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executed 27th April 1898  Charwe, from the Hwata clan, held the position of 'Nyanda' - medium and priestess (also spelt Nehanda).
She was one of the leaders of the Mashona resistance in present day Zimbabwe in 1896-7.For two years this woman led a heroic and determined war against the invasion by Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company, supported by the British Government. In the end her armies were crushed. They had only spears and blunderbusses. The whites machine-gunned them in their hundreds. Nyanda was captured and tried in Salisbury. At the trial she said that her bones would come back to life and lead a second 'Chimurenga', or war that all are required to take part in. When she was about to die the authorities tried to convert her to Christianity. She refused and tried to kill herself. They tied her down and took her to the scaffold. The photo below shows Nyanda with Kagubi, another leader of the Mashona resistance, paraded before the camera in Salisbury. 
Nyanda (large picture)Source: Camerawork no.20, December 1980. |
updated:
8 Jan
2002