Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana

Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana also known as Mbuya Nehanda (c. 1840–1898) was a svikiro (spirit medium) of the Zezuru Shona people. She was a medium of Nehanda, a female Shona mhondoro (powerful and respected ancestral spirit) As one of the spiritual leaders of the Shona, she was one of the leaders of a revolt, the Chimurenga, against the British South Africa Company's colonisation of Zimbabwe led by Cecil John Rhodes in 1889.

The spirit Nehanda is said to be the mhondoro, a royal mudzimu (ancestral spirit) or "lion spirit", that uses women as her mediums. The mediums are given the title Nehanda or Mbuya Nehanda. Mhondoro spirits were revered spirits among the Shona, as it was believed that they could interpret the orders and wishes of Mwari, the senior deity. The original Nehanda was considered to be Nyamhita, the daughter of Monomatapa Mutota, the founder of the Mutapa state, in around 1430. She was ordered to sleep with her younger half brother and this incest ritual was believed to have resulted in the increase of Matope’s rule and empire. Matope handed over a part of his empire to Nehanda who became so powerful and well known that her spirit lived on in the human bodies of various spirit mediums until almost 500 years later. During possession by the spirit, spirit mediums were believed to be speaking with the voice and personality of the original Nehanda and not with their own.

Charwe Nyakasikana was born in 1840, in what is today the Chishawasha District in Central Mashonaland, Zimbabwe. She was the granddaughter of Shayachimwe, founder of the Hwata dynasty in the upper Mazowe valley. She married and had three children, but her husband’s name is unknown (unusual seeing as it is usually wives who are erased from history!) Living in the hills around Mazoe, Zimbabwe, in the mid 19th century, were various subchiefs including Chidamba. In Chidamba's village lived Charwe Nyakasikana, who was considered to be the female incarnation of the oracle spirit Nehanda. Biographers suggest that she became possessed by the spirit in 1884. 

As medium of the spirit Nehanda, Nyakasikana made prophetic pronouncements and performed traditional ceremonies that were thought to ensure rain and good crops. She held great authority even before the 1896-7 rebellion and was strongly committed to upholding traditional Shona culture. In a map drawn by missionaries (c. 1888) displaying work by the Church, there is a village called Nehanda's.

Mbuya Nehanda was instrumental in organising the nationwide participation in the First Chimurenga (“Revolutionary Struggle”) of 1896–7, recognised by King Lobengula as a powerful spiritual medium . During the arrival of the first European settlers, Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana occupied an important and influential position in the religious hierarchy in Mashonaland, where she is the only recorded woman known to have held such a significant position during the 19th century. She, like other spirit mediums, initially encouraged good relations between the Zezuru people and early European settlers. According to tradition, Nehanda initially welcomed them as pioneers and guided her followers to show them kindness: "Don't be afraid of them," she said, "as they are only traders, but take a black cow to them and say this is the meat with which we greet you." However, yet again, trusting the Europeans proved to be a dangerous mistake and soon relationships became strained when the settlers started imposing taxes on the locals and conscripting them for various labour projects. Following the imposition of a "hut tax" and other tax assessments in 1894, both the Ndebele and Shona people revolted in June 1896, in what became known as the First Chimurenga or Second Matabele War. The rebellion, was encouraged by traditional religious leaders including Nyakasikana, who took a central stage in the rebellions according to cultural custom. She fought alongside two other spirit mediums, Mukwati, in Matebeland, and Kaguvi – also from Mashonaland. 

Kaguvi (aka Kagubi) was believed to be the spirit husband of the great spirit, Nehanda, and it may have been this connection which enabled him to persuade Mbuya Nehanda to join his crusade. Their people believed that Nehanda and Kaguvi were the voices of God aka 'Mwari' and thus willingly followed them in battle. Kaguvi convinced Nehanda that according to Mwari the cause of all the trouble that had come upon the land was the white man (a fair statement tbh). The couple preached that white settlers had brought the locusts and cattle plague. Mwari decreed that the white men were to be driven from the country; that the natives had nothing to fear because Mwari would turn the bullets of the white man into water. A public press photograph was taken of Nehanda and Kaguvi in 1897 to display their success.

However, in 1897, the rebellion ended in Nyakasikana’s arrest. She was charged with the murder of Native Commissioner Henry Hawkins Pollard in 1896. She was found guilty after eyewitnesses claimed that she had ordered an associate to chop Pollard's head off. Consequently, she was hanged in March 1898. Traditional mythology tells of the great trouble the executioner had in killing her.

Nehanda’s heroism became a significant source of inspiration in the nationalist struggle for liberation in the 1960s and 1970s. Her name is now usually prefixed by the respectful title of Mbuya, or grandmother. Yet another example of black female resistance to Christian colonialism and proselytization.