Nehanda never wrote a blog

September 3, 2008 by Virtugirl Africa ·
Filed under: I was just thinking, Zimbabwean diaries

There is a tree in Josiah Tongogara Avenue in Harare which stands alone in the middle of the road It is a peculiar sight and a sheer miracle that with all the recklessness of Harare drivers it remains unscathed.

But why, when all the other trees around it were chopped down decades ago, was it spared? More on this later.

In the year 1896, it is said that the Zimbabwean people started their first war of resistance against the colonial settlers who had started arriving in 1890. The inspiration and main revolutionary force behind this uprising was one Mbuya Nehanda.

Nehanda was a spirit medium and along with her ally Sekuru Kaguvi, she stirred up the people and urged them to fight against this new force taking over the mother land.

The war, dubbed the First Chimurenga, was not successful and in the end Nehanda and Kaguvi were captured and hung.

That tree in Josiah Tongogara Avenue is said to be the tree upon which Mbuya Nehanda was hung. That’s why it was left standing.

Now, Nehanda never wrote a blog. As a progeny of hers, I can only imagine the pain she felt as she saw her home land being over run. I can only imagine the anger and frustration as she fought a losing war. If she had had a blog she would have called out to Africa to help her. She would have stirred the hearts of men with the very words- unwritten and uncaptured- that led to the first Chimurenga.

But I have a blog. I have a voice. On her behalf and on behalf of all our ancestors I will speak… and finally after so many years, the world will hear our story…

Tell the world: