Remembering – Honouring – Restoring – Reviving
Zimbabwe 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 …
Zimbabwe Sekuru Kaguvi (Kagubi, Kakubi), was a svikiro (medium), a traditionalist leader in pre-colonial Zimbabwe, and a leader in the Shona rebellion of 1896-1897 against European rule, known as the First Chimurenga. The sobriquet “Kaguvi” was a designation given at times those who were said to speak for the traditional Shona supreme deity Mwari. Resources …
Haiti Cécile Fatiman (1771-1883), was a Haitian vodou priestess, a mambo. She is famous for her participation in the vodou ceremony at Bois Caïman, which is considered to be one of the starting points of the Haitian Revolution. “Cast aside the image of the God of the oppressors.” Cécile Fatiman In August 1791, Fatiman presided …
Haiti Dutty Boukman (or Boukman Dutty; died 7 November 1791) was an early leader of the Haitian Revolution. Born in Senegambia (present-day Senegal and Gambia), he was enslaved to Jamaica. He eventually ended up in Haiti, where he became a leader of the Maroons and a vodou houngan (priest). According to some contemporary accounts, Boukman, …
Cameroon Omgba Bissogo(c. 1855 – 1896) was an Ewondo tribal chief and warrior who, during the colonial period in Cameroon in 1895, led a rebellion against German forces present in Cameroon. Omgba Bissogo was the head of the Ewondo Mvog Ottou sublineage. Bissogo and his army won their initial battles against the Germans.This was the …
South Africa The Bambatha Rebellion (or the Zulu Rebellion) of 1906 was led by Bambatha kaMancinza (c. 1860–1906?), leader of the Zondi clan of the Zulu people, who lived in the Mpanza Valley (now a district near Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal) against British rule and taxation in the Colony of Natal, South Africa. Bambatha had occasionally been …
Cameroon Barka Ngainoumbey, known as Karnou (meaning “he who can change the world”), was a Gbaya religious prophet and healer from the Sangha River basin region. In 1924 he began preaching non-violent resistance against the French colonisers in response to the recruitment of natives in the construction of the Congo-Ocean Railway and rubber tapping, and …
St Croix Mary Thomas, known as Queen Mary, (ca. 1848–1905) was one of the leaders of the 1878 “Fireburn” labor riot, or uprising, on the island of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies. Mary Thomas was from Antigua and arrived in St. Croix in the 1860s to take work on the plantations in the …
Cuba The Aponte conspiracy (also known as the Aponte rebellion) was a large-scale slave rebellion in Cuba that occurred in 1812. It is named after its alleged leader, José Antonio Aponte. In the year 1808, Napoleon’s invasion of Spain and the arrival of falsehoods around the theme of slavery caused a risky resolution on behalf …
South Carolina The Stono Rebellion (also known as Cato’s Conspiracy or Cato’s Rebellion) was a slave revolt that began on 9 September 1739, in the colony of South Carolina. It was the largest slave rebellion in the Southern Colonies, with 25 colonists and 35 to 50 Africans killed. The uprising was led by native Africans …