896; A 1/12/27, Statement of Machine, 3 July 1896 and 4 July 1896.

25 Hist. Mss. AL 1/1/1, Report of Captain White, 29 July 1896; In the preliminary examination of the Kaguvi medium, NC Kenny stated that Chidamba blamed the Kaguvi medium for ordering the rising, but Chidamba was not questioned, as this was not the charge against him: S.401/253, Regina vs. Kargubi et al., 8 March 1898. ProfessorRanger, , Revolt, 217Google Scholar, correctly pointed out that the entries in F.R. de Bertodano's Bulawayo diary for 17 and 19 June 1896, naming the Kaguvi and Nehanda mediums, are highly suspect. No contemporary sources name either at the time, and the first entry was prior to fighting in the Mazowe area.

26 S.2953, Queen vs. Jim alias Chinsata and Change, 24 November 1898. This was not one of the “rising killing” cases as such. After the war Jim Chinsata and Change returned with a fake letter from “authority” to reclaim their wives. The village head refused to pay compensation for them on the grounds that, for all he knew, they were still alive, but he admitted liability for the death of a related migrant laborer and offered a girl aged six in compensation. This led to Chinsata and Change being tried for “manstealing,” for which they received two months' hard labor.

27 BSAC, Reports, 57.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., 64.

29 LO 5/4/8, Quarterly report of NC Mazoe, 31 Dcember 1897; N 1/1/6, NC Mazoe to CNC 4 January 1898.

30 Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique, Diversos do Distrito de Tete, Caixa 12 M1(26), Informações mensais de Chicóa, Fevereiro de 1896.

31 BSAC, Reports, 64.Google Scholar

32 S.401/252, Regina vs. Nianda, Wata, Gutsa and Zindonga, 12 January 1898, passim; S.2953, Queen vs. Nianda et al., 2 March 1898, passim.

33 S.2953, Queen vs. Nianda et al., 2 March 1898; S.401/252, Preliminary examination of Nianda, 12 January 1898: “I heard that Kanyaira had come and they went and brought him to me so we ran away we did not go close to him at all. That is all I have to say, they did not bring him up to the kraal.” Entire statement was omitted in Ranger, , Revolt, 209.Google Scholar In the early 1960s the S.401 files were temporarily coded HC/M. The S.2953 notebook of Judge Watermeyer did not become available until the 1980s.

34 LO 5/2/50, Intelligence Department, Salisbury to BSAC Cape Town, 19 July 1896.

35 A 1/12/26, Report of Civil Commissioner, Salisbury, 29 October 1896. This is substantially similar to BSAC, Reports, 51–75.Google Scholar

36 LO 5/4/1, W.L. Armstrong to CNC, Salisbury, 20 February 1897. A variant version, that Pollard's hands were cut off and his eyes put out, and worse, surfaces in Anon., “Some Happenings of 1896,” NADA 15 (1938), 30Google Scholar, but this blames Kanyemba, a minor ruler near Shamva, not Nehanda. There is another version in Tanser, G.H., A Scantling of Time (Salisbury, 1965), 197.Google Scholar In 1965-66 Chivanda, , “Mashona Rebellion,” 9Google Scholar, heard that Pollard had been made a house servant by his captors for some time before he was killed. The story of the cutting off of hands was also told of the death of Norton, J.N.: Hickman, A.S., “Norton District in the Mashona Rebellion,” Rhodesiana 3 (1958), 18.Google Scholar The point is not just that the story is totally untrue, but that it was a common topic of conversation among Rhodesians talking of 1896 and that it is unlikely that such conversations were never overheard by the Mazowe Shona.

37 Cobbing, Julian, “The Absent Priesthood: Another Look at the Rhodesian Rising of 1896-1897,” JAH 18 (1977), 81–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38 Haggard, H. Rider, King Solomon's Mines (London, 1885).Google Scholar

39 Idem., She, (London, 1887); William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act iv, Scene 1; 1 Samuel, xxviii, 7-20.

40 RC 1/4/1, Acting High Commissioner, Cape Town to Deputy Commissioner, 17 July 1896 enclosing Stuart, J., “Rhodesia. The Native Question, Salisbury 17 June 1896,” in Telegraph, Cape Town, 15 July 1896.Google Scholar

41 See note 15 above, and N 1/1/9, Quarterly report of NC Salisbury, 29 January 1896.

42 Hist. Mss. AL 1/1/1, Report of Lt. French, 14 September 1896.

43 Ibid., Reports of Lt. Fairbairn, 12 September 1896, 14 September 1896 and Statements by “Africa” in Salisbury. Her story of a major meeting between the Mazowe Shona and the northern Korekore was admitted by her to mean that only ten Korekore had gone to visit Nehanda; the rumors of the “relic,” an advancing army from Mutoko, and a planned visit by Mashayamombe that she passed on were never confirmed; and although what she said about Nehanda giving out guns was perfectly plausible, the fact remains that “Africa's” evidence seems to have been entirely hearsay.

44 Ibid., Report of Lt. Fairbairn, 14 September 1896.

45 Ibid., Report of Capt. McMahon, 2 October 1896.

46 Alderson, E.A.H., With the Mounted Infantry and the Mashonaland Field Force 1896 (London, 1898), 184Google Scholar; BSAC, Reports, 73, 79.Google Scholar Another trail of rumor developing into “fact” began when F.C. Selous, theorizing in Bulawayo before 21 August 1896 about the Shona rising, suggested that “Salugazana,” the medium in Makonde, northwest of Salisbury, might have been told of the destruction of the Salisbury Column that had gone south to Matabeleland, and had started the rising (Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia [London, 1896], 236Google Scholar). This quite separate medium was confused with Charwe by CNC Taberer, who also represented as fact that the goods recaptured in late September had been in a cave belonging to Charwe. As was noted above, this was not certain: LO 5/4/6, Report of CNC Mashonaland, 4 March 1898.

47 Hist. Mss. AL 1/1/1, Despatches from Fort Alderson, 15 November 1896; LO 5/4/2, CNC to Administrator, 21 February 1897. By this time there was a definite split between Charwe and Chidamba on the one hand and Hwata and Chiweshe on the other, and Charwe was in favor of continuing the fighting.

48 Beach, , War and Politics, 110–11.Google Scholar

49 S.401/253, Preliminary examination of Kargubi, 29 October 1897; N 1/1/6, NC Mazoe to CNC, 30 October 1897.

50 Ranger, , Revolt, 212.Google Scholar

51 Beach, D.N., “‘Chimurenga’: the Shona Rising of 1896-97,” JAH 20 (1979), 395–420CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted with very slight modifications in Beach, , War and Politics, 119–56Google Scholar; idem., “‘Revolt in Southern Rhodesia,’” IJAHS 13 (1980), 103–08.

52 N 1/1/6, NC Mazoe to CNC, 26 October 1897, 23 November 1897, 30 November 1897.

53 But see also the cases at Belingwe, Fort Gibbs, Enkeldoorn and Charter.

54 A 1/12/40, Administrator to Judge Vintcent, Bulawayo, 7 October 1896; BA 3/1/3, Chief Staff Officer to Col. Paget, 18 August 1896; BA 3/1/4, CSC to Officer Commanding, Gwelo, 17 September 1896.

55 Sibanda, B., “The Trials of the Prisoners of the First Chimurenga of 1896,” unpubl. BA Honours dissertation. University of Zimbabwe, 1985, 9.Google Scholar

56 Richartz, F., “The End of Kakubi and the Other Condemned Murderers,” Zambezi Mission Record 1/2 (1898), 53.Google Scholar

57 Sibanda, , “Trials,” 8–9.Google Scholar In some cases witnesses were detained as well as prisoners.

58 NB 1/1/5, Deputy Administrator Bulawayo to Acting Administrator Salisbury, 30 September 1898; S.401/329, Regina vs. Siginyamatshe alias Siminya, 7 June 1898. This is not to suggest that the trials were quite unbiased, far from it. Sibanda, “Trials,” passim, points out many inequities in procedure. However, my point is that execution was not a foregone conclusion. Even Zhanta, involved in the killing of NC Campbell's brother, though tried three times, received only hard labor sentences. A surprising escape from the gallows was that of Makuwatsine, brother of the Kaguvi medium: condemned to death with him on the same charge, he served a hard labor sentence, instead and by 1906 he was back at Chishawasha trying to inherit his brother's family (Hist. Mss. MS.640, Fr. F.I. Richartz to Fr. Chmitz, Empandeni, 28 January 1906.) I noted above that “rebellion” indictments were rare, but there were two from the upper Mazoe. Two captives were tried for “rebellion” in that they were caught with guns in late 1896. This was quite contrary to the High Commissioner's proclamation, and, if made general practice, would have led to the jamming of the jail with hundreds of prisoners. Unfortunately, they received hard labor sentences regardless. Neither mentioned Nehanda, or anything else: S.401/76, Regina vs. John and Chewero, 6 March 1897 and S.401/77, Regina vs. Zingaira, 6 March 1897.

59 Mashayamombe and Sango, killed in action; Maromo, died in exile; Makoni shot by British Army; Mutekedza, Svosve, Rusike, and Hwata, died in prison.

60 Sibanda, , “Trials,” 20–24.Google Scholar

61 LO 5/4/7, Under Secretary to Administrator, Salisbury, to London Board, 25 February 1898, enclosing petition by Mick J. Murphy for Zawara, Motsi and others.

62 S.2953, Queen vs. Ndowa, Tshikerema and Marembo alias Huni, 22 February 1898, plea of M.J. Murphy.

63 S.2953, Queen vs. Nianda and Wata, 2 March 1898; Wood, R.H., “The 1898 Criminal Sessions,” Heritage of Zimbabwe 6 (1986), 47–58.Google Scholar

64 S.2953, Note of 26 February 1898 and Queen vs. Nianda et al., 2 March 1898.

65 S.2953, Queen vs. Nianda and Wata, opinion of assessors; N 9/1/4, Annual report of NC Mazoe, 19 April 1898.

66 It is significant that Hwata's only comments on the evidence against him were variations of “the witness is telling the truth;” Richartz, , “End of Kakubi,” 53–55Google Scholar: Rhodesia Herald, 9 March 1898. The newspaper did not record the hanging.

67 Hist. Mss. AL 1/1/1, Despatches from Fort Alderson, 15 November 1896.

68 S.401/215, Regina vs. Zawara, 3 December 1897, Preliminary examination of Zawara, 23 November 1897.

69 For example, my own memory is not infallible: throughout the 1980s I believed that Julius Nyerere condemned the 1980 Zimbabwean Independence elections as biased, ahead of the result, during the elections themselves. In fact, he said this just before they began. But readers might care to test their own memories of the period: how many recall now that Robert Mugabe left the country just before the elections began and only returned when the results were more or less clear? Local and foreign newspapers reported this, but it is not to be found in many books on the period, though a clumsy attempt to remove the event leads to Mugabe's coming back to the country without any direct reference to his leaving it, in Smith, D. and Simpson, C., Mugabe (Salisbury, 1981), 200–01.Google Scholar

70 Sanhokwe, D.M.S., “Mhasvi-Rebel Policeman. The Story of the Hwata People and the Mashona Rebellion,” Outpost 38/8 (1960), 4–7.Google Scholar

71 Thus he obscures Mhasvi's origins by giving him a vague “eastern Salisbury” background, when contemporary and 1965-66 sources make him one of Hwata's people; he has Mhasvi give Hwata's men quite unnecessary lessons in shooting; his account of Nehanda's staying out in the open during the fighting is not confirmed by any battle report; he has Mhasvi win his freedom by trickery rather than by being granted it by the CNC because of the treachery of Alderson in capturing him; he has Nehanda and the others shot rather than hanged, and he has the discovery of the cave with the loot after and not during the fighting.

72 Or the Zambezi: mhirikwegungwa can mean either.

73 Chivanda, , “Mashona Rebellion,” 1–16.Google Scholar Chivanda (ibid., 23) confirms from the memory of one informant the suspicion voiced above that the “Shinyamira [Chinyumira]” mentioned by Mativirira in 1906 was an invention.

74 Ranger, , Revolt, 390–94.Google Scholar

75 Most of the work has been peripheral: Bhila, H.H.K., Trade and Politics in a Shona Kingdom (Harlow, 1983), 231–49Google Scholar; Gava, A., “The First Chimurenga 1896-7, an Insight into African Casualties,” unpubl. BA Honours dissertation, University of Zimbabwe, 1987Google Scholar; Beach, War and Politics, chapter 3; and a number of other undergraduate dissertations do not tackle the central issues, though they add useful detail. One work that does deal with the larger issue is Horn, M., “‘Chimurenga’ 1896-1897: a Revisionist Study” (MA thesis, Rhodes University, 1986).Google Scholar Horn seeks to exculpate Rhodesian rule as the cause of the risings. As his research in the National Archives appears to have required only 21 days between 7 June and 17 July 1984, in order to cover several hundred files, it does not seem to have attained full academic levels.

76 Beach, War and Politics, chapter 5, covers the next five paragraphs.

77 Hole may have had a personal motive for stressing the “simultaneous” nature of the rising. As Civil Commissioner in Salisbury, he had correctly discounted rumors of a Shona rising from March to early June, and had even allowed the disbandment of the Enkeldoorn laager in May. He did not react quite fast enough when the real rising began, and thus many whites and foreign Africans were caught unaware and killed. Claiming that the rising's outbreak was virtually simultaneous, even spontaneous, had the effect of absolving him of blame for negligence.

78 Ranger, , Revolt (1979 edition), xiv–xvGoogle Scholar, and also popular discussion. A common topic raised is A.H. Holland's brief reference to the Kaguvi and Nehanda mediums being buried “in a secret place, so that no natives could take away their bodies” (Revolt, 310.) This brief statement, written half a century after the event, is not supported by any contemporary source. If, as was usual until the 1970s, the bodies of executed prisoners were buried on vacant land in the prison area, the bodies of the two are probably under the car sales area at the corner of Julius Nyerere Way and Kenneth Kaunda Avenue.

79 Beach, , “‘Revolt’,” 103–08.Google Scholar

80 Samupindi, C., Death Throes (Gweru, 1990), 18Google Scholar, but also see ibid., 35-36: as a lawyer Samupindi saw the contradiction between the evidence of Charwe and the others, but supplied a fictitious motive—Pollard's killing of the carriers supplied by Nehanda, and his misrule—that was not mentioned in the trial.

81 Kriger, N., “The Politics of Creating National Heroes” in Bhebe, N. and Ranger, T., eds. Soldiers in Zimbabwe's Liberation War (Harare, 1995), 139–62.Google Scholar

82 Beach, , War and Politics, 131, 140.Google Scholar

83 The Mfecane Aftermath, ed. Hamilton, Carolyn (Johannesburg/Pietermaritzburg, 1995).Google Scholar

84 Personal communication, 3 September 1975.

85 Blish, James, Doctor Mirabilis (London, 1964), 141.Google Scholar