Global InformationNehanda Charwe Nyakasikana information
Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana also known as Mbuya Nehanda (c. 1840–1898) was a svikiro, or spirit medium of the Zezuru Shona people. She was a medium of Nehanda, a female Shona mhondoro (a powerful and respected ancestral spirit).[1] 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 what is now Zimbabwe led by Cecil John Rhodes in 1889.[2] She was a Hera of the HwataShava Mufakose Dynasty. She and her ally Sekuru Kaguvi were eventually captured and executed by the company on charges of murder.[3] She has been commemorated by Zimbabweans by statues, songs, novels, and poems, and the names of streets and hospitals.[4] The legacy of the medium continued to be linked to the theme of resistance, particularly the guerrilla war that began in 1972. Her name became of increasing importance to the nationalist movements in Zimbabwe.[5]
- ^ Mazama, Ama (23 April 2019). "Charwe". Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ Dube, Zorodzai (10 October 2018). "The ancestors, violence and democracy in Zimbabwe" (PDF). Verbum et Ecclesia. 39 (1): 3. doi:10.4102/ve.v39i1.1875 – via ISSN: (Online) 2074-7705.
- ^ "The Suppressed Histories". Female Liberators. Retrieved 1 May 2006.
- ^ Beach, D. N. (1998). "An Innocent Woman, Unjustly Accused? Charwe, Medium of the Nehanda Mhondoro Spirit, and the 1896–97 Central Shona Rising in Zimbabwe". History in Africa. 25: 27–54. doi:10.2307/3172179. ISSN 0361-5413. JSTOR 3172179. S2CID 162261666.
- ^ Mazama, Ama (2009), "Nehanda", Encyclopedia of African Religion, SAGE Publications, Inc., doi:10.4135/9781412964623.n280, ISBN 9781412936361