Charwe Nyakasikana was born in 1840, in what is today called the
Chishawasha District located in Central
Mashonaland. She was the daughter of a man named Chitaura, who was the younger son of Shayachimwe. Shayachimwe, founded the
Hwata dynasty in the upper Mazowe valley in the late eighteenth century. She married and had two daughters and a son, but the name of her husband is not recalled. Living in the hills around Mazoe, Zimbabwe, in the mid 19th century, were various subchiefs including Chidamba. In Chidamba's village lived Charwe Nyakasikana, who was considered to be the female incarnation of the oracle spirit Nehanda. D. N. Beach suggests that she became possessed by the spirit in 1884. As medium of the spirit Nehanda, Nyakasikana made
oracular pronouncements and performed traditional ceremonies that were thought to ensure rain and good crops. She held great authority even before the 1896-7 rebellion. She was a powerful woman and staunchly committed to upholding traditional Shona culture. In a map drawn by missionaries (c. 1888) displaying work by the Church, there is a village called Nehanda's. Mbuya Nehanda was instrumental in organising the nationwide participation in the First Chimurenga of 1896–7. King
Lobengula recognised her as a powerful spiritual medium in the land. During the arrival of the first European settlers, Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana occupied an important and influential position in the religious hierarchy in
Mashonaland, where she is the only recorded woman known to have held such a significant position during the 19th century. Spirit mediums at first promoted good relations between the Zezuru people and early
European settlers. As white settlement increased in the land, according to sources Nehanda initially welcomed them by the pioneers and counseled her followers to be friendly towards them. "Don't be afraid of them," she said, "as they are only traders, but take a black cow to them and say this is the meat with which we greet you." However, relationships became strained when the settlers started imposing taxes on the Matabele and conscripting them for various labor projects. Following the imposition of a "
hut tax" and other tax assessments in 1894, both the
Ndebele and
Shona people revolted in June 1896, in what became known as the First
Chimurenga or
Second Matabele War. The rebellion, in
Mashonaland at least, was encouraged by traditional religious leaders including Nyakasikana. Due to the cultural beliefs of the local people, the leading roles behind the rebellion were three spirit mediums. The rebellion was initiated in Matebeland in May 1896, led by Mukwati. In October 1896 Kaguvi and Nehanda from Mashonaland joined in; these were the three critical people behind the rebellion. Kaguvi (aka Kagubi) was believed to be the spirit husband of the other great Shona spirit, Nehanda, and it may have been this connection which enabled him to persuade Mbuya Nehanda to preach the gospel of war in Mashonaland, which led to the first Chimurenga. The role as well as the influence of the spirit mediums in form of Kaguvi and Nehanda, cannot be understated. As far as the people were concerned Nehanda and Kaguvi were the voices of God aka 'Mwari'. Kaguvi and later Nehanda (after being convinced by Kaguvi) preached that according to Mwari the cause of all the trouble that had come upon the land was the white man. They had brought the locusts and the
rinderpest, and to crown it all the owners of the cattle which had died were not allowed to eat the meat of the carcasses, which had to be burned or buried. Mwari decreed that the white men were to be driven from the country; that the natives had nothing to fear because Mwari would turn the bullets of the white man into water. After the end of the rebellion in 1897, Nyakasikana was captured and charged with the murder of Native Commissioner Henry Hawkins Pollard in 1896. She was found guilty after eyewitnesses claimed that she had ordered an associate to chop Pollard's head off. A public press photograph was taken of Nehanda and Kaguvi in 1897 by the colonial police to show their successes in quelling the rebellion. Consequently, she was hanged in March 1898. Much mythology grew up around the difficulty involved in killing her, although the only account of her executiion that survives comes from a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, Fr Francis Richartz. Richartz had been sent to Mashonaland as a missionary, and had been working through the prisoners in an attempt to convert them before their deaths. His account suggests that he was successful with the other condemned prisoners, and was able to baptise them before their deaths. However, he did not manage to convert Nehanda to Christianity before her death. == Legacy ==