The Bones Must Rise: Why Nehanda and Kaguvi Belong at the National Heroes Acre

When Mbuya Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana faced the British executioner’s noose, Shona oral tradition records that she uttered a prophetic declaration that would ignite Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle: "Mapfupa angu achamuka" ("My bones will surely rise").

While those specific words were not written down by the colonial court reporter, her actual actions on the gallows perfectly matched that exact spirit of undying resistance. Over a century later, her bones remain trapped in a state of profound historical humiliation. While her skull was severed and shipped to the United Kingdom as a macabre colonial trophy, her skeletal remains—alongside those of her fellow First Chimurenga spirit medium, Sekuru Kaguvi—lie in an unmarked, neglected plot within Mbare’s Pioneer Cemetery.

The time has come for Zimbabwe to correct this historical injustice. The state must exhume the remains of Nehanda and Kaguvi and relocate them to the National Heroes Acre in Harare—even if Nehanda's head remains missing across the ocean.

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⚖️ The Trial: Defiance in the Face of the Hangman

The official colonial trial records from 1898—archived under The State vs. Nehanda and Kaguvi—offer a chilling look at the legal machinery the British South Africa Company (BSAC) used to eliminate her [UNESCO]. Because the court operated strictly in English and Dutch, it stripped Nehanda of her status as a spiritual leader, treating her purely as a common criminal.

On 2 March 1898, Judge John Gilbert Kotzé delivered the final, clinical death sentence:

"The judgment of this Court is that you, Nyakasikana, alias Nehanda, be returned to custody, and that you be hanged by the neck until you be dead, at such time and place as his Honour the High Commissioner shall be pleased to appoint. And may the Lord have mercy on your soul."

To secure a conviction for the murder of Native Commissioner Henry Pollard, the prosecution relied on the testimony of an African witness named Watoka, who inadvertently preserved the record of Nehanda's absolute authority over local warriors:

"The prisoner Nehanda said: 'Bring Pollard here to me.' He was brought... Nehanda said to us: 'Kill him, but do not shoot him with a gun, lest you bring the white men down upon us. Cut his throat with a knife.' It was done as she commanded."

The most vivid description of her final moments comes from the personal logs of Father Francis Richartz, the Jesuit priest assigned to convert Nehanda to Christianity before she stepped onto the gallows. While Kaguvi relented and was baptised, Richartz recorded that Nehanda fiercely resisted:

"Nehanda was brought in. She refused to listen to me or to any religious instruction. She began to dance, to laugh, and to scream out... she wanted to be taken back to her own people in Mazowe. She cried out: 'Take me to my country! I want to be buried by the Mazowe River!' She became so violent that we had to bind her hands behind her back."

Richartz's log concludes by capturing her final, silent victory over her captors:

"When she arrived at the foot of the scaffold, her face changed and she became completely silent. She died with a look of utter defiance on her face, refusing to the very last second to say a single word to us or to accept the crucifix."

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🪦 Trapped in Mbare: The Spatial Irony of Her Burial Today

Following her execution on 27 April 1898, colonial authorities decapitated Nehanda and shipped her skull to England. To prevent her burial site from becoming a shrine for future anti-colonial resistance, they buried her headless torso and Sekuru Kaguvi's body in absolute secrecy.

Today, those sacred remains lie in an unmarked grave within the African section of Mbare’s Pioneer Cemetery in Harare. Over the decades, municipal upkeep has collapsed. The site has been hit hard by scrap-metal thieves who have stolen name plaques, and the overgrown graveyard has unfortunately become a magnet for local youths looking for hidden spaces to abuse drugs or engage in illicit activities.

This urban decay is made worse by a profound historical irony: Native Commissioner Henry Pollard is buried in the exact same cemetery.

                       [ MBARE PIONEER CEMETERY ]
                                    │
         ┌──────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┐
         ▼                                                     ▼
 [ The Pioneer Section ]                              [ The Native Section ]
  - Well-kept, fully marked plots                      - Unmarked, unrecorded mass graves
  - Judge Watermeyer & Jailer Hayden buried here       - Home to Nehanda and Kaguvi's remains
  - Native Commissioner Henry Pollard buried here      - Overgrown and neglected field

While the BSAC intentionally threw Nehanda and Kaguvi into an unrecorded, unmarked mass grave to erase them from history, they gave Pollard a full, dignified burial with honors. Pollard’s grave sits in the European "Pioneer" section, complete with a stone ledger and a clear plaque documenting his name and his death during the 1896 uprisings.

Because of this setup, Nehanda, Kaguvi, their executioners (Jailer Hayden), their hanging judge (Judge Watermeyer), and the man they executed (Pollard) are all buried within the exact same few acres of land in Mbare. The executioners rest under preserved, marked stones, while the national heroes remain lost in the weeds right next to them. Leaving them there allows their colonial executioners to maintain symbolic dominion over them.

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🏛️ The Case for Reburial and why 27 April Should Be a Public Holiday

Mainstream critics often argue that Zimbabwe should wait to exhume the bodies until the British government successfully identifies and repatriates Nehanda's missing skull from London archives. However, leaving their skeletal remains in a neglected Mbare field while waiting for a foreign entity to audit its museums is a compromise of national sovereignty.

Moving the bones to the National Heroes Acre immediately achieves crucial goals:

• A Monument of Defiance: Interring a headless skeleton at the National Heroes Acre transforms the empty space in her tomb into an aggressive, visual accusation against colonial theft. It acts as a permanent, high-profile demand for repatriation that international visitors cannot ignore.
• Bridging the Revolution: The National Heroes Acre holds many heroes of the Second Chimurenga (the 1960s–1970s bush war), but it is structurally hollow without the physical presence of the First Chimurenga's spiritual core.

Furthermore, 27 April should be declared a National Public Holiday in Zimbabwe.

Currently, Zimbabwe marks Heroes Day in August, which broadly honors all liberation fighters. However, 27 April—the day Nehanda and Kaguvi were hanged in 1898—marks the true spiritual birth of the nation.

Declaring 27 April a dedicated public holiday would force the nation to pause and focus entirely on the foundational sacrifice of the First Chimurenga. It would serve as an annual, uncompromising reminder of national sovereignty, the ongoing fight to reclaim stolen heritage from Europe, and the moment a woman’s silent defiance on a colonial scaffold shook the foundations of an empire.

A nation cannot fully honor its freedom while allowing its architects to remain buried as anonymous prisoners of a forgotten company town, mere yards away from the fully honored graves of their colonial killers. Bring the bones to the mountain, and let 27 April be remembered forever.

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