Bring back our chief’s head!

16 Nov, 2014 - 06:11 0 Views
Bring back our chief’s head! Bring back our heritage, says Cde Colgan Zendera, who is the reigning Chief Makoni

The Sunday Mail

Bring back our heritage, says Cde Colgan Zendera, who is the reigning Chief Makoni

Bring back our heritage, says Cde Colgan Zendera, who is the reigning Chief Makoni

As the buried chapters of the First Chimurenga war continue to be unearthed, traditionalists in Rusape have demanded the repatriation of their slain warrior-king Chingaira’s severed head from Britain, where it was shipped to back in 1896.

Extensive research conducted by The Sunday Mail Extra and corroborated by local historians in Makoni district reveals how Cecil John Rhodes’ invading white forces brutally crushed the people’s uprising in Manicaland, decapitated their stubborn leader and “gifted” it to the British crown as a war medal.

Chingaira’s skull has pride of place, among other priceless items looted from new colonies, at a London museum in Westminster Abbey.

Village elders are now appealing to Government to intervene and demand that British authorities facilitate the long-awaited return of Chingaira’s head plus any other human remains and Zimbabwean-made artefacts that were stolen from different sites across the country and illegally transferred to Europe.

Mambo Chingaira Makoni was one of the fiercest warriors to confront Cecil John Rhodes’ Pioneer Column and his brave resistance is reputed to have claimed the lives of more than 10 percent of the invading army, according to some historical texts.

He was finally seized on September 4, 1896 after his hideout at an enclave in the sacred Gwindingwi Mountains – 20km north-east of Rusape – was revealed to the invaders by a conniving cousin.

It is said Chingaira emerged from a 10km-deep cave after merciless bombing by a crack British force using “seven-pound dynamites” and led by a general called Campbell and his two Scottish accomplices, the McDonald brothers.

The Makoni strongman was wrapped in a red cloth upon capture and, together with his closest military aides, frog-marched to the native commissioner’s offices in the then Umtali (now Mutare) where they were summarily executed without trial in full public glare.

Legend has it that Chingaira’s head bobbed high into the air after simultaneous shots by a firing squad of 20, and was deposited in a bag which was thrown on the next wagon to the port in South Africa for shipping to the colonial headquarters in London.

Moses Gwasira (92), grandson of the slain Chingaira and one of the elders of the Makoni clan, is adamant that the head should be returned.

“Some of our sons and daughters who have visited or stayed in the United Kingdom over the years can testify to seeing Chingaira’s embalmed head with their own eyes in the museum. I regret missing the same opportunity when I was in London in 1988. But that is because at that time we were still colonially brain-washed and had not started to view the world with a liberated eye as is the case nowadays since the land reform implemented by our Government,’’ said Gwasira.

The National Monuments and Museums of Zimbabwe has in its records details of the atrocities carried out on Chingaira and other heroes of the First Chimurenga, like Mbuya Nehanda, Sekuru Kaguvi and Chinengundu of the Mashayamombe royal house – who was also beheaded.

NMMZ executive director Dr Gibson Mahachi says “triumphalism” was the main motive behind dismembering and decapitation by British invaders.

“Beheading was prevalent that time and Chingaira’s head was used as a trophy and as a show of force by the victors. They were able to cow their next victims just by showing the head of a slain African king minus its torso,” says Dr Mahachi.

The graves of most of the heroes and heroines of the first war against colonialism are still unknown today with a theory that they were deliberately left unmarked to prevent them becoming shrines from which further resistance would spring forth.

The rest of Chingaira’s remains are, however, safe in their sacred burial site in Gwindingwi Mountains where all the Makoni chiefs are interred after their corpses are mummified.

The reigning Chief Makoni, Cde Colgan Gwasira Zendera, told The Sunday Mail Extra: “The story of Mambo Chingaira’s beheading is definitely true because of all the 21 Makoni chiefs buried at the royal Chitsotso enclave, only Chingaira’s body is incomplete . . . The rest of the bodies from the inaugural Makoni King, Ndapfyunya, to my predecessor are intact and can still be seen in their mummified form,” said Chief Makoni.

Chief Makoni, who is a war veteran, said Government would have achieved an important national principle if they secured the head from Britain.

“One of my tasks is to press for the return of Chingaira’s skull. It belongs to the people of Makoni and Zimbabwe as a whole. It is part of our heritage and therefore it should be returned without any further delay and reburied in the same way we do with bones of our slain freedom fighters who are being exhumed from mass graves.

“The reclamation process, however, cannot be handled by individuals alone but can only be done through a bilateral effort involving the central Government. I feel this will help us in a lot of ways and some problems like shortage of rainfall, incessant hunger, etc, could be a result of these aggrieved souls begging to return.”

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