The Sunday Mail
Sometime, mid last month, the Sunday Mail Extra ran a story, as part of its First Chimurenga series, detailing the times and unfortunately demise of one of the country greatest military minds post 1980 ate Chief Chingaira of Makoni District in Manicaland Province.
Apart from being a great military strategists and a pain for the colonialist who he evaded for months on end and defeated on numerous fronts, Chief Chingaira will mostly be remembered for his deaths rather his military prowess.
Chingaira, together with six of his advisers, were captured and executed in September 1896 with the former beheaded and his head believed to be taken back to England for exhibition.
In our story we quoted extensively the current Chief Makoni, Colgan Gwasira, but mr Donald Sarudzai Kamba has come out disputing a couple of facts put forward by the current chief.
The two were at one time embroiled in a quarrel for the chieftainship of Makoni and the matter is still being handled by the High Court.
Below is Donald Sarudzai’s account on the Chief Chingaira story and the relative facts that pertain to his beheading and the location of Chingaira’s remains.
The Sunday Mail Extra of November 16 2014 captures the reigning Chief Makoni, Colgan Gwasira Zendera, saying “The story of Mambo Chingaira’s beheading is definitely true because of all the 21 chiefs buried at the royal Chitsotso enclave, only Chingaira’s body is incomplete, the rest of the bodies from the inaugural King, Ndapfunya, to my predecessor are intact and can still be seen in their mummified form.’
It is in the interest of history to point out that while the alleged number of chiefs is a statistical error and their burial place an incorrect location, it is tragic to want to confirm to all who care to know that Chingaira’s head is indeed some trophy in some museum in the United Kingdom by asserting that his body was embalmed without its head and is on show in its incomplete form.
Besides, it is incorrect to give the impression that there is ready and public access to the corpses that can supposedly be seen in their mummified form.
This is simply misleading and out of sync with the Makoni traditions.
Mummification is a highly emotional, spiritual and cultural matter, and, the informed elders of royalty are aware of the rigorous requirements that have to be met for a chief to secure a burial place at the sacred shrine befitting the Makoni chiefs.
It is incorrect to paint the picture that the departed Makoni chiefs automatically qualified for royal burial and are subsequently paraded, for all to see, in their mummified form, as if they are hosted in some public museum.
For the record, Chitsotso is NOT a burial place for Makoni chiefs as portrayed by Chief Colgan Gwasira.
Chitsotso is a sacred shrine exclusively used for the burial of Makoni princesses, vazvare, madzisemukadzi, distinguishable by their outstanding contribution in not only safeguarding the Makoni chieftainship but also in shaping its judicial functions.
For the record, only Chief Muswati Makoni (1830 to 1835) was buried at Chitsotso and he was not mummified.
Also, Makoni chiefs who would have been nominated, installed and carried their duties to the satisfaction of the people of Maungwe are buried at the sacred Matotwe Hills, Kumasendeke.
In the same way as princesses would have to qualify to secure burial at Chitsotso, being a Makoni Chief does not necessarily and automatically assure one of a burial place at Matotwe hills.
The extremely high stakes associated with the mummification and traditional burial of the Makoni chiefs, span; not only the legitimacy and transparency of the nomination and installation procedures and processes, but also, their scrupulous execution of rites and administration of justice that the Makoni people want and deserve.
Rugoyi, the official undertaker is the only person vested with the authority to conduct burial protocols pertinent to the Makoni tradition.
For the record, at a meeting held on 14th June 2013, when the legitimacy of Chief Naboth Gandanzara Muswati (1993 to 2008) came under the spotlight, Rugoyi, pleaded ignorant about what happened to the chief when he died, but, was able to state that he was not officially informed of his death.
Rugoyi preside over the mummification protocols and his ignorance about what happened to the chief’s body clearly opens up too many and serious questions as to the location of his final resting place.
Chief Zendera Makoni (1835 to 1840) was murdered in 1840 by an usurper called Mukunyadze and this created pandemonium among the Makonis and in the process scuttled traditional rites accorded to royalty.
It would appear clear from a casual glimpse of the above-stated departed chiefs that not every Makoni chief found his way to the designated sacred burial place, clearly ruling out a scenario where the so-called 21 chiefs are seen in their mummified form.
On repatriation of Chingaira’s head, it was interesting to note that the 92 year old Moses Gwasira Zendera, a grandfather of the Gwasiras, recalls and regrets that in spite of being “in London on many occasions”, including staying “a walk away’ from the Queen’s residence it never crossed his mind that efforts needed to be made to enquire about Chingaira’s head, and sadly “did not do anything to try to bring (his) ancestor’s head to Zimbabwe”’
Moses Gwasira continued, “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 in1988.”
Coincidentally, it was in 1988 when the Nyamanhindi house represented by the late Phineas Makoni and the late James Casper Makoni went to the United Kingdom and did not only fail to see Chingaira’s head but were also told that the head was in South Africa.
It would, in the circumstances, assist matters if Gwasira were to contact the sons and daughters of the Makoni clan who saw the head of Chingaira and request them to not only give their testimonies to the Nyamanhindi house but also to give exact details of the head’s location and name of museum.
It is the duty of the Makoni people, led by the Nyamanhindi house (Nyamanhindi was Chingaira’s father), to investigate and establish where Chingaira’s head is and approach Government with a request to institute necessary protocols with the country hosting the head, to allow for its repatriation.
Moses Gwasira, in particular, fails to enlighten the reader how the publication will result in the repatriation of Chingaira’s head.
If anything, his utterances expose the absence of standing and connectivity he appears to suffer from in the consummation of the Makoni chieftainship.
While the call for the repatriation of Chingaira’s head is noble and must be supported by all patriotic Zimbabweans, there is need for statistical capacity on Makoni chiefs, and, knowledge of the location of their burial grounds.
There is dire need for restraint in any publicity drive, and publications that sound like some spoiler to an unknown destination should be avoided. History will judge the Makoni people harshly if they do not treat their history with seriousness, dignity and respect.
It ought to be recognized that Chingaira was able to display the great military strategist he was with the immense support of his cousin, Kamba, of the Nyakurukwa house.
The famous ninga ya Kamba and the resourcefulness Kamba engendered at securing arms from Antonio de Suezar (Ghuveya of Portuguese East Africa) to oil the war machinery need mentioning to keep history in proper check. Kamba even met his demise before Chingaira and is remembered for his heroic acts.
Selective narratives that seek to allege that Chingaira was sold out by Ndapfunya and Chipunza, in view of the overwhelmingly clear circumstances of his capture, border on ambition to create a semblance of legitimacy by those who aspire to endear and catapult themselves to a royalty that still requires them to shorten the distance they must continue to travel while sitting on the periphery of the richness of the Makoni and Chipunza history.
The rich history of the Makoni and Chipunza people deserve better treatment. It must be noted that accounts that are whimsical and nonsensical in nature, content and scope are a disservice to society, and, an attempt to create a wedge between the leading torch bearers of the Nyati clan.
The Nyamanhindi and Nyakurukwa houses that have a long history of directing royalty and putting back on rail the Makoni chieftainship after a five year occupation under outsider Mukunyadze (1840 to 1845), have a special role in safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage of the Makoni people.
