The Sunday Mail
Throughout history, many soldiers have achieved great successes through either their military action or knowledge.
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, French Revolution general Napoleon Bonaparte and Ghengis Khan, the founder of the Mongul empire, the largest empire in history, are often listed among some of the greatest military commanders who ever lived.
As Europe and Asia had its own great military commanders, Africa has also given birth to its military geniuses.
Sadly, historians have always underplayed the great military successes that were registered by the likes of the great Zulu leader Tshaka, a military strategist who changed the face of war in Southern Africa.
The name you are most unlikely going to see documented in the history books, again due to the Western influence, is the late Chief Chingaira of Makoni District in Manicaland Province.
Among historians, Chingaira was considered to be one of Southern Africa’s most revered army commanders and military strategist.
Historical accounts state that the mere mention of Chingaira’s name sent shivers down the spine of British settler soldiers during the First Chimurenga war.
As was the case with most military conquests, European historians have always deliberately downplayed and diluted the achievements of such gallant African warriors.
Instead, most historical accounts on Chingaira almost always focus on the execution and transfer of the slain warrior’s head to Westminster Abbey in London.
Chingaira, together with six of his advisers, was executed in September 1896.
However, there are conflicting statements regarding the circumstances leading to Chingaira’s capture and subsequent execution.
Accounts by European historians state that Chingaira was dynamited out of his hiding place in Gwindingwi hills.
Oral accounts, however, argue that Chingaira only surrendered after his subjects were cut off from food supplies and exposed to mass starvation.
“It is not true that Chingaira was blown out of Gwindingwi hills. The feared fighter only surrendered after he realised that the hold-up threatened the lives of his subjects.
He reasoned that his subjects could not perish because of him, hence he surrendered,” said Sekuru Moses Gwasira, his 92-year-old descendant.
The historical accounts go on to say that Chingaira was shot as soon as he was captured at Gwindingwi hills, contrary to claims that he was transferred to Mutare where he was subsequently executed by a firing squad.
Historian Terrence Ranger writes that Chief Chingaira was captured and shot at Gwindingwi hills. Just before his execution, a defiant Chingaira is said to have boldly declared, “It is all very well to call me a rebel but this country belonged to me and my forefathers long before you came here.”
However, where the body of the late Chief Chingaira was buried is not known up to this day but it is believed that the British took his head to England.
Most historians deliberately ignored to highlight how British settlers sweated to capture one of the most fearsome enemies of the British.
“The settlers were so desperate to capture Chingaira and when they did, they shipped his head to London.
“They wanted to show the British government that they had indeed killed him,” added Sekuru Gwasira.
Given the name Mutota at birth, the warrior was later nicknamed Chingaira because his eyes were red and looked like that of a ngaira, a bird of prey.
From 1889 up until his execution in 1896, Chingaira gallantly led his troops against better equipped enemies.
Whites came to Makoni district and parcelled out huge tracts of land for themselves. They went on to build homes.
Chingaira was not amused by this move and took up arms against the white colonial settlers. He had a powerful army that defeated the colonialists using their own firearms before his eventual capture.
His troops acquired guns from Portuguese traders.
Oral accounts state that the settlers had underrated Chingaira’s military capabilities, resulting in them suffering many casualties. Chingaira made a significant contribution to an anti-colonial war that claimed 372 settlers, a tenth of the settler population during that time.
Chingaira is said to have killed 12 white settlers in the first war, an act that drove the whites to later decapitate him as a form of punishment.
The 12 settlers were buried at Saint Faith Mission, a few kilometres from Nyabadza near Rusape.
Several attempts by the settlers to capture him were repelled and the settlers had to depend on reinforcements from far afield as Harare and Mutare.
Chief Chingaira’s army would hide in secret caves and then attack the settlers when they least expected it.
After a bloody three-year war, Chief Chingaira was captured at Gwindingwi Mountain, hiding in a cave.
The gallant fighter and his army had sought refuge in the cave before those who collaborated with the settlers sold him out.
Oral history asserts that Chief Chingaira was betrayed by Ndapfunya and Chipunza, who helped the white men identify the warrior.
Without the assistance of these two, the white soldiers would not have identified him.
In 1988, a delegation that included Phineas Makoni and James Casper Makoni went to the United Kingdom to try and retrieve Chingaira’s head.
They came back home empty-handed after they were told that Chingaira’s head was in South Africa, it is said.
Calls have been made for the late Chief Chingaira to be declared a national hero.
The late Chief Naboth Makoni is on record calling upon the Government to posthumously confer a national hero status on the late military strategist.
“Chingaira is definitely a national hero with lots of lessons for the second Chimurenga.
“His bravery and subsequent death taught the liberation fighters that the Second Chimurenga was about dying for the sake of the country.
“Chief Chingaira should remain celebrated to this day. His part in history should be correctly projected,” the late Chief Makoni was quoted as saying.
The people of Makoni district have already set aside July 4 as the day to commemorate Chief Chingaira’s life.
In addition to this, a building and a street in Rusape has been named after the military genius.
