By Davet Muzwidzwa

RELIGION is indispensable in the quest of a people to self determination.
According to the Bible, in order to get out of Egypt to Canaan, the Israelites called on Jehovah to lead the way for they did not know the way out of a heavily guarded Egypt.
It is not just any religion that comes to your rescue in times of tribulations, but the religion of your ancestors.
Exodus 20:2 confirms, “I am the Lord your God which have brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage, you shall have no other gods before me.”
Zimbabwe is not therefore the first nation to be assisted by her religion in times of tribulations.
The Portuguese in the 15th century considered Zimbabwe a strategic trade area, and according to Nicolaides, they introduced Christianity to subdue and control the area.
A missionary from Goa, Father Goncalo Da Silveira was tasked with the operation.
Thus Zimbabwe was subjected to 400 years of colonial machinations by various forces from Europe to Christianise the land and destroy the Mwari religion and loot wildlife and minerals before final conquest by the British South Africa Company in 1890.
Zimbabwe had a vibrant Mwari religion that had been in existence since creation as hinted in the Sumerian tablets.
While there were several Njelele Shrines doted all over Africa, the shrine at Matombo (Matopos) or Mabweadziva was central where all nations including the Israelites were coming to seek blessings from Mwari.
Faced with a colonial monster, our ancestors consulted Mwari through our spirit mediums.
Mwari instructed Zimbabweans to resist the devilish onslaught on the land of milk and honey by the colonialists although it was a bitter struggle.
The spiritual high table assigned the spirit of the great warrior, Murenga Sororenzou to lead and execute the return of the land of milk and honey to the rightful heirs of the heritage.
That is why the 1896-97 uprising and the liberation struggle of 1960-80 are referred to as the First and Second Chimurenga.
The spirit of Chaminuka, according to eyewitness accounts given to Frederick Courtney Selous by Chaminuka’s wife Bavea, prophesied in 1883 that, “I shall not return, but, mark you, some eight years from now, behold a stranger will enter, and he will build himself white houses.”
In 1890 the Union Jack flag was raised at Harava within just over seven years true to Chaminuka’s prophecy.
Chaminuka was a chief priest of Mwari religion.
Mwari had come to forewarn his children on the impending danger.
Mukwati was the chief messenger of Mwari at Njelele, Mabweadziva or Matombo.
Under instruction from Mwari, in 1896 Mukwati sent a message to Kaguvi and Nehanda that the Shona and other peoples of Zimbabwe were to join the Ndebele in uprising against the white colonial settlers.
The two spirits Nehanda and Kaguvi, mobilised the resistance as directed and the path to self determination started in earnest.
The battle was lost in 1897, but the war raged on using covert and overt tactics. Nehanda and Kaguvi were captured and sentenced to death.
Before he was hanged, Kaguvi’s role as a priest of the Mwari religion was decommissioned by a Roman Catholic Priest Fr Richertz.
He was baptised and Christianised ‘Dismus’, the name of a thief who was on the cross with Jesus.
He was hanged a decommissioned Mwari religion priest.
True to the resolve of Mwari religion and that of the African woman of substance, Mbuya Nehanda refused to be baptised.
Instead she handed a prophecy regarding the war.
She told Fr Richertz that the war was not over and that Mwari would hand over Zimbabwe to its rightful heirs.
She told Fr Richertz that her bones and the blood of the fallen heroes would come back to liberate Zimbabwe.
Nationalists in the 1940s and 1950s consulted widely with the spirit mediums as priests of the Mwari religion.
They were guided slowly into a protracted armed struggle.
Songs appealing to the spirits to take the message to Mwari were sung.
One example of such songs had these lyrics:
“Mudzimu woyere, vana tatambura
Kune vamwe vedu, vari muma pako
Vachafara riniko, kana taitora Zimbabwe”
Nehanda’s bones reincarnated and executed a decisive blow to the colonial machinery.
During the armed struggle specific instructions were coming from these Mwari priests.
Freedom fighters were given specific rules and regulations of engagement by Mwari summarised in the song ‘Kune nzira dzemasoja dzekuzvibata nadzo’. Those who breached these spiritual rules faced immense challenges in the execution of the war.
To those who participated in the battlefield, there was very little mention of other religions such as Islam and Christianity.
Thus the only religion that guided the execution of the First and Second Chimurenga wars was the Mwari religion.
Solomon Mutsvairo in his lamentation to Mwari pleaded with Nehanda Nyakasikana to intervene to stop the suffering of the Zimbabwean blood in the hands of the colonialists.
“Ko isu rugare ruchatisvikira riniko?
Tine chitadzo chakakura sei chokubva matiramwa zvakadai?
Hamungatinzwewo kuchema kwedu here?
Nehanda Nyakasikana!
Kunozove riniko, isu vaNyai tichitambudzika?”
This lamentation was clearly directed to Mwari Musikavanhu through the spirit mediums.
Mwari listened and answered the prayers by granting independence and dismantling colonialism in 1980.
But independence is sweet and people have forgotten the sweat.
Most of them have forgotten Mbuya Nehanda while others regard her as a demon.
They blanket our mediums and spirits as evil while enjoying the independence brought about by these mediums and spirits.
Advice to all Zimbabweans:
Yes colonialism was dismantled.
There is yet to come another hurdle called neo-colonialism.
This is more cunning and difficult to undo because the enemy is not foreign. Foreign forces use the existing structures and systems to exploit you worse than they did under colonialism.
They make you rebel against the leaders who are providing bread and butter like what they did in Iraq and Libya.
Under colonialism, chances are that you are agitated to rebel against your revolution only to find thereafter that you were fooled to destroy your brick and mortar house for a castle in air.