President Emmerson Mnangagwa said he is still negotiating with authorities in the United Kingdom to bring back the skull of the late Chief Chingaira of Makoni District in Manicaland Province who was slain by white settlers during the First Chimurenga.
Chief Chingaira’s skull is believed to be kept in one of London’s national museums.
Zimbabwe is looking for skulls of late-19th Century anti-colonial heroes who challenged British rule in the 1890s. It is believed that their skulls were taken to the UK as trophies.
Mbuya Nehanda who was also executed during that time and is revered as a national heroine, is the most significant among them. Chief Changaira’s head is also believed to be in the UK.
Historians postulate that Chingaira was considered to be one of Southern Africa’s most revered army commanders and military strategists during the First Chimurenga.
Chingaira, together with six of his advisers, was executed in September 1896. The slain warrior’s head was transferred to Westminster Abbey in London.
From 1889 up until his execution in 1896, Chingaira gallantly led his troops against better equipped settlers enemies who came to Makoni district and parcelled out huge tracts of land for themselves.
Chingaira had a powerful army that defeated the colonialists using their own firearms before his eventual capture and execution.
Addressing a Zanu-PF rally at Handina Secondary School in Makoni South, Mnangagwa urged his supporters to vote for his party in the upcoming harmonised general elections to be held on the 23rd of August next week.
He promised the people of Manicaland Province to bring back, from the UK, the head of their late ancestors including Chief Chingaira’s.
“In the journey to liberate the country, we had so many heroes who came from this land,” Mnangagwa said.
“We are still negotiating to have the heads of our forefathers like Chief Chingaira brought back to the country from the United Kingdom. You can see how Manicaland is a revolutionary province, if you don’t vote for Zanu PF and allow puppets to take over, you will be dishonouring our national heroes. You are a remarkable province, this was the gateway to the liberation struggle, you gave support, food and shelter to the guerrillas. Manicaland was the water in which the fish survived, because of that we were able to conquer imperialism and colonialism.”
This is one of many promises Mnangagwa is making to the electorate to try and convince them to vote for him in the crucial plebiscite to be held in six days time.
