who assist Mwari and the living. Of particular
importance are ancestral spirits, and among
those, a particular group is believed to be quite
powerful, the Midzimu Mikurukuru. The
Midzimu Mikurukuru are also known asmhon-
doro, that is, “lions,” because the Shona believe
that those spirits wander the forest like mighty
lions awaiting a new incarnation. Mhondoro are
particularly revered among the Shona because
they help people interpret Mwari’s wishes and
desires. They are also believed to ensure the well-
being of large areas and numbers of people. For
example, they will protect those under their watch
by sending rain for generous crops or by guaran-
teeing peaceful relationships among community
members. They preside over many important cer-
emonies and rituals. One mhondoro was a female
spirit, Mbuya Nehanda, in Central and Northern
Mashonaland. She only mounted women who
were well thought of in their community and who,
acting as her medium, communicated Mbuya
Nehanda’s messages to the living. A woman
chosen by Nehanda to be her medium received the
title of Mbuya Nehanda and was never to marry.
The original Mbuya Nehanda spirit is believed
by many to have actually been in existence during
the 15th century. Although there are many stories
regarding Nehanda, it appears that she was the
daughter of a king of northern Shona territory,
Ishe Mutota. She possessed great spiritual powers
and was said to have disappeared into a mountain
that bears her name to this day, Gomo
reNehanda. Nehanda quickly became one of the
most important Lion Spirits, ormhondoro.
Chargwe NyakasikanaEnglish settlers invaded Zimbabwe in 1896 and
immediately started confiscating the land and cat-
tle of the people. Initially in search of gold, they
ruthlessly sought to impose white supremacy
through forced labor and heavy taxation. Imbued
with a great deal of racial arrogance, they rarely
if ever hesitated to engage in numerous acts of
physical cruelty, beating and torturing the
Africans as they saw fit.
It did not take long for the Africans to start resist-
ing and fighting back. In fact, the military campaign
to push the British out of Zimbabwe, known as the
Chimurengaor “the war of liberation,” started in
May 1896 at the initiative of the Ndebele people,
another important ethnic group in Zimbabwe. The
Shona joined them in their efforts a few months
later in October 1896. A defining characteristic of
the Chimurenga was its great reliance on African
religion, withmhondoroplaying a critical role.
At the time of the white invasion, the Nehanda
medium was Chargwe Nyakasikana, a woman
who lived in the northern part of the country and
whose influence was already quite widespread.
Nehanda, along with two other Lion spirits
(Mukwati in Matabeleland, but especially Kagubi
in western Mashonaland), found herself organiz-
ing and directing her people’s resistance to foreign
assaults. In fact, the mhondoro effectively con-
veyed to their people that Mwari, their supreme
god, unequivocally disapproved of the white pres-
ence and actions and demanded that the white
people be removed from the land.
At first, they experienced many victories on the
battlefield, and the realization of Mwari’s wish (i.e.,
the physical removal of the British from the land)
seemed near. H. H. Pollard, a European commis-
sioner who operated in Nehanda’s zone and had
become notorious for his cruelty, was captured.
Brought to Nehanda, she had him work as her ser-
vant for a while, and then had him executed.
However, running out of supplies, the Africans
were eventually defeated by the Europeans.
Nehanda allowed herself to be taken into captivity
to avoid further African bloodshed an d deaths. She
was kept at the Harare jail. Her trial opened in
March 1898. Found guilty of having killed Pollard,
she was executed by hanging on April 27, 1898.
Unlike Kagubi (who was tried at the same time and
also sentenced to death for killing a police officer),
Nehanda refused until her last day to convert to
Christianity. Furthermore, before she was hung,
Nehanda announced to the Europeans that her
body would rise again to lead the second, and this
time victorious, struggle against them.
Because of the courage and heroism that she
never failed to display, Nehanda is considered by
many to be the single most important person in
the modern history of Zimbabwe. She certainly
was a major source of inspiration during the
more recent nationalist struggle of the 1960s and
1970s. She is still referred to, out of affection446 Nehanda