Southern Africa

Mbuya Nehanda

Zimbabwe

Charwe, the medium of Nehanda (left), with the medium of Kagubi in prison, 1897

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). 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.

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