Born Gumboreshumba in the Hartley (Chegutu) District, Kaguvi’s medium was related to the national spirit medium of Chaminuka and was a member of the Chivero chieftaincy in Paramount Chief Mashayamombe’s territory, writes Dr Felix Muchemwa in his book The Struggle For Land in Zimbabwe (1890 – 2010) that The Patriot is serialising.

THE First Chimurenga, which erupted in June 1896, affected all Mashonaland districts and became almost an instantaneous religious crusade against white settlers.
The most important and obvious grievances being land and gold, ‘forced’ labour and Hut Tax. Virtually all paramount chiefs in Mashonaland had been struggling against these issues in their own various ways since 1894.
By 1896, a total of 20 042 556 acres or 8 019 829 hectares of land had been claimed, pegged and partly occupied by the European invaders in all Mashonaland districts, mostly south of the tsetse fly zone and in high rainfall areas with agriculturally rich soils. (Palmer p. 282)
The loss of such huge tracts of land to white settlers obviously threatened the very existence of the Shona people and left the chiefs and national spirit mediums of Nehanda, Kaguvi, Goronga and Wamponga – the Shona power centres on land – no other option, but to wage a protracted war almost solely to recover the lost resource.
‘Forced’ labour was a strange phenomenon to all Shona people.
Any form of slavery had been fiercely resisted by them and the slave trade had never been allowed to penetrate into the plateau territory of the Munhumutapa Empire, south of the Zambezi River.
Also, the fact that it had never been part of Shona culture to be employed by individuals – be they rich and powerful or even chiefs – only made Shona resistance to forced labour fiercer.
The dispossession of the Shona people of their rich natural resources of gold and the imposition of a Hut Tax collectively amounting to tens of thousands of cattle, goats and sheep were the last stroke which provoked Shona people into open rebellion of the First Chimurenga in 1896.
Preparations for First Chimurenga in Mashonaland
The spirit mediums (mhondoro) of various regions and chieftancies in Matabeleland were organised through a Mwari shrine system with local oracular caves at Njelele, Matonjeni, Mangwe and Ntabazikamambo. (Cobbin, 1977: p.62)
Such a shrine system did not exist in Mashonaland where they depended on a hierarchy of spirit mediums, with the mediums of Chaminuka and Nehanda occupying the top as National spirit mediums.
Their equivalent in Matabeleland would be Mkwati.
At his trial, at the end of the uprising, the spirit medium of Kaguvi was going to emphasise the seniority and National spirit medium role played by Nehanda, Goronga and Wamponga during the First Chimurenga. (Ranger, 1967: pp.200-212)
In 1882, Chaminuka’s spirit medium had been killed by the Ndebele and, there was to be no replacement until 1903.
The murder had therefore left Nehanda’s medium alone at the top of a hierarchy where she commanded the most religious influence on all paramount chiefs in Mashonaland, particularly those in the north-east and central Mashonaland districts like Salisbury (Harare), Hartley, Mazowe, Shamva, Lomagundi, Marandellas (Marondera), Makoni and Charter (Chivhu).
However, after April 1896, it was an influence that was to be shared with Kaguvi, the regional spirit medium for the part of Mashonaland that included Salisbury District.
In April 1896, Mkwati recommended the identification of a liaison male spirit medium who would be directly involved in the conduct of the First Chimurenga by liaising with the warriors in Matabeleland for the prosecution of the war in Mashonaland.
The recommendation was made to Paramount Chief Mashayamombe who consequently identified Kaguvi’s medium, Gumboreshumba. (Ranger, 1967: pp. 216-218)
The choice was strategic in several ways.
Born, Gumboreshumba in the Hartley District, Kaguvi’s medium was related to the national spirit medium of Chaminuka and was a member of the Chivero chieftaincy in Paramount Chief Mashayamombe’s territory.
Because part of the medium’s family also resided in the Charter District, Kaguvi would be well-known to the paramount chiefs in that district, and these included Maromo, Mutekedza, Gambiza, Musarurwa and Mashava.
Also having been the regional spirit medium in the Salisbury District, resident in Chishawasha and in Chikwakwa areas, he would also be well-known to Paramount Chiefs Mangwende, Svosve, Chikwakwa, Chihota, Mashonganyika, Kunzvi-Nyandoro and Makoni.
Kaguvi’s medium was, therefore, summoned by Paramount Chief Mashayamombe in early April 1896 and based himself at the paramount chief’s residence, on the Mupfure River, about 36 miles south-west of Norton.
From there, the medium received emissaries from most Paramount Chiefs in Mashonaland.
Paramount Chief Chikwakwa sent Chief Zhanda, his best warrior commander since way before 1890.
Zvimba sent his son, Garamombe.
Kunzvi-Nyandoro sent his son Panashe.
Mangwende sent his son Muchemwa and Makoni sent his sons led by the eldest, ‘Mhiripiri’ (Ranger, 1967: pp.218-220), better known as Murumbi.
The war council thoroughly discussed and examined plans for a simultaneous outbreak of the First Chimurenga throughout Mashonaland.
However, the final decision on the timings was postponed pending the return of a delegation dispatched to the national spirit medium, Mkwati, at Ntabazikamambo, for that purpose in May 1896.
The delegation comprised Mashayamombe’s own emissaries plus Bonda, a Rozvi headman and descendant of the last Rozvi mambo, living under Chief Musarurwa in the Range, Charter District, as well as Tshiwa, a ‘Rozvi child of Mwari’ or Rozvi spirit medium.
In early June, the emissaries were back, accompanied by only a small contingent of Chimurenga warriors from Mtini’s Rozvi ‘Mangoba or Ngnoba regiment’.
These were to be based at Mashayamombe’s residence from where they were to assist in the co-ordination of the war. (Ranger, 1967:p.203)
It must at this point be remembered as matter of fact that by the end of May 1896, the imperial settler-forces in Matabeleland had forced most First Chimurenga warriors into the defensive positions at Ntabazikamambo and in the Matopo Hills.
This therefore means that very few Ndebele First Chimurenga warriors were able to cross into Mashonaland to fight European settlers on behalf of Shona people as claimed by most European settlers at the time.
It also explains the smallness of the contingent of warriors that accompanied Mashayamombe’s emissaries back to Mashonaland.
With the emissaries back at Mashayamombe, co-ordinated plans were immediately put in place.
Tshiwa was assigned to mobilise forces in his own home area, Paramount Chief Churumanzu (Chinyama)’s territory.
But, as expected, Paramount Chief Churumanzu (Chinyama) refused to join First Chimurenga forces.
He, instead, joined the European settler-forces and it was his rivals, Banga and Chaka, who answered Tshiwa’s call and joined the First Chimurenga.
In the same region, Paramount Chief Gutu (Makuwaza)’s case was curious.
Even though he fought for the European settlers, he was still wary of the national spirit medium, Kaguvi.
He still ‘sent the livestock of whites’ who had been killed by First Chimurenga warriors in his territory to the medium. (Ranger, 1967: p.224)
Charter District was assigned to Bonda, who hailed from there.
The Rozvi headman easily mobilised the same Njanja confederacy paramount chiefs who had earlier accepted and defended the Rozvi Mambo, Tohwechipi, at Bedza and Mavangwe hills against Mzilikazi’s raids between 1860 and 1866.
The paramount chiefs included Maromo, Mutekedza, Gambiza, Musarurwa and Mashava, who all still religiously revered the spirit of the Rozvi Mambo and were only too eager and ready to join the war, more so because it was sanctioned by the national regional spirit mediums of Mkwati, Nehanda, Kaguvi, Goronga and Wamponga. (Ranger, 1967: p.212)
By August 1889, trade with the Portuguese had, of course, heavily armed the majority of the paramount chiefs in the Salisbury (Harare), Charter, Hartley and Makoni District with elephant guns, Winchester repeater rifles, metfords, tower-muskets and blunderbuses. (Cobbin, 1977: p.77)