WOMEN, , AND : AN ANALYSIS OF SYNCRETIC RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORICAL CONTINUITY IN 20TH CENTURY

A thesis submitted to the Kent State University Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for General Honors

by

David Austin

May, 2021

Thesis written by

David Austin

Approved by

______, Advisor

______, Chair, Department of History

Accepted by

______, Dean, Honors College

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………..iv

CHAPTERS

I. INTRODUCTION…………….…………………………………………..1

II. ANALYZING WITCHCRAFT ACCUSATIONS AND CONFESSIONS HISTORICALLY…………………………………………….…………...7

The Process of Witchcraft Accusations in Colonial Zimbabwe…………13

The Role of the n’anga in muroyi Accusation…………………………...15

Ways of Resolving Witchcraft Allegations: Ordeals and Others………..17

An Example of Witchcraft Confession in Colonial Zimbabwe………….22

III. SPIRITUAL SISTERS: ANALYZING CONTINUITIES BETWEEN CHARWE/NEHANDA, MAI CHAZA, AND AMBUYA JULIANA………………………………………………………………...27

Historical Archetype: Charwe/Nehanda…………………………………29

Resurrected from the Dead: Mai Chaza………………………………….35

Vatagensi (Sellout) Phenomena During the War of Liberation and a Transformation of Witchcraft Accusations and Spirit Mediumship……..45

Repentance and Rain: Ambuya Juliana………………………………….49

IV. CONCLUSION…………….…………………………………………….58

BIBLIOGRAPHY.…...... 61

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the advisor of this project, Dr.

Timothy Scarnecchia, for his thoughtful guidance and criticisms, without which this thesis would have been an impossible endeavor. I would also like to extend thanks to

John, a fellow student and brother of mine whose friendship, sharp thinking, and camaraderie surrounding this thesis helped make it what it is. Next, I would like to give thanks to my family for their continued support in my academic pursuits, principally to

Lynda, my mother, and Ashley, my sister, for their patience and love in the prolonged struggle to get to the finish, and my aunt Gayle and my cousin Ross, who have continually challenged me to reach higher heights in contemplative thought and educational achievement.

I also wish to thank those serving on my Thesis Defense Committee, namely, Dr.

Matthew Crawford, Dr. Davison Mupinga, and Dr. Suzy D’Enbeau who have graciously agreed to evaluate, critique, and challenge me in my defense of such a lengthy intellectual endeavor.

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Chapter One: Introduction

This Honors Thesis has its origins in my piqued interest surrounding gender, mystical experiences, marginalization, and empowerment that women have faced throughout history, especially taking shape after taking HIST 38595-002: Dangerous

Ideas: History of Heresy, 900-1800 under Dr. Crawford, and HIST-41132 History of

Africa: 1880-Preen nder Dr. Scarnecchia boh from Ken Sae Unieri Hior

Department. After attending the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURE) under the auspices of Dr. Scarnecchia and asking him to be an advisor for this project, was I able to narrow down the research focus to Zimbabwe, and then further to the topics of witchcraft, women, religious syncretism, and empowerment with his help. What follows is my own historical argument concerning incredible female figures of

Zimbabe hior, namel Chare-Nehanda, Mai Chaza, and Ambuya Juliana, all of whom will be discussed at length later. Before beginning, some context regarding terminology is needed.

A variety of terms are referenced throughout this thesis that are drawn from historical accounts of traditional Shona religion. The Shona are the largest

ehnolingiic grop in Zimbabwe compriing he bgrop Karanga, Zer,

Manyika, Tonga-Korekore, Roi, and Nda, with the other ethnolinguistic group being the Ndebele who exist as a minority in western Zimbabwe.1 Shona religious beliefs and

1 Oyejan Owomoyela, Culture and Customs of Zimbabwe (Westport: Greenwood Press 2002), 9-11 Austin 2

practices were documented and presented in academic literature predominately by colonial ethnographers who were European, and very often were part of the colonial machinery that oppressed the people they were scrutinizing.2 I rely on these sources to acquire a glimpse into the historical beliefs of the Shona, considering the positionality and assumptions of the authors who produced the material. However, a general understanding of the definitions behind many of the terms is still possible from these sources and will be explored here.

First is Vadzimu/mudzimu oherie knon a he anceral piri of a peron extended family or clan. These comprise both sexes, with the paternal grandfather

(sekuru) being especially traditionally significant. Their purpose generally is to protect their family from illnesses, help each person develop emotionally and spiritually through the course of their life, and ensure proper behavior.3 These spirits do not physically manifest in a discrete form but are believed to be localized to certain natural places like caves or around the village the person is from.4 This connection between the spiritual and the land is a recurrent theme in Zimbabwean history and will be discussed later.

Next is the mashave or foreign spirit, which can be male or female. These are said to originate from the spirit of a person who died away from their home, where it

2 This literature includes a variety of sources and authors documenting indigenous peoples within colonial Zimbabwe, but also the colonial literature produced that sought to explain the entirety of Africa and Africans at that time. Within this much larger matrix of sources and production of sources lies men like Gelfand and Crawford, of which they are a small representation of that literature. I will be predominantly using some of Gelfand and Craford literature for this thesis. 3 Michael Gelfand, Spiritual Beliefs of the Shona: A Study Based on Field Work among the East-Central Shona (Gwelo: Mambo Press, 1977), 91. Hereafter, Gelfand, Spiritual Beliefs. 4 Gelfand, Spiritual Beliefs, 33. Austin 3

relel ander nil i [find] a ho pon hom o confer i alen or characeriic feature. As analyzed by Gelfand, a common trend was that women who were possessed would overwhelmingly be given the ability to heal others,5 another theme that will be discussed later in this thesis.

Then, the traditional healer, or nanga is next. Anyone can become a nanga, but there has been historically a gendered component to the potency and fame one can achieve as a female nanga,6 with women specializing in providing herbal remedies and services to understand the source of physical or social illness.7 Nangas have traditionally received their ability to heal from a mashave who was a nanga previously in life who seeks to possess them as a child, typically making their demands manifest by making the child dream of making or discovering medicines. Alternatively, the mashave could make itself known by causing the child to fall ill and require medical consultation from another nanga, whereby they will inform the child of the desire of the mashave to possess them to become a future nanga. Beyond this, there are numerous other pathways of becoming a nanga historically, though that has also changed over time which will also be discussed later.8 The nanga has served as a spiritual intermediary between families and their vadzimu ancestors, providing continual medicinal and spiritual services to their communities.9 Becoming a nanga also had the possibility of material and

5 Gelfand, Spiritual Beliefs, 36-38. 6 Michael Gelfand, Shona Ritual: With Special Reference to the Chaminuka Cult (Union of : The Rustica Press, 1959), 107-108. Hereafter Gelfand, Shona Ritual. 7 Elizabeth Schmidt, Peasants, Traders, And Wives: Shona Women in the , 1870-1939 (: Heinemann Educational Books, Inc., 1992), 24. Hereafter, Schmidt, Peasants, Traders, and Wives. 8 Gelfand, Shona Ritual, 99. 9 Ibid. Austin 4

financial remuneration, offering a vocation to women that could result in a higher status than previously available,10 a factor also important that will be discussed later.

The most important and powerful spirit that has undergirded traditional Shona beliefs is the mhondoro spirit, or the royal ancestors of a given chiefdom. These typically have the responsibility of ensuring the overall health of the territory and people they were previously in charge of; hence, they have been called gardian of he land ho are able to mobilize rainfall and maintain the fertility of the land and the people.11 Land, fertility, and spirit mediumship are connected, and especially pertinent for the life of Mai

Chaza which will be explored later. Other spirits previously mentioned are not considered as powerful or efficacious as mhondoro, and it has been very rare for women to be mhondoro mediums.12

The , otherwise known as muroyi (sing., Varoyi pl.) is one that is usually gendered towards women, and denotes a woman ho i endoed ih he poer o maniplae he force of Nare o he derimen of mankind ih heir being a arie of ways for a woman to become a witch historically, though generally it has been through the possession by a vadzimu of a mother or grandmother who was previously a muroyi

(and has connotations of lineage pollution because of the fixed state of being a witch after diagnosis).13 This is not deterministic, however, and there are numerous ways of becoming a witch, and being labelled as one, historically and contemporarily. Generally,

10 Schmidt, Peasants, Traders, and Wives, 24. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Michael Gelfand, Witch Doctor: Man of (London: Harvill Press Limited, 1964), 43. Hereafter, Gelfand, Witch Doctor. Austin 5

whenever someone died, the cause was said to have nefarious spiritual or human origins, and women were generally accused of being witches and using witchcraft to hurt or kill a person, which, because of the historical understandings of being a witch as inherited,

implica[ed] no onl he acced, b her female relaie a ell.14

Lastly, and perhaps the most important term is witchcraft, otherwise known as uroyi. There is not a universally applicable definition of witchcraft, and oftentimes when recent scholars define it, they do so from the historic, linguistic, and local context they have studied. Very broadly speaking, witchcraf cold refer o local belief abo good, eil, caaion, diinaion and healing ha proided a coheren ideolog for dail life.15 Its definitions have changed throughout the historical colonial interactions in

Africa with the introduction and oftentimes violent imposition of Christianity. What resulted was a European emphasis in their analyses on a dualistic understanding of good and evil concerning local religious belief that did not necessarily exist; contemporary scholarship has slowly begun to reflect the pre-existing local understandings of witchcraft and the as highly contextual and ambiguous. For Africa generally16, and

Zimbabwe in particular, especially throughout the colonial era, colonial academics, scholars, and self-made ehnographer aemped o caegorie ichcraf belief ino two categories: witchcraft and sorcery. Historically amongst the Shona, witchcraft was

14 Schmidt, Peasants, Traders, and Wives, 33. 15 Moore, Material Realities: Modernity, witchcraft and the occult in postcolonial Africa, ed. Henrietta L. Moore and Todd Sanders (London: Routledge, 2001.), 3. Hereafter, Moore, Henrietta L. and Todd Sanders, An Inrodcion. 16 Douglas J. Falen, African Science: Witchcraft, Vodun, and Healing in Southern Benin (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2018) 11-14, and 26-31. Austin 6

conceied of a a pchic ac hile orcer inole[d] he e of pell, medicine and rial o harm oher, able o be done b anone.17 All of these categories are not static in their definitions or local understandings, and, as I argue, have changed over time.

I argue that, concerning women amidst the colonial period of Zimbabwe up into the end of the twentieth century, there occurred transformations and evolutions of the categories of nanga, spirit medium, muroyi, and mhondoro. It is through the co-optation of a syncretic blend of Christianity and traditional Shona religion that women like Mai

Chaza and Ambuya Juliana were able to successfully contest, blend, and reconstitute those categories and offer a series of transformative ones like syncretic prophets or Holy

Spirit mediums. In the process, they retained the positive legacies of the remunerative, status-improving, and healing aspects of being a nanga, while removing the negative conceptions around varoyi/women possessing power and being seen as malevolent, evil, or dangerous to society, while some like Juliana took on the spiritual and ecological responsibilities typically associated with mhondoro or other powerful spirits, increasing the agency they possessed. This thesis makes a further contribution by analyzing the biographical and spiritual connections between Mai Chaza and Ambuya Juliana with

Charwe-Nehanda, a prominent historical and spiritual figure in Zimbabwe, especially drawing out their historical continuity with each other.

17 J.R. Crawford. Witchcraft and Sorcery in Rhodesia (London: Oxford University Press, 1967), 40. Hereafter, Crawford, Witchcraft and Sorcery. Austin 7

Chapter Two: Analyzing Witchcraft Accusations and Confessions Historically

By focusing specifically on the accusations of witchcraft in colonial Zimbabwe, this chapter, hopes to penetrate the more concrete and physical aspects of witchcraft and witchcraft accusation. Actions and interactions with the occult especially as shown and discussed within colonial ethnographic sources are carried out in secret18, undertaken in furtive and unseen spaces by certain archetypal people, a theme self-evident around the world, with southern African societies like Zimbabwe being no exception. The process of witchcraft accusations historically among the Shona people has taken place publicly, involving the community. By choosing to focus specifically on the process of witchcraft accusation (and confession as a corollary), this chapter shows that certain elements of pre-colonial and colonial Zimbabwean society shine through past the previously discussed positional limitations of the ethnographic sources relied upon. Namely, the multivalent role of the nanga in these processes, and the process of resolving alleged witchcraft within mainly rural communities, especially considering the legal influence of the Rhodesian settler-colonial state on these processes. The process of historical change as it relates to the meaning of witchcraft as it shifted throughout the war of Liberation is discussed as well.

18 Peter Geschiere. The Modernity of Witchcraft: Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa (London: University Press of Virginia, 1997), 22. Austin 8

The Process of Witchcraft Accusations and Resolution in Colonial Zimbabwe

The history of the settler-colonial Rhodesian state, though self-evidently very important in the discussion of Zimbabwean history, is not altogether pertinent for this thesis. However, it is important to make mention of the coercive legal decisions made by the settler-colonial state because of its effects on the practice of traditional Shona religion, and how witchcraft and the occult were mediated in a hostile legal matrix that would continue well into the post-colonial era. Bearing this in mind, this section will trace a small legal history to argue that where the settler-state could exert its power, it inhibited the historical witchcraft accusation process, and sought to undermine the credibility of indigenous beliefs and eventually bring about their eradication.

The settler-state sought to diminish belief in witchcraft and illegalize the process of witchcraft accusation for two reasons: one, to prevent physical and reputational damage from occurring to individuals accused of witchcraft, and two, to foster skepticism and disbelief amongst the Shona and Ndebele peoples regarding the reality of witchcraft.19 This effort b he colonial ae o dipel he periion held b he

Shona and Ndebele blatantly failed, and can be seen contemporarily by the prevalence and legitimacy of the nanga as a source of physical and spiritual healing, along with national licensing associations formed after independence like the Zimbabwe National

Traditional Healer Aociaion (ZINATHA)20 who have professionalized becoming a

19 Veria, Wichcraf Sppreion Ac, 1. 20 Per Zachrion, Wichcraf and Wichcraf Cleaning in Sohern Zimbabe, Anthropos 102 (2007): 35. Hereafer, Zachrion, Wichcraf and Wichcraf Cleaning. Austin 9

nanga and dealing with the consequences of witchcraft.21 An evaluation of the legal texts that sought to undermine and suppress indigenous beliefs in witchcraft is necessary to show the environment that Africans maneuvered in to practice their beliefs while under a hostile settler-state.

Cecil Rhodes, an Englishman who desired to make a claim on the land of

Zimbabe (hen called Mahonaland) for economic gain in he general Scramble for

Africa, charered he land hrogh he Englih goernmen in 1890 o he Briih Soh

Africa Company of which he would become the main shareholder and de facto leader.22

Forming the British South Africa Company in 1890, Rhodes, with over a hundred-armed young men, marched into Mashonaland and Matebeleland (under the sovereignty of Lobengula, the then Ndebele King) and occupied it.23 Once in place,

Rhode company began to produce legislation to govern those that lived within the chartered territory. The first of these laws and acts that concern this thesis is the

Wichcraf Reglaion of 1895 and he Wichcraf Sppreion Ordinance (WSO) of

1899 ih he latter going on to be called the Witchcraft Suppression Act (WSA).24

Though the text of the former is unavailable, the WSA is and will be evaluated.

Many aspects of this Act would have dramatic ramifications for those trying to practice Shona religion, specifically as it regards witchcraft accusations. The primary

21 Zachrion, Wichcraf and Wichcraf Cleaning, 36. 22 Richard J. Reid, A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present 2nd Edition. (West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2012) 90-91. Hereafter, Reid, A History of Modern Africa. 23 Reid, A History of Modern Africa, 90-100. 24 Diana Jeater, Law, Language, and Science: The Invention of the Native Mind in , 1890-1930 (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006), 133. Hereafter, Jeater, Law, Language and Science. Austin 10

purpose of the act was o ppre he pracice of preended ichcraf25 indicating the legalistic tonality of the colonial regime when dealing with cases of accusations, viewing them as primitive superstitions that need to be dispelled. Beyond this rhetoric, what is consequential is the legal definition of witchcraft that would be unaltered for over a hundred years until the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act was passed in 2004, modifying the WSA, an important detail that will have ramifications for contemporary accusations of witchcraft.26 Wichcraf, according o he WSA, i defined a he

hroing of bone, he e of charm and an oher mean or deice adoped in he pracice of orcer.27 This definition, far from cohering with Shona conceptions of witchcraft, in law basically outlaws the practices of the nanga who actually resolve and mitigate instances of witchcraft, and regulate the development and presence of muroyi within Shona communities.28 Additionally, the Act contributed to colonial efforts to undermine traditional Shona religion and indigeno percepion of eil b no recogni[ing] he reali of ichcraf. A ich a neer reall a ich b he icim of fale accaion.29 I denied he impaion of eil ino a peron characer or acion as perceived by Shona communities, and created a legal framework that actually penalized the already present social infrastructure to resolve social disputes concerning witchcraft accusations or confessions.

25 Witchcraft Suppression Act 1 26 Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Zimbabwe Legal Information Institute, 1. 27 Veria, Wichcraf Sppreion Ac, 1. Sorcery as it has been understood in the colonial literature will be introduced further below. 28 These practices will be explained below. 29 Jeater, Law, Language and Science, 133. Austin 11

The Act itself was draconian, with a wide range of potential allegations and terrible punishments offered to prosecutors. One could be punished for seven different reasons involving witchcraft, all of them mainly centering around the person of the nanga. The poible rangreion of he la inclde [he] impaion of witchcraft by habitual or reputed witch-doctor or witch-finder [nanga], emploing a nanga, practicing as a nanga or diribing maerial relaing o one ork a a nanga, distributing charms that could cause the injury of person or property (an erroneous understanding of the intentions and functions that belie such objects), naming thieves through divination, or remunerating a nanga for their services; all of these were flatly forbidden with punishments ranging from a gradation of fines, to several years in prison for even just one sentence.30 Most consequential for this thesis, however, was the fact that one cold be pnihed for alleging or imping o anoher indiidal he e of non- naral mean o harm oher or heir proper, or who names or indicates any other peron a being a iard or ich hall be gil of an offence and liable o a fineor o imprionmenor o boh .31 Basically attempting to block and inhibit the witchcraft accusation process, in which the nanga was essential.

What this results in, at least legally, is that if a nanga were to be brought before the settler-colonial court, they would be fined and, as a result, often were deeply in debt, and be put into prison for years because their job violates every single prohibition within the act. Though the settler-state did not have total control over Zimbabweans throughout

30 Veria, Wichcraf Sppreion Ac, 1-3. 31 Veria, Wichcraf Sppreion Ac, 1. Austin 12

its lifetime, nor were its exertions uniform over the territory of Zimbabwe, it still posed an actionable threat to nangas and thereby disincentivized the accusation and resolution process from its usual public and formulaic manner because people were aware of the severe legal and financial consequences.

Some scholars have made attempts to reconcile the dichotomous perception of witchcraf ihin he la among he radiional or comar cor and he formal cor of colonial Zimbabe.32 Customary courts refer to those that preside over indigenous laws and customs, often ran by local structures and hierarchies that have been forcibly adapted to a solidified structure, whereas formal courts refer to those set up by the Rhodesian state that presided over the laws it produced. One distinct failure of the formal courts and clearly seen within the Act is that there is a misunderstanding of witchcraft and sorcery as they operate within Shona religion. Formal courts were not as effective at resolving local cases as local courts were.33 This misunderstanding is self- evident in the criticism of Dr. Chavunduka, a Zimbabwean scholar and important figure in independence who explains the terminology:

A witch is defined in social anthropology as a person in whom dwells a distinctive and inherent evilness, whereby he harms his fellows in mysteriously ecre a [b] orcer i inrinic o hee eniie, being merel a echniqe or a tool employed by an individual under certain circumstances. Recourse to sorcery is always on a deliberate, conscious, voluntary basis. A sorcerer may cause illness or kill his fellows by blowing medicine towards them; by putting

32 Colonial Zimbabwe refers to the period concerning the presence of the Rhodesian settler-colonial regime. 33 For more information regarding the relationship between the formal and customary courts, see Randal Carson Smith, The Srggle o Conrol Dipe Proceedings in Southern Rhodesia, 1930 1970, with pecial reference o he loer cor (PhD diss., SOAS University of London, 1994). Austin 13

poion in hi icim food, drink or obacco; or b concealing he poion or he poisonous objects on a path where the victim will pass.34 Chavunduka also cites a handful of scholars who professionally studied witchcraft in

Africa who believed in its existence insofar as it is a social construct, and not a fndamenal reali ha he bjec of heir die eperience: Social Anhropology then, is concerned with finding out what is the basic reality underlying witchcraft ideas.

When I a reali I do no mean phical fac,35 an especially ironic statement conidering he occl relationship between the physical and spiritual world.

Dr. Chavunduka holds to the functionalist school of thought surrounding witchcraft beliefs, arguing that witchcraft accusations and condemnations function as a resolution to tensions within communities. What is noteworthy here is less the psychological or sociological function that it may serve within communities, but the ways in which two different legal systems perceive a crime or hostile action by an accused individual. In colonial Zimbabwe, there were two court systems that adjudicated law,

comar cor ha ere compried of illage headmen, ard headmen or sub- chief[s], and highest of all, the Chief[s]. The formal or Rhodeian cor em a composed of he Diric Commiioner cor, Magirae cor and he High Court, where the former courts applied solely customary law,36 and the latter applying the laws

34 G.L Chavunduka, Wichcraf and he La in Zimbabe, Zambezia 8, no. 2 (1980): 132. Hereafter, Chandka, Wichcraf and he La. 35 Chandka, Wichcraf and he La, 135. 36 Customary law at that time was the product of the colonial regime to reify and standardize African customs, rituals, beliefs, and social rules to be applied within a European, Dutch-Roman legal framework. For more informaion, ee Making Comar La: Men, Women, and Cor In Colonial Norhern Rhodeia b Marin Chanock 53-67 in African Women and the Law: Historical Perspectives ed. By Margaret Jean Hay and Marcia Wright. Austin 14

of Rhodesia, and to some degree customary law as well.37 Historically, customary courts,

here he ee a cae of planing medicine or poion in he icim food, drink, obacco pipe, and o on 38 they define it as a reputable case of witchcraft or sorcery and deal with it in the requisite way. Meanwhile, the formal courts, where a physical sickness or deah occr from hi pracice, define i no a orcer or ichcraf, inead a mrder or aemped mrder,39 de facto denying the alleged presence or fault of occult forces.

Chavunduka further argues that not all cases of accusation are grounds for legal restitution and engagement with the formal courts. As a functionalist, Chavunduka argued that accusations of witchcraft and sorcery were due to macro-economic and societal factors outside of he acced indiidal conrol. Thus, i i no a legal ie in the strict sense; instead, it is a deeply communal issue that is better resolved at the local level, which of course is stewarded supposedly by the customary courts.40 This theme would be picked up later in the academic literature when discourses of modernity would collide with a functionalist interpretation of witchcraft beliefs.41 The customary courts have their own problematic history with their function oftentimes being counterintuitive for the Zimbabwean people, especially women,42 but it is important to mention here, because of the comar cor involvement in being better equipped to

37 Chandka, Wichcraf and he La, 129, in his first note. 38 Chandka, Wichcraf and he La, 133. 39 Chandka, Wichcraf and he La, 133. 40 Chandka, Wichcraf and he La, 141. 41 For a summarized history of the study of witchcraft within the scholarly literature, see Rodlach, Aleander. Blaming Oher for HIV/AIDS in an Urban Tonhip in Blaao, Zimbabe: Wichcraf Belief and Conpirac Spicion. (PhD di., Unieri of Florida, 2005): 208-235. 42 For more information, see Joan May. Zimbabwean Women In Colonial And Customary Law. Harare: Mambo Press, 1983. Austin 15

resolve witchcraft accusations and confessions. The conclusion of this section leads naturally to a discussion on what the role of the nanga was especially given these stringent limitations.

The Role of the nanga in muroyi Accusation

Having explained the illegality of witchcraft in the colonial context, this chapter will now analyze how the illegality of witchcraft affected the historical processes of witchcraft discovery, diagnosis, accusation, trial, and the process of achieving resolution in local Shona communities. Before beginning, I wish to comment on the sources relied upon in this section, and throughout this thesis. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was unable to travel to Zimbabwe to conduct field research on the formation of a pre-history and how religious beliefs looked and functioned according to indigenous oral histories through interviews, surveys, etc. It was possible, however, to engage in the historical archive available.

Though, in some cases, written with the intention of attempting to accurately record the religious beliefs and practices of the Shona people at the time,43 the positionality and bias of the authors who wrote the sources used are important to mention. They were predominately European men, outsiders with many biases and interests that were intimately connected with establishing and maintaining a settler colonial project. They took it upon themselves to evaluate what they saw, read, and were informed of as religious rituals and beliefs of the Shona people. These sources are

43 Gelfand Shona Ritual 1. Austin 16

inclded no o eenialie he Shona (or Ndebele) people hioric pirial and orthopraxical practices from the perspectives of these colonial ethnographic sources, but to come to as best of an understanding as possible through the limited sources regarding the process of varoyi diagnosis, accusation, and resolution in colonial Zimbabwe. Instead of seeking to essentialize, they are used here because of the details they offer for the possibility of research, giving me and Zimbabweans a glimpse into practices and beliefs that were possibly present before the colonial period where literary traditions were not entirely present. Moreover, these sources are further valuable in that they have become a part of a much larger metahistorical narrative and archive of Zimbabwe hior.

When attempting to discuss the historical process of witchcraft accusations in

Zimbabwe, the office and role of the nanga is crucial. As previously mentioned though, the nanga is a highly specialized spirit medium who served as the diagnostic lynchpin for Shona communities throughout this period. It is through their authority, experience, and reputation, that varoyi were identified, accused, and their presence and actions against the community were resolved. Michael Gelfand, a prominent producer of the colonial sources, during his research amongst the Shona communities near the then

Salisbury (now Harare) in the 1950s, developed a generalized process of witchcraft accusation which, when broken down, gives an insight into how Shona groups resolved witchcraft accusations historically.

As discussed in the beginning of this thesis, the person of the witch, and the occult and malevolent powers they exercise are intended to cause social disharmony and anti-social behavior, while manifesting evil or chaos. Some scholars have even Austin 17

speculated that in the case of Zimbabwe, witches serve as functional opposites to the life- giving person of the mhondoro and are dangers to the biological and spiritual processes of Shona communities.44 As previously discussed, because the end goal of a muroyi is to kill, when a death occurred in a community it necessitated an explanation of the cause of death, whereby a nanga would be consulted. The nanga implicated someone within the community as the culprit, and the community made a concrete indication of who the accused is (in Gelfand cae, he record ha ahe are p ne o he enrance of he home of the accused). After this, the accused reported o he chief, leader, or headman, who summoned the entire community and have a public trial of the person who is accused. The accused argued that they were innocent, and because of this the community would insist ha he headman acerain he gil of he acced hrogh ordeal which the accused consented to.

Ways of Resolving Witchcraft Allegations: Ordeals and Others

An ordeal can be defined generally as putting a person or a group through a physical trial or challenge to ascertain their innocence. There are numerous ordeals, but only a handful are recorded, and they will be discussed below. What Gelfand, a Western

European physician who was active in colonial Zimbabwe, records is that a purgative ordeal, one in which vomiting is induced, is used to understand who the source of witchcraft is. What is interesting is that he notes that the entire community must take part in this process, with everyone who fails to vomit the mixture is proven to be a muroyi or

44 For more information, see David Lan, Guns & Rain: Guerrillas & Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985. Austin 18

condemned of witchcraft/sorcery generally.45 Upon learning who the muroyi is, the individual or individuals are swiftly and permanently expelled from the community.

Though, within the colonial context and the concomitant outlawing of formally accusing someone of witchcraft, Gelfand notes that even during the time of his research in the mid- twentieth century people began to reign in the public nature of this process; instead, witchcraft becomes more discrete but still is resolved with the expulsion of the accused from the community.46

Ordeals, then, functioned as a crucial method of resolving witchcraft accusations within Shona communities up till the mid to late twentieth century.47 This has corollaries in many societies that have dealt with witchcraft and witchcraft accusations, namely

Europe and the colonial United States.48 Since many aspects of traditional Shona religion were outlawed due to racialized notions of primitiveness and superstition by settlers, the prevalence of the ordeal was also suppressed.49 Crawford, a colonial ethnographer and legal researcher argued that he apparen ola or aboliion of ordeal depried

[Shona] ocieof a echniqe for reoling ocial enion hich ere epreed in he idiom of wizardry. Various social phenomena can be explained as an attempt to fill the gap left by the abolition of he ordeal.50A few of the ordeals will be described here

45 Gelfand, Shona Ritual, 163-164. 46 Gelfand, Shona Ritual, 164-165. 47 Though this thesis does not take an anthropological deep dive into a functionalist perspective concerning WC beliefs, it is pertinent to evaluate accusations and ordeals as crucial actions undertaken by Shona communities to functionally address witchcraft in concrete ways. 48 For comparative examples for Europe, see the works of Brian P. Levack, and for an example of early America, see Carol F. Karlson, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New (New York: Norton, 1998). 49 Craford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 214. 50 Craford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 214. Austin 19

because it will be argued in the next chapter that the ordeals of the past (in addition to the practices of the nangas) would be adapted in some form by the prophetesses, acolytes, and mediums of the Holy Spirit within the Pentecostal and hybrid African church movements.

There are many ordeals listed in the colonial ethnographic literature (though we hae alread diced he prgaie or poion ordeal51): the basket ordeal, nangas utilization of hakata (engraved wooden or bone divination tools)52 to learn who is a muroyi, others discerned of their mashave spirit, and still other methods such as the hot water ordeal. Beginning with the basket ordeal, this involved a nanga and the village under consultation. The nanga would provide his mutundu or homwe (basket) containing the various materials related to his job, such as the hakata, and other things like:

horn filled ih podered roo, calabahe conaining medicinal poder, a ooden plate for drinking medicines, the nangas whistle, his knife (chisvo) and cupping horn (murumiko). Little pots or tins filled with ointments and bundles of different kinds of roots are all to be found. Frequently, too, various parts of the lark, the bird considered most felicitous to nanga, are kept in the basket to attract clients, and sometimes too the featherless legs and the droppings of the bateleur eagle are put in to protect the medicines in he bake.53 Regardless of what was in the basket, the nanga would order the community to group into a line, and the people one by one would deposit a gift of some sort into the basket and lift it. If one could not lift the basket, they would be subsequently alleged to be the source of witchcraft.54

51 Craford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 215. 52 Gelfand, Witch Doctor, 76, and Gelfand, Shona Ritual, 103. 53 Gelfand, Shona Ritual, 103 54 Gelfand, Shona Rial, 103-104. Austin 20

Next, a nanga could utilize the hakata to divine the source of witchcraft. While not an ordeal in the strict communal sense, it is important to mention here because divination as related to mashave (spirit) possession would be adapted later by the cases under study as previously mentioned, not as an ordeal, but as a means of understanding or diagnosing problems. Those who are afflicted by various physical, spiritual, or social afflictions would seek out the source as divined through the authority of the nanga.

Nineteen out of the 104 court cases of alleged witchcraft examined by J. R. Crawford, a white Rhodesian academic focused on legal and ethnographic studies, were divined by hakata and various objects like the hakata55; this is a significant amount, indicating the frequency by which people relied on this method to divine the source of their problem.

Mashave is another way of discerning and accusing an alleged muroyi. A mashave i a piri ho ei from outside the patrilineage, including the spirits of animals, which possess people in various ways. They are sometimes known as alien spirits in contradistinction to the vadzimu, the spirits of the lineage [otherwise knon a anceor].56 These foreign spirits do not make a distinction between possessing men or women57, though historically the gradation of powerful spirits are seemingly reserved for men and not for women. The mashave spirits differ from those within the lineage of a particular clan, with their genesis occurring when foreigners perihed in Mahonaland and hoe piri ere rele becae heir bodie ere bried in a range land. Thee piriander rond he conr earching for iable

55 See the daahee a he back of Craford, Witchcraft and Sorcery. 56 Crawford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 82. 57 Crawford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 82. Austin 21

medim or ho o poe to confer upon their hosts abilities such as soothsaying, inigaing rain, or performing miracle58 with divination also being a potential bestowed skill.59

Lastly, the hot water ordeal was another way to discern guilt of witchcraft or marital infidelit. Thogh i a more ofen ed o dicern a ife marial fideli o her husband, J. R. Crawford does note that there are records of it being used to resolve allegations of witchcraft and wizardry.60 This ordeal involved the use of boiling water, a pot, and an object of some kind. The person accused would have to reach into the pot of boiling water and attempt to pull out the object. If the accused failed to do so without having their hands return unscathed from the boiling water, their innocence was forfeited.

Some cases, as Crawford notes, merely required the accused to submerge their hands into

he boiling aer half a p he palm of [heir] hand and hen pll hem o.61

Crawford also describes a few court cases that lay out in detail some of the circumstances that could engender witchcraft accusations, drawing entirely from the judicial records of the Attorney-General office of he Rhodeian ae in he form of preparatory court examinations.62 He includes within his book, a dataset63 of court cases involving witchcraft accusations from the years 1956 to 1962, including large areas of colonial Zimbabwe and its various communities, giving a crucial insight into how

58 Gelfand, Shona Ritual, 121. 59 Gelfand, Shona Ritual, 136. 60 Crawford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 218. 61 Crawford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 219. 62 Craford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 3. 63 Craford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, he back flap of he book ha he daae aached o i. Austin 22

Zimbabweans at that time mediated and resolved these accusations. Unfortunately, I have been unable to triangulate these court records due to the inability to access the same records in the Zimbabwean National Archives. There are several interesting conclusions to be drawn from this data. In summary, these include that most of the accused witches are women, being wives or grandmothers with 68 per cent (71 out of 104 total cases recorded) of those accused of being muroyi being women. Another is that the consequences to being declared a witch were overarchingly violent, with physical violence, ostracization, expulsion, and death being a common occurrence. Another interesting observation is that the court records show that African Initiated Churches

(AIC) were explicitly adapting the witchcraft accusation process and offering solutions via baptism, prayers, and the burning of he peron witchcraft materials.64

An Example of Witchcraft Confession in Colonial Zimbabwe

A corollary to witchcraft accusation is confession - the voluntary admittance of being a witch or practicing witchcraft. This choice of admitting to practicing acts perceived as evil or anti-social may seem paradoxical, but it may have been beneficial for the person admitting it. Historically, women who were perceived as having less value to the family lineage in terms of reproductive capacity were more likely to be viewed as culpable for practicing witchcraft65 with one recourse being the coalescing of power and respect, gaining a reputation for their occult practices, earning status,66 a trend that sets

64 Refer to daahee in he back of Craford, Witchcraft and Sorcery. 65 See Introduction. 66 Crawford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 60. Austin 23

up the possibility of benefitting from the voluntary act of confessing to be witches. There is one court case from he formal cor that illustrates this fascinating aspect of witchcraft, Shona society at that time, and interactions with the law: R v Dawu.67 The case is important in that the accusation and resolution practices show a transition from being resolved within the community to that of the colonial state arbitrarily inserting itself into local Shona affairs. Such crimes committed were translated by the legal machinery of the state, in pariclar he formal cor inead of he comar cor.

To reiterate, the two courts operated on different and often opposing definitions to decribe criminal ac; ha i foced on in hi hei pariclarl concern he crime of witchcraft as defined through the WSA. Witchcraft is viewed through the lens of the

WSA, meanwhile the reality or claims of the people under scrutiny or those that made the allegations are not taken seriously into consideration.

In the case of R v Dawu, the accused, an African woman named Dawu was charged with the murder of Shani, the child of Muhlava a woman connected to Dawu becae he i he dagher of Mhlaa hband econd ife. Dawu killed Shani because her child was purportedly killed by Muhlava. Before the murder took place,

Da child a ick and nable o brea feed, o he rerned o her hband paren home o ha he child migh conalece. Her in-laws implicitly accused her of marital infidelity and argued that that was he cae of her child illness and attempted to force her to list out the names of all her past sexual partners. At this juncture, Muhlava

67 Crawford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 45. Austin 24

entered her testimony and told her not to list them out, and strangely used a razor blade to cut into her right brea and iner a pe of medicine ino i, ordering her not to tell anyone about it; this is the first indication that Muhlava is a practicing witch. It was in the moment that Muhlava did this, that Dawu tells the court that Muhlava forcibly took her child, and struck its head onto the ground, killing it. Dawu argued that that was the reason why she killed Shani, and that because of her revenge kill, e can all cr ogeher and

ha no one cold a ha eiher of hold pa omehing o he oher,68 in her mind, effectively ending the dispute between all parties. Mhlaa eimon is exceedingly different and provides more context for the history that existed between all three women, and the power they had.

Muhlava directly confessed that she, Dawu, and Tsatsawani are witches. Muhlava place he origin of her becoming a ich ih Taaani, Da mother-in-law, and her feeding Muhlava a porridge with objects in it which made her nauseous. Tsatsawani, upon seeing Muhlava sick aid ha ha a a ign ha e hold do ichcraf together,69 whereupon Muhlava attempts to go to home to heal, and additionally find healing through her local Zionist church, a group where miraculous faith-healing is a central part of their beliefs.70 When she tells her church leaders about her experiences with Tsatsawani, they immediately tell her that she is a witch, but she does not mention any act of healing, or use of ordeals of any kind from her church. After these experiences,

68 Originally cited in Crawford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 45-46. 69 Originally cited in Crawford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 47. 70 For more information, see David Maxwell, African Gifts of the Spirit: Pentecostalism & the Rise of a Zimbabwean Transnational Religious Movement. Harare: Weaver Press, 2006. Austin 25

she explains to the court that she and Tsatsawani are iche direcl, and ha he go about at night bewitching people doing so about five separate times.71 All of this takes place before the murder of Shani. B beiching a peron, they were trying to kill them, and this manifests itself in their attempt to kill both Chidava, the husband of Muhlava, and a local man named Meke, in what I argue is a way of gaining power over others they normally would not have power over.

Muhlava describes the way she and the other witches bewitch others; in this portion, they are attacking Chidava her husband:

The [the other witches] came riding hyenas at night. We all went to my hband h. The came ih me in order o beich m hband Chidaa. Thi a also to teach the accused [Dawu]. I cannot explain the reason for this, it only comes to us in a dream. We poured some mahoe or swee beer ino Chidaa moh, here a bewitching medicine in it. We then sprinkled some more medicine on his body. We then left and went to bed. Three days later my husband died.72 The actions they commit are fundamentally about power, both having the power to kill and receiving power by killing and being able to project that power over others, possibly explaining their confession to the court as a means of growing their reputation.

The effects of their actions show later in Muhlaa accon here all three women attempt to bewitch a man named Meke. The each laid hand on him and he following morning he became ill. The ne par i crcial, The kraal73 head then came to

and aid ha e hold no beich he man Meke o e relened and Meke lied74.

71 Originall cied in Craford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 45-46. 72 Originally cited in Crawford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 47. 73 Kraal decribe a circlar enclore for cale or lieock. Theal, George M. Soh Africa: The Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, South African Republic, and all other Territories South of the Zambesi, xix. 74 Originally cited in Crawford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 47. Austin 26

The male head of the kraal, usually a figure who has authority, went to the witches, and

aid ha he hold no beich Meke. The erb ed in Mhlaa accon i age, not necessarily indicating a command or an entreaty, but the witches who had the power

relened and Meke lied, potentially putting both Meke and the kraal head at the preternatural mercy of the women. The women, taking a court case solely about the alleged murder of a child, were able to transform it through their testimony, and use it to highlight the power they had as witches to a much wider audience which, in the process, potentially gaining a fearful respect and increase in status.

The state translated their actions and the substances used to poison others as scientifically harmless, rendering their power purely imaginary, and attempted to rip off the curtain per se, though the fact remains that the post-mortem accounts given by the court could not explain the cause of death, leaving ambiguity that still supported the

omen confessions of bewitching others.75 At the conclusion of the case, Dawu was found guilty of the murder of Shani. This case is important to discuss because, I argue, it establishes a historical precedent of women utilizing the spiritual frameworks around them to increase in power, agency, and potentially even economic status, regardless of the perception that the spiritual framework used was beneficial or negative; this theme will be a part of the lives of Mai Chaza and Ambuya Juliana.

75 Craford, Witchcraft and Sorcery, 56. Austin 27

Chapter Three: Spiritual Sisters: Analyzing Continuities Between

Charwe/Nehanda, Mai Chaza, and Ambuya Juliana

According to a random sample of Protestant and African Initiated Churches (AIC) in compiled by Dr. Vivian Ojong, women founded only eight out of one hundred, with two out of that eight founded jointly by a man and a woman. Strictly speaking, that leaves only six explicitly founded by women, with most of those churches being in Zimbabwe and South Africa. When narrowed solely to Zimbabwe, out of fifteen total churches, only three were lead or founded by women, with one of those being co- founded between a man and a woman.76 Though the typological scope of this sample is limited, and does not account for social or religious movements, these provisional

(though not exhaustive) numbers are telling regarding how male-dominated the religious structures and congregations are of Southern Africa, also deeply permeating the religious practices of Zimbabwe, at least as it concerns Christianity and various syncretic blends of it throughout its history.77

After discussing in the last chapter some of the ways in which witchcraft beliefs and accusations were legally constrained, including the often gendered consequences, it

76 Viian Beem Ojong, Gender and leaderhip in Chriian religio circle in Africa, Journal of Social Development in Africa 32, no. 2 (July 2017) 131-133. 77 Though not discussed explicitly in this thesis, women like Mai Chaza did draw upon practices like faith healing, laying on of hands, and strong spiritual links with the Holy Spirit through her interactions with the Methodist Church, and especially Pentecostalism as it was very popular in Southern Africa at this time. For more information, see David Maxwell, African Gifts of the Spirit: Pentecostalism & the Rise of a Zimbabwean Transnational Religious Movement. Harare: Weaver Press, 2006. Austin 28

is important to shift to evaluating the two case studies in this thesis concerning Mai

Chaza of the GutaRa Jehovah Church, and the Ambuya Juliana movement that developed in the wake of the serious drought that occurred in the late 1990s in Zimbabwe, with some of their biographical and spiritual connections to Charwe-Nehanda, the prominent female prophetess/spirit medium who lived and was active in the late 1890s. Though the women themselves lived through vastly different historical contexts, the comparisons made are still viable and valuable because of their biographical and spiritual connections.

I am unable entirely to address a structuralist critique with the research undertaken here. I would, however, argue that the heightened agency possessed by these women was not solely due to their circumstances, but a combination of context and individual ambition creating, and/or making use of opportunities available to them.

These cases are important because they bear witness to how syncretic prophets,

(Holy-) spirit mediums, or those that would normally be accused of being or inhabiting the category of muroyi and/or a female nanga simultaneously defy traditional or historical understandings of those categories (as previously introduced), and transform them, creating something altogether new. Women like Mai Chaza and Ambuya Juliana contest, blend, and reconstitute those categories of muroyi, nanga, spirit medium, and prophetess as they blend with different traditions and movements of Christianity creating something new while retaining and developing upon aspects to traditional Shona religion and the different forms of Christianity, namely Pentecostalism.

Austin 29

Historical Archetype: Charwe/Nehanda

Both cases of Ambuya Juliana and Mai Chaza as female spiritual leaders and spirit mediums are in historical continuity with pre-existing female spirit mediums in

Zimbabwe, namely Charwe-Nehanda, whom both to some degree claim a connection to or for legitimacy or power. I will be referring to the spirit medium as Charwe-Nehanda to make explicit that I am referring to both the human person, and the spirit she was possessed by. By showing that these women are connected to Charwe-Nehanda, this section shows how women throughout Zimbabwean history have utilized religious or spiritual power to gain implicit immunity to allegations of witchcraft, and challenge existing power structures, whether they be colonial, religious, or patriarchal while serving as a beneficial healer or leader to their communities in times of distress.

Before analyzing Charwe the woman, Nehanda the spirit must be introduced.

Nehanda is the name of the preeminent mhondoro piri ha a originall a Shona prince in he fifeenh cenr ho a he ier of he king ho fonded he

Mnhmapa Empire78. Historically, this princess committed an act of ritual incest

ih her broher hich gae pernaral ancion o he poer of he Mapa [or

Mnhmapa] ae79; after her transformation into a mhondoro, Nehanda as a spirit became associated with rainmaking, reproduction, and fostering the agricultural

78 Elara Berho, Reworkings of a Literary Myth and Hiorical Conrcion: Nehanda (Zimbabe) In Literary Location and Dislocation of Myth in the Post/Colonial Anglophone World, ed. Andre Dodeman and Elodie Raimbault, (Brill, 2017), 103. 79 D. N. Beach, An Innocen Woman, Unjl Acced? Chare, Medim of he Nehanda Mhondoro Spirit, and the 1896-97 Cenral Shona Riing in Zimbabe, History in Africa 25, (1998), 27. Hereafter, Beach, In Innocent Women. Austin 30

productivity of the land, aspects of which would be emphasized by Charwe-Nehanda post-colonial legacy for the Zimbabwean state, a legacy that would be mobilized as a complex nationalist symbol of Zimbabwean resistance to colonial rule.80 These details already indicate that Charwe-Nehanda is a powerful persona originating from a royal lineage and representing a powerful though perhaps mythologized state, which, if the legacy is mobilized or called upon, would grant great esteem, authority, and recognition to the woman doing so.

In this section, I will be relying heavily on material from Dr. D. N. Beach, a scholar of oral history in Zimbabwe, Charwe-Nehanda a born in he Maoe Valle of cenral Mahonaland arond 1862-186381, and according to him:

[was the] daughter of Chitaura, a younger son of Shayachimwe, who founded the Hwata dynasty in the upper Mazowe valley in the late eighteenth century. By 1896 the Chitaura name was held by her brother, with whom she lived, though she was considered to be much more important than him. She married and had two daughters and a son, but the name of her husband is not recalled [he would not be present at her later infamous court trial]. She probably became possessed [endowed with the Nehanda mhondoro] in 1884, a Chiara ronghold a poined o a Neanda hen [hogh hi fac i dbio according to numerous archival references to other spirit-mediums with similar names].82

Already, there are maternal and marital parallels in Charwe-Nehanda life ha reonae with Mai Chaza that will be seen in the next chapter. Beach goes further and underscores

he poer held b he Haa dna ha Chare belonged o, aing ha [i] a he

80 Ruramisai Charumbira, Nehanda and Gender Victimhood in the Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellion: Reiiing he Eidence, History in Africa 35, (2008), 208. Hereafer, Char, Nehanda and Gender. 81 Charmbira, Nehanda and Gender, 207. 82 Beach, In Innocent Women, 29. Austin 31

most important of [dynasties] at the head of the Mazowe valley, claiming to rule as far south as modern Harare, and as far north and west as the Murowodzi river, with [a] raherncerain fronier on he ea 83. This ruling dynasty played a prominent role in trading gold with the Portuguese in the late nineteenth century, with its prosperity drawing Ndebele rivals, resulting in the absorption of the Hwata dynasty into the wider

Ndebele controlled territory through violence.84 These historical details are important because it fleshes out the legacy and context that Charwe was from and positions her as a potential heir to political power, though she apparently conceded it to her brother.85 There is very little detail concerning other events in her life such as her childhood, with the written record mainly recording her seminal involvement with the First , the joint Shona-Ndebele uprising that occurred in the late twentieth century against the

British South Africa Company. Charwe-Nehanda imporance a a hiorical, religio, and nationalist figure, including why her person or spirit would be called upon or resonates with Mai Chaza or Ambuya Juliana, is illustrated by her involvement in the first Chimurenga which will be discussed below.

Dr. Charumbira, an African historian who applies a feminist lens to the archival evidence, insists that Charwe-Nehanda mattered as an important person greatly to the

Mazoe area, and that her status and ability to lead the local people is recorded by the

83 Beach, In Innocent Women, 29. 84 Beach, In Innocent Women, 30. 85 Beach, In Innocent Women, 32. Austin 32

colonial sources instead of being absent from them.86 For example, Charumbira notes that

Colonel Alderson, a military leader of the British South Africa Company (BSAC) company in charge of operations in Mashonaland during the uprisings commented in a repor ha he Maoe African ere rclen becae i a in hi diric ha he celebraed docore Nanda [Nehanda] lied and held cor.87 Moreover, those same authorities testified to her prominence in leading local Africans against the BSAC by blowing up caves that were important spiritual sites where resources taken from the compan a ored b Nehanda he famo ich docore and her folloer.88

Lastly, Charwe-Nehanda imporance i ndercored b Chief Naie

Commiioner of Mahonaland repor on Nehanda-Charwe and Kaguvi-

Gmborehmba [one oher male piri medim acced of inigaing he priing]

here Kagi imporance and poer a maller in the eyes of the colonial powers when compared to Charwe-Nehanda ho a b far he mo imporan iard in

Mahonaland ih her poer and a originaing from her ile of Nianda [hich] i

he name of he piri hich he ha inheried. 89 The fact that Charwe the woman received her power and ability to lead others from the endowment of the spirit of

Nehanda, a gendered but powerful spirit is a historical theme taken up again and again by women in Zimbabwean history like Ambuya Juliana and Mai Chaza as previously shown.

86 There is an extensive debate among scholars of colonial Zimbabwe that discuss the extent of Charwe- Nehanda inolemen in he fir Chimrenga. For more information see Charmbira, Nehanda and Gender, and Beach, An Innocent Woman. 87 Charmbira, Nehanda and Gender, 108. 88 Charmbira, Nehanda and Gender, 108. 89 Originally cited in, Charmbira, Nehanda and Gender, 109. Austin 33

Perhaps the greatest textual evidence of Charwe-Nehanda poer and inflence as a spiritual leader and a leader of the uprisings comes from a man whose name was recorded a he Cor ho gae hi eimon dring her trial. He explained to the prosecution that:

Nianda was chief of the kraal. Chitaura is her brother. Chitaura was the chief but Nianda had he poer. Nianda a oer Chiara. I don kno ho e came o be under a woman. Nianda is a mondora [mhondoro]. She gave orders. Chitaura obeyed her. All the people did what Nianda told them. This has been for a long time. I know of no other women who rule kraals. I saw Chitaura at the Native Commiioner [Pollard] Office. If people didn do ha Nianda old hem, I don kno ha old happen. I don kno of her pnihing people. I a afraid of Nianda. I a afraid o refe o do anhing he old me. I don kno h I a afraid. I don kno of Nianda pnihing an member of he kraal.90

This eimon i imporan for man reaon: One, relaing o he Cor eimon, as a man, he is admitting willingly that Charwe-Nehanda, is the undisputed chief, above that of her brother who was the actual chief in name, and two, in a separate sense, it is necessary to understand that, as Charumbira mentions, that some voices present in the archives like women who testified at the trial, are actively silenced when historians overlook them in the source material, thereby endangering their own evaluations and interpretations of the events and persons under scrutiny.

Nehanda gave orders, her brother obeyed her, the people obeyed her, and the people had respect and/or fear for her ahori, hogh a he Cor epree, no from a fear of punishment, rather because of the potency of her mhondoro. That same

90 Originally cited in Charmbira, Nehanda and Gender, 124-125. Austin 34

respect/fear actively mobilized the local populace against the colonial forces,91 concretely

ndermining Beach argmenaion again Chare-Nehanda inolemen in he fir

Chimurenga. Unfortunately, Charwe-Nehanda, Kaguvi, and other spirit mediums active in the uprisings would be sentenced to death by the nascent colonial regime, with

Nehanda death resulting for the crime of supposedly murdering Pollard (a colonial official); she was sent to the gallows reportedly saying amidst lamentations and cries of anger and frustration, that her bones would rise from the ground to lead the second

Chimurenga, a cry which would be taken up by nationalist forces during the second

Liberation War that took place in the latter half of the twentieth century.92 Nehanda and

Kaguvi would later be written into a larger narrative of settler-colonial criticism and indigenous resistance, being adopted as nationalist symbols of rebellion and revolution, serving as crucial pieces of the historical foundation of Zimbabwe that the decolonial government would mobilize as it attempted to articulate a shared vision of the past to increase unity.93

This is to say that Charwe-Nehanda as a person has numerous resonances within historical and contemporary Zimbabwe, and de-colonial, indigenous, and African feminist discourses. More than that, though, by placing Mai Chaza and Ambuya Juliana in continuity with, and comparing them to Charwe-Nehanda, the biographical and

91 Charmbira, Nehanda and Gender, 127. 92 Emmanuel Chiwome, The Role of Oral Tradiion in he War of Naional Liberaion in Zimbabe: Preliminar Oberaion, Journal of Folklore Research 27, no. 3 (Sep. - Dec., 1990), 243. Hereafter, Chiome, Oral Traditions. 93 Ndlovu-Gaheni, Sabelo J., Rehinking "Chimurenga" and "" in Zimbabwe: A Critique of Parian Naional Hior, African Studies Review 55, no. 3 (December 2012), 5 and 8, and Chiwome, Oral Traditions, 243. Austin 35

spiritual themes and threads that connect them to each other, such as maternity, gaining power through spirit possession, loss of spousal involvement before their ministry, and spiritual connections to the land, it becomes clearer that women who engaged in religious ministries such as Mai Chaza in the middle of the twentieth century, and Ambuya Juliana in the late 1990s would have called upon, and were active in an already pre-existing history of women who were empowered through traditional religious frameworks. They were not limited by traditional religious frameworks, especially in the recognizable forms that have historically barred women like the mechanisms of witchcraft allegations or the presence of patriarchal norms within Zimbabwean society. In other words, Charwe-

Nehanda, beyond becoming an important part of partisan or nationalized history, resonates with a much wider Zimbabwean audience, and when analyzed in the context of these extraordinary women below, can bring fruitful insights into not only these, but possibly other women who have been shut out of the historical record.

Resurrected from the Dead: Mai Chaza

Beginning first with Mai Chaza. her biography both provides and is the evidence of her contestation of the role of women within Christian churches, the life trajectory that women were relegated, and her contestation of the categories nanga, spirit medium, and muroyi specifically. Little is known about her in the way of her childhood, but before assuming the mantle of faith healer and starting her own church and spiritual movement, she was born as Theresa Nyamushanga to the Nyamushanga family who lived in Buhera, Austin 36

Chitsinge Division, in Eastern Zimbabwe.94 From here, he became married o Chida

Chaa of Weda, b hom he had i children,95 here he lied in he mining town of Concession, north of Salisbury [now Harare] here he lied nil 1948.96 During

hi period of her life, he a a fll member of he Mehodi Gnde Circi in he

Kenda area of Weda,97 presumably living the normative life of a wed mother, active in her chrch ihin he Welean Mehodi Ruwadzano moemen98 and the

Mehodi Chrch Moher Union,99and family circles. However, her life would dramatically change in a short period of time.

Folloing he deah of her hband ier in 1948, he a formall acced b people in [the town of Concession] of having used witchcraft to kill her sister-in-la100 and promptly expelled by her husband where she began to search for shelter, moving from place o place. Oher orce claim ha he fell chronicall ill in 1953-1954 and

a belieed o be menall deranged here her hband diorced her becase he believed she would not recover.101 These accounts, though incredibly brief (and incongruous chronologically) place Mai Chaza squarely within the gendered trajectory of witchcraft accusation this thesis has laid out, whereby a married woman not biologically

94 The Snda Mail 2, and Lilian Dbe, Mai Chaa: An African Chriian Sor of Gender, Healing and Poer Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 34, (2008), 11. Hereafer, Dbe, Mai Chaza. 95 Dbe, Mai Chaza, 11. 96 Timoh Scarnecchia, Mai Chaa' Ga re Jehoa (Ci of God): Gender, Healing and Urban Ideni in an African Independen Chrch, Journal of Southern African Studies 23, no. 1, (Mar., 1997), 90. Hereafer, Scarnecchia, Guta re Jehovah. 97 Dbe, Mai Chaza, 11. 98 Scarnecchia, Guta re Jehovah, 89. 99 Dbe, Mai Chaza, 2. 100 Scarnecchia, Guta re Jehovah, 90. 101 Scarnecchia, Guta re Jehovah, 91. Austin 37

relaed o her hband famil, b ire of her a a an oider grafed ino he family-community, would be viewed with suspicion for witchcraft, especially when

omeone ihin he hband famil die.

Afer her ocial deah, he eperienced a phical deah and a pirial reial, resurrecting and becoming endowed with a divinely sanctioned mission to engage in a faith healing ministry. After her expulsion by her husband in Concession, she wandered

nil he ended p in Highfield onship in Salisbury [now Harare] where she was taken in b anoher Mehodi famil in 1949 ho cared for her.102 This family was the family of Thoma Kenda, a member of he Mehodi Chrch a Highfield, Harare. When

Mai Chaza was living with them, supposedly an argument occurred on the topic of food which acted as a catalyst where she abruptly died, hich if indicaing a rance ae or heria old p her ihin he hen normaie e of Shona religio reacion ha one could have, with the outcome normally being an ordination as an herbal or divining nanga. Though resonating deeply with normative experiences of physical illness and mashave possession, that exact process did not occur for Mai Chaza.

There are numerous narratives surrounding the period of her death and resurrection which will be discussed here because of their importance for and reflection on her miion. Kenda, pon Mai Chaa ding, aked for a nanga named Nyandere to visit to ascerain and rea Mai Chaa condiion; this indirectly shows both the syncretic atmosphere permeating religious involvement and that people were not

102 Scarnecchia, Guta re Jehovah, 90. Austin 38

unilaterally Methodist, or a traditionalist, etc. Afterwards, she either was treated by the nanga for hour and roe from he dead, a repored in The African Weekly of 10

Noember 1954,103 or as soon as the nanga arrived is when she swiftly resurrected. In either case she is reported to have been spiritually accosted by the soul of her dead sister- in-la, en o heaen, and direcl conered ih God.104 Other sources claim that

hen he iied heaen, he made peace ih her ier-in-la105 instead of being attacked by her spirit.

Other sources jockey over the exact details of this mystical experience, with two accounts arising that argue that her faith-healing mission was prompted by God as a means of achieving spiritual self-purity to prepare for heaven, or solely to help others.

One source, the Tabex Encyclopedia Zimbabwe claims tha Mai Chaa acall died in

1948 hereb God old her ha her deah a premare and ha he ogh, herefore, to return to earth and cease drinking alcohol, abstain from sexual intercourse and become a faith healer of women unable to have children, the sick, blind and physically disabled, and those possessed by mashave.106 The presence of prohibitions against the use alcohol, sexual intercourse, and later from smoking, resonates with the other experiences of

Pentecostal or African Initiated Church (AIC) groups active in colonial Zimbabwe at this time, such as the Apostles of Johane Masowe and the Apostles of Johane Maranke

103 Originally cited in Dbe, Mai Chaza, 11. 104 Scarnecchia, Guta re Jehovah, 91 105 Scarnecchia, Dictionary of African Biography, 47 106 Dbe, Mai Chaza, 11. Austin 39

(Marange) who also prescribed adherence to Old Testament Mosaic purity laws regarding diet, substance intake, and behaviors on the day of Sabbath worship.107

Other sources, such as Mai Chaza herself, and some of her adherents claim that in par, i a de o her lack of pri becae of her inolemen ih anceor veneration and [having] taken part in majukwa, alien spirit ritual hich promped God to bestow a divine mission upon her to heal others and go back o he people and help them overcome their physical and spiritual ills. She was told not to live with her husband again and not to ask for any reward for her services (Africa Weekly Vol. II No. 23 of

Wedneda, 3 Noember 1954),108 potentially indicating that she desired to reconcile with her husband and live with him after her expulsion, or potentially giving her a divinely sanctioned reason for not returning to her husband, turning her divorce, normally a catastrophic social occurrence for women, into a source of purity, prestige, and power.

Regardless of the exact details, overarchingly, this experience is supremely important. Much in the same manner as other southern African female spirit-mediums,

Mai Chaa mystical interactions with God or the Holy Spirit enabled her to circumvent church or traditional authorities through the authority conferred by these experiences and subsequent powers of faith due to these experiences. This is especially so when she was able to claim direct spirit possession by the Holy Spirit, which had resonances with

107 For more information, see Jli Meeni, The African Independen Apoolic Chrch Docrine under Threat: The Emerging Power of Faith-based Organiaion Inerenion and he Johanne Marange Apoolic Chrch in Zimbabe, Jornal for he Sd of Religion 30, no. 2 (2017), 178 206. 108 Originally cited in Dbe, Mai Chaza, 11. Austin 40

Christian groups and traditionalists because of its cross-cutting character between religions.109

Next, I will discuss her ministry, and the construction of Guta re Jehova or the

City of God, the main compound where Mai Chaza conducted faith healing and worship services. After her spiritual experiences, she was prompted by them to engage with the authorities of the Methodist church she attended and argue that she should be able have a preaching circi, going arond Sinoia, he Mondoro Reere, and Highfield.110 After being swiftly denied by the all-male leadership of the church, she began to construct the beginning of he Ga Ra Jehoah in 1954 a Kandaa Kraal in Seke Reere, oheast of Salisbury [now Harare].111 Though difficult to gauge an accurate account of her followers during this time, according to the Dictionary of African Biography, 40 people

[were] healed in the first month and then news [spread] of 68 barren women becoming fertile. By the end of 1954, a local newspaper reporter who visited the site, the GRJ, coned 615 delling ih an eimaed poplaion of 2,500 folloer.112 Mai Chaza began her own unique ministry without relying on traditional African religious or

Christian resources and built her church and healing compound with a fluctuating population of over 2,500 people seeking a mixture of repentance and healing, all in less

109 For another cross-comparative case, see Heike Behrend, Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits War in Northern Uganda, 1985-97. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2000. 110 Timoh Scarnecchia, Mai Chaa, In Dicionar of African Biograph: Volme 1: Abach-Brand ed. Emmanuel Akyeampong, and Henry Louis Gates. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 47. Hereafter, Scarnecchia, Mai Chaza. 111 Scarnecchia, Mai Chaza, 47. 112 Scarnecchia, Mai Chaza, 47. Austin 41

than one year at a time when women were severely limited from admittance even into leadership or administrative positions within missionary or AICs.

Her ministry was more than just a movement based around healing women from barrenness, or curing other ailments, it was one with a strong syncretic religious content

ha alidaed i claim o ahenici baed on he leader abili o heal oher. De o

Mai Chaa apparen poer o heal, her folloer gae her ile dran direcl from he

Chrisian Bible ch a Saior and Lamb, hogh he ofen referred o herelf a he

Meenger of God.113 Such evidence shows that her followers viewed her in a manner above that of Christian preachers, priests, or even nangas, indicating her authority or status at a time when women were prevented from administering, much less creating religious movements or institutions.

Those interested in joining the Guta ra Jehovah community and church would have to show interior repentance for their sins through external acts, mainly through direct confession of their sins to Mai Chaza or to the officials she put in charge to run her compound. Additionally, in a vein similar to many religious movements and churches of her time, she forbade the consumption and use of alcohol and tobacco, and ruled that couples were to be monogamous. If an individual or couple were unable to follow her rle, he old be nable o benefi from Mai Chaa healing effor.114

Additionally, during the rituals surrounding potential member confeion of heir in,

113 Allen Anderson. African Reformation African Initiated Christianity in the 20th Century. (Asmara: Africa World Press, Inc., 2001), 119-120. 114 Scarnecchia, Mai Chaza, 47. Austin 42

all members usually sung Methodist hymns, using drums until the individual entered a state of ecstasy where the [Holy] Spirit seize[d] them and they [spoke] in tongues.115

Mai Chaza also gained powers from the Holy Spirit, not just through her resurrection, but also by being sent to various mountains. According to Maria-Louise

Marin in her chaper, The Mai Chaa Chrch in Rhodeia, Mai Chaa a compelled by the Holy Spiri o o monain, Chiako hich a reporedl renamed Sinai b he Hol Spiri, and Hnde. On the first mountain, she received the power to heal, and on the second, he Hol Spiri gae her par of he hmn no incorporaed in he hymnbook of her church, used in addition to the old Methodist hymnbook.116 Mai

Chaa life ha clear parallel o biblical characer ha ere endoed ih pirial authority via contact with God such as Moses, serving as a possible way to gain legitimacy for her religious authority, which according to Martin, was a common way for leader in African Independen Chrche o do o b claiming o be a econd Moe.117

Her ministry developed over time as her reputation as a healer spread. She became to be viewed in a more messianic light, with various biblical titles attributed to her, ch a Mponi, helper, healer, or aior (he ile i alo ed for Je). Oher called her Gaana, he Lamb hogh he preferred o be called Mma [hich mean] meenger or angel. She alo reporedl p herelf in the place of Jesus by

115 Marie-Loie Marin, The Mai Chaa Chrch In Rhodeia In African Initiatives in Religion: 21 Studies from Eastern and Central Africa, ed. David B. Barrett. (Nairobi: East African Publishing House, 1971), 115. Hereafer, Marin, The Mai Chaza Church. 116 Marin, The Mai Chaza Church, 111. 117 Marin, The Mai Chaza Church, 111. Austin 43

qoing hi ord ch a I am doing he ork of him ho en me, and I a en b he Faher. This evidence shows an interesting development in the religious beliefs surrounding Mai Chaza personally, and her following at large. By aligning her person with Jesus in a closer way, Mai Chaza could have been attempting to draw more people to her church. Mai Chaa focus on barren women probably originated in a concern for women due to the problem that that poses for women living in an African society that eqae a omen reprodcii ih her ale o a famil ni.118

Another crucial aspect of Mai Chaza is that she was deeply connected with other female spirit mediums who came before her. According to Eric Wood in his article,

Commni Acion, Urban Proe and Change in Zimbabe and Soh Africa, Mai

Chaa inoked Shona religio belief and memorie of he Rebellion, spirit mediums and chief of nearb Mondoro, Chiehe, Zimba and Zimna Reere placing her in direct continuity with Charwe-Nehanda. Additionally, her followers told Wood that she

call[ed] forh oice from he air, rock and ree,119 a detail attesting to her spiritual authority over the land, but also with Ambuya Juliana, who, as an adherent of the cult, in her ministrations engaged with Mwari through the environment. Mai Chaza resonates with all these different themes and currents in Zimbabwean religious history, traditional Shona religious belief, missionary Christianity, and syncretic African Initiated

Churches.

118 Originall cied in Marin, The Mai Chaza Church, 112. 119 Eric Wood, Commni Acion, Urban Proe and Change in Zimbabe and Soh Africa, African Affairs 77, no. 307 (Apr., 1978), 178. Austin 44

Another testament to Mai Chaa poer, rooed in her pirial ahori a a healer/prophetess who is reported from her followers is that she raised a child from the dead. According o he Onard Chriian Magaine Mai Chaa raied Chief

Chnge on, Shona, from he dead, a fact that is both biblical, but also shows that her authority exceeded that of the traditional healers, who failed to heal Shona while he was sick and alive.120 The chief kne of Mai Chaa healing abiliie preiol becae he had healed his wife, and in a manner similar to the Pentecostalism present in colonial

Zimbabe, [he] placed her hand on he bod of Shona and praed and he oke p.121

Kupe also reports that the contemporary church does not forbid its followers from seeking modern medical care, though it still prefers that they seek spiritual healing for their physical ailments.122 Mai Chaza died in 1960, and at the time of her death there were fie ch ciie of Jehoah; a Seke, Zimna, Zimba, Harare and Blaao.

Since then Moewa and Mtoko have been added,123 a strong testament to her success as a healer and a leader. Next will be discussed a transformation of the term muroyi, who was one, and how the accusation process became intertwined with the War of Liberation that occurred in the mid to late twentieth century, eing he age for Amba Jliana spiritual movement with her emphasis on reconnecting to the land and call to return to tradition.

120 Lovejoy Kupe, A Woman Worh Knoing; Mai Chaa Fonder of Ga Ra Jehoah. Onward Christian Magazine. September 30, 2015, 2. Hereafer, Kpe, Woman Worth Knowing. 121 Kpe, Woman Worth Knowing, 2. 122 Kpe, Woman Worth Knowing, 2. 123 Marin, The Mai Chaza Church, 115. Austin 45

Vatagensi (sellout) Phenomenon During the War of Liberation and a Transformation of Witchcraft Accusations and Spirit Mediumship

At the genesis of the Zimbabwean War of Liberation that occurred in the mid-

1960s, and lasted until December 12, 1979, there occurred another shift in the contours of witchcraft, the process of accusation, who was accused, and how it was resolved. This section ill rel heail pon Daid Lan book, Guns and Rain: Guerrillas and Spirit

Mediums in Zimbabwe. However, this section will be bearing in mind his romanticization and extrapolation of traditional Shona religious beliefs and societal structures and how they contributed to the conflict. He argues from the beginning that within the resistance and revolutionary movements that sought to free colonial Zimbabwe there existed a crucial linkage between guerrillas who were foreign to the areas of land they travelled to within colonial Zimbabwe, and the mhondoro, or spirit mediums who were a consequential part of rural Shona community structures.124

Within his historical narrative, Lan basically envisages traditional Shona religion and religious practices as an extension or abstraction of the family, kinship, and local communal structures with its offices (such as chiefs and healers) and the people who inhabit them. When people die, their spirits are eternalized and continually seek the material prosperity and health of their descendants; this is primarily ensured by their decendan obeing rle and la of he preio chief in he form of he mhondoro

124 David Lan, Guns & Rain: Guerrillas & Spirit Mediums in Zimbabwe. Los Angeles: University of California Pre, 1985. Hereafer, Lan, Guns & Rain. Austin 46

as communicated by the spirit mediums who are possessed by them.125 What is important here is less the cosmology he offers, but the subsequent description of the religious-political order that bridged life and death which would affect how the guerrillas and the mhondoro spirit mediums established a relationship.

Lan describes that, within the Dande area, there was a division of power between the chiefs and the spirit mediums of the mhondoro. The d of he chief a o rle.

The duty of the spirit medim a o adie he chief Sricl peaking, i a no he medium who was thought to advise the chief but the mhondoro ha poee himhe living chiefs took responsibility for the spheres of politics and law while the chiefs of the past were in charge of ferili and morali.126 It was within these structures that the gerrilla old laer inerjec hemele, inegraing heir claim o be oner of he land a he mean o liberae he land from he eler-colonial state, within the spiritual and political framework that ensured proper order and stewardship of the land the people who lived on it.127

Because of the deterioration of the chieftaincies across the Dande region, Lan arge ha he ccle of rial echange hich had for o long bound chief, ancestors and living men together in an unequal but flexible relationship finally broke apart,128 with the spirit mediums being forced to take on the political power traditionally held by the chiefs. This detail within the much larger historical trajectory of the war is important

125 Lan, Guns & Rain, 31-32. 126 Lan, Guns & Rain, 56. 127 Lan, Guns & Rain, 113. 128 Lan, Guns & Rain, 137. Austin 47

because once the guerrillas arrived and started to integrate into these combined religious and political structures, it would have drastic effects on conceptions of witchcraft and who perpetrated it.

The guerrillas were able to use fears of the witch as they existed within this system fleshed out by Lan, and combine them with their fears of political rivals, spies, and those opposed to their military efforts. Because the mhondoro mediums oversaw the process of witchcraft accusation, and judging who was and was not a witch,129 the guerillas aligned themselves with them, and were able to win the support of those within the local Dande community. They could then recruit them, gain geographical knowledge of the surrounding areas, legitimate their claims to the land, and have the combined spiritual and political power to accuse those they suspected of subterfuge within the realms of witchcraft, and remove them, oftentimes harshly.130

What this culminated into is that the category or designation of muroyi and a person that does uroyi was intimately linked with the vatengesi or ell-o, hoe opposed to the guerrillas in any capacity, and especially those that sought to support the settler-colonial state. Lan ends with this:

The point is that all these categories of people have one element in common: they are all opposed to the arbiters of the moral order, the mhondoro. That sell- o ere called iche i no eidence of he backardne of he rral populations and their unreadiness to participate in democracy as some Zimbabwean politicians claim to believe. What it demonstrates is the profound degree to which the guerrillas, and by extension the nationalist politicians, had become identified with the mhondoro. Anyone who opposed the altruistic and

129 Lan, Guns & Rain, 143. 130 Lan, Guns & Rain, 146-148. Austin 48

benevolent mhondoro and their protégés the guerrillas for selfishly individualistic reasons were placed in the category to which the ancestors are structurally opposed, the witch.131 What results is another layer of meaning added onto the word muroyi, with a dramatic transformation in the historic process of accusing someone of being a witch or committing witchcraft. This transformation would have dramatic implications for those critical of the nascent nationalist project. It is important to note that the nationalist project that developed within Zimbabwe before, during, and after the Liberation War was not monolithic in its support from the Zimbabwean people; in an atmosphere of distrust and armed conflict, with many competing sides and factions, real or alleged identification with one group or faction could and did lead to accusations of being a vatengesi or sellout, with its concomitant link to disruptive and malevolent witchcraft, evil, and anti- social behavior.132

Daid Lan d of gerrilla in the Dande region of northern Zimbabwe as becoming true guardians and inheritors of the land of Zimbabwe through various political and religious alignments with the mhondoro spirit mediums and the somewhat mythical process of re-sacralizing the land of Zimbabwe, was also not a universal process or discourse observed throughout the war. In some areas, like in Dandawa, portions of the land that villagers lived on became intimately linked with the repercussions of guerrilla- lead vatengesi accusations, namely, physical persecution, sexual violence, and flagrant

131 Lan, Guns & Rain, 170. 132 Ian Maroa, Conrcion of he Sello Ideni dring Zimbabe War of Liberaion: A Cae Study of the Dandawa Community of Hurungwe district, c. 1975-1980, Identity, Culture & Politics: An Afro-Asian Dialogue 10, no. 1 (July 2009), 122-123. Hereafer, Maroa, Conrcion of he Sello. Austin 49

murder.133 There were efforts after this period to both reconnect with the past spiritual practices of the Shona people as part of the nationalism generated by the state and achieving independence, and re-sacralize the landscape by returning to those spiritual traditions with syncretic caveats, aspects of which Ambuya Juliana conducted in her ministry.

Repentance and Rain: Ambuya Juliana

Lastly is Juliana Magama Tongogara, otherwise known as Ambuya

(Grandmother) Juliana, who first appeared in he chiefdom of Maiha in Zihaane

Diric in Zimbabe in 1992, a a en-nine-year-old woman with a divinely appointed mission to call people back to their traditions. In doing so, this would bring back the rains and solve the terrible drought that Zimbabwe was facing at that time, one that would last for most of the 1990s. Some hae arged ha he challenged ae, business, church and traditional power, elaborated new conjunctions of ecological and political ideas, and significantly restructured local social relations and land-use practice.134 However, I want to emphasize how she co-opted the system of chiefs to conglomerate power and resources for her rituals, how her use of syncretism was a means of universalizing the call to tradition and repentance through participation in traditional rituals, and how she was able to effectively criticize many of the AICs and their adherents for their supposedly harmful socio-spiritual practices through traditional religious rituals.

133 Maroa, Conrcion of he Sello, 125-126. 134 Abraham Maere and Ken Wilon. Socio-Religious Movements, the State and Community Change: Some Reflecion on he Amba Jliana Cl of Sohern Zimbabe. Journal of Religion in Africa 25, (Aug., 1995), 253. Hereafer, Maere and Wilon, Ambuya Juliana Cult. Austin 50

Though she would be successful in those capacities, her movement did slowly disintegrate past 1994 due to her failure to bring the rain.

Before her arrival in Mazvihwa in late 1992, there are numerous accounts of the development of Juliana that fit within traditional accounts of the formation of a powerful nanga. According to interviews of those who followed Juliana, she originates from the

Karanga Shona sub-group, and ha a he age of een he a aken nderaer b an njuzu a aer piri ih grea poer. 135 Typically, this mythical formation of nangas occur when a child, typically a young girl, get caught in a deep or fast river where they are removed from their family for a long time. Upon the consultation of a nanga, he famil learn ha he dagher ellbeing i ared, and ha he i being tutored by the njuzu which requires that ceremonial beer be brewed in their honor. After

he child pirial and medicinal edcaion end, he are rerned o heir famil read to assume a role in society as a newly initiated nanga.136

What Cox fails to mention, however, is that at least as reported through the colonial ethnographic sources, this manner of becoming a nanga granted the person special prestige and authority as a nanga,137 a deail crcial o Jliana coaglaion of prestige, respect, and authority. Moreover, it has been reported that during this time of

Jliana life, various discourses put her period of time under water to ten or more years, with the length of time corresponding to a greater degree of respect due to the tutelage of

135 Jame L. Co, Global Inenion and Local Conflic: The Rie and Fall of Amba Jliana in Zimbabe. In Handbook of Indigenous Religion(s), ed. Greg Johnson and Siv Ellen Kraft. (Boston: Brill, 2017), 368; see picture. Hereafer, Co, Global Intentions. 136 Co, Global Intentions, 368. 137 Gelfand Shona Ritual, 106-107. Austin 51

the water spirit.138 Lastly, this spirit was also the origin of Juliana learning radiional

African comeaching from he Bible..[and] chrch ong ,139 a syncretic imputation into the development of being a nanga not originally reported by other sources concerning that process. After her reemergence, instead of returning to her famil, Jliana en almo immediael o he Mwari or High God shrine in the

Matopos Hills in south-west Zimbabwe.140 Boh her ordinaion a a nanga, and her participation at the Mwari shrine would be instrumental in her later actions in the 1990s as the chief way of claiming a traditional, though syncretic spiritual authority.

Her role at the Mwari shrine in Matonjeni was one of a mbonga, or virgin attendant, a duty where she would hae o dance and ing o he High-God during rain ceremonies.141 Already, her familiarity with rain ceremonies, her authority as a nanga, virginal purity, and syncretic knowledge seem to destine her (at least from the narratives given by her followers) for greatness. After her formative period, sometime in 1992 with the incipient drought, [she] felt ready to begin her mission to the people of Zimbabwe by going out from Matonjeni to various regions, largely across the south-central area as a nyusa [sacred meenger] [proclaiming] her miion a informing he people of heir

rongdoing and eplaining he abence of rain.142

138 Co, Global Intentions 369. 139 Co, Global Intentions, 369. 140 Co, Global Intentions, 369. 141 Co, Global Intentions 370 142 Co, Global Intentions 372 Austin 52

Juliana arrived in Mazvihwa on October 17th, 1992 claiming that she was the

nel appoined meenger of he Mwari cult143 and had travelled from Chief

Mchembere area in adjacen Mberenga Diric,144 emphasizing her connections to the Matonjeni shrine through her appearance as a messenger from the shrine, earing black clothing, walking barefoot, [and] claiming virginity/untouchability.145 It has been reported that Juliana claimed to have been delegated her mission from numerous spiritual entities that have massively influential to Shona, and by extension, Zimbabwean history.

Thee piri inclde Mikaanh, Mapa, Nehanda, Chaminka, [all of] the Ancestors and Je Chri ih he fir in he erie generall referring o the progenitor of the human race, and Mapa possibly referring to a spirit related to selfless charity.146 This litany is exceptionally important, not only because it places Juliana in spiritual continuity with the Nehanda spirit, but by claiming to have the support of these piri, he break major gendered bondarie ha limi omen inolemen in being possessed by or having the support of typically masculine spirits such as Chaminuka, and more recently,

Jesus Christ, thus widening her appeal.

In her first meeting with people from Mazvihwa, she decreed a list of rules or taboos that the people, including the chiefs and those under him, ought to follow if they were to begin addressing the absence of rain. Many of these were not so subtly articulations of criticisms against the male-dominated AICs that had very large

143 The word Mwari or Musikavanhu can refer to a Supreme Being (Gelfand Shona Ritual 2) like what is understood in an Abrahamic conceptualization, but it is not completely analogous. 144 Maere and Wilon, Ambuya Juliana Cult, 254, alo ee map. 145 Mawere and Wilon, Ambuya Juliana Cult, 270. 146 Co, Global Intentions Cox 370-371 Austin 53

followings. The rules outlaid the proscription of killing animals, prescribing mutual

orhip and paricipaion in rial beeen radiionali and Chrch Goer

[Chriian], no commiing adlero or perere eal ac in he ilderne and

beich[ing] oher ing magical poion. She went so far as to ban he e of drm beaing, jingling bell and rale ed in Zioni and Apoolic orhip ceremonie which supposedly contributed o emic proiion hich irriaed God and caused drought.

She proscribed not working on Wednesday, a traditional chisi day of rest, and condemned the government for not officially thanking Mwari ritually for achieving independence. According to Juliana, this lack of reverent remembrance irked the spirits

and caed a hole erie of drogh. Lastly, in her rules she criticized the corruption of those that worked at the Mwari shrine and stole the financial donations to support it, and further condemned the bloodshed between and inside of African countries, arguing that that, combined with the rampant ecological damage done by acquiring freshwater through non-traditional means, such as boring holes in the ground and damming streams caused the drought.147 By voicing these rules, taboos, and criticisms, Ambuya Juliana was both relying on the authority of the chiefs and traditional structures, while simultaneously siphoning it away from them because of her spiritual authority.

Juliana successfully contested traditional male spiritual authority at her rain making ceremony through her own authority, and through her status with the people. It

147 Maere and Wilon, Ambuya Juliana Cult, 255-256. Austin 54

ook place a Jachee, he mo acred monain in he Maia chiefdom with thousands of people in attendance. Before Juliana could start, four men in the crowd were poeed b piri of he local rling lineage, inclding ha of he original fonding- chief Maiha here three of the mediums ordered her to not construct a building for the ceremony on the mountain because it was sacred to Mazvihwa. As Juliana turned to leave the people due to the protestation of these spirit mediums, the people turned on the men, seemingly threatening to take their lives; it is “only when [Juliana] returned and ordered the people not to molest them did [the] people desist. Each of the three men was fined $100 and a goat, the fines to go towards the costs of the mutoro.148 This episode of an unplanned interruption on part of the spirit mediums who guarded the land, and the authority of the local chieftaincy shows how powerful Juliana had become, bypassing dual religious and political figures, going so far as to fine them for their misbehavior which would fund the very ceremony they protested.

The ceremony itself is not as important as what comes after it. After the sacrificial meat and libation offerings were conducted by Juliana, she asked each chief present to appoint two nyusa (messengers for the Mwari cult) to travel with her to Matonjeni, where the cult was located. Fourteen total messengers from various chiefdoms in Chivi,

Zvishavane and Mberengwa were sent with her to the shrine; this was done mainly to foer faih in Jliana ahori. When arriing a he hrine ha Jliana a inimael familiar with and depositing the funds she had collected to the man in charge of the

148 Originally cited in Maere and Wilon, Ambuya Juliana Cult, 259, italicization mine. Austin 55

shrine, she ble her rial horn o ha he old be idenified, and hen poke o he rock, presenting the messengers she had brought. A voice emanated from the rock and ordered the messengers to brew ceremonial beer to thank Juliana. The coordinated of the brewing was undertaken by Machokoto, the elderly shrine keeper. It took an entire month to prepare the beer, and people came from as far as Plumtree (on the Botswana border) to attend the ritual consumption. Afterwards, the nyusa messengers returned to the shrine and another speech from the rock occurred where Mwari [the voice] thanked them for coming with Juliana from a variety of places with their offerings and advised them to adhere to the rules promulgated by Juliana.149

Many of the taboos or rules unveiled and offered criticism of many Christian

ecarian grop ch a he Zioni, Seenh Da Adeni and Apoolic Chrche who worship on Saturdays (and work Sundays), and for whom such baptism, extended periods in sacred places in the bush, and/or use of music in their ceremonies, is a key part of religio life.150 Juliana, in her capacity as the leader of this religious movement, through the delegation of authority via the approval of the shrine at Montenjeni, articulated a critique towards these male-dominated religious groups that represented a sharp break with their shared socio-religious past, and were directly causing (according to

Juliana) great spiritual and environmental harm to Zimbabwean society because of the way their worship was conducted, including their apparent sexual proclivities conducted in nature.

149 Originally cited in Mawere and Wilon, Ambuya Juliana Cult, 261-262. 150 Maere and Wilon, Ambuya Juliana Cult, 262. Austin 56

Juliana was able to secure legitimacy as a young woman with a message of socio- religious reform by mobilizing sexual and patriarchal norms of women and utilizing it to grant herself esteem and authority. Being in line with Mwari tradiion, he aribe[d] her powers to ritual structures that are conceived in a patriarchal manner that demand of her a denial of her sexuality [hence her biographical claim to being a virgin and working as a virgin at the hrine] and by engaging in this denial she endorses the idea that women lack ritual power because of their engagement in sexual intercourse. Yet at the same time she uses her denial of sexuality to protect herself from being conceptually defined as a potential wife and thus subordinate,151 an important detail that she and Mai

Chaza post her mystical revelations have in common, empowering them and being crucial to their ministry and movements.

Additionally, Juliana manifested her syncretism and connection to people by ping grea emphai on biblical eaching and een relied on qaibiblical justification [for] her claims. For example, at one meeting, she quoted from the biblical book of Exodus to the people, in particular the commandment from God to Honor your father and mother152 to emphasize that people should adhere to their traditions, and if they do, they will be rewarded. She then followed this recitation by demanding that during ceremonies that traditionalists and the chiefs should call out the names of

Chaminuka and Nehanda, [renown spiritual personas essential to a nationalistic

151 Maere and Wilon, Ambuya Juliana Cult, 271. 152 Though translations differ, found in The Second Book of Moe Commonl Called Eod, in he Didache Bible, ed. Jeffrey Cole, 64-112. Downers Grove: Midwest Theological Forum, Inc., 2018, 20:12. Austin 57

Zimbabwean identity] before the names of their own ancestors.153 Unfortunately, after her exceptional period of activity during this time, after the rains failed to manifest, her movement basically disintegrated though she did retain some people loyal to her cause of reform.

153 Originally cited in Maere and Wilon, Ambuya Juliana Cult, 271-272. Austin 58

Chapter Four: Conclusion

This thesis has explored the topics of witchcraft, traditional Shona religion, gender, and religious syncretism, arguing that there were important evolutions and transformations within the categories of muroyi, nanga, and spirit mediums, blending into something like syncretic prophets and Holy Spirit mediums which simultaneously go beyond the boundaries of the original, while transforming them into something new. This is clearly seen through analysis of the lives of two women, Mai Chaza and Ambuya

Juliana. During their lives, they led spiritual movements and formed churches full of followers, gaining agency above that normally available to women of their times, especially those active in religious movements or churches. By analyzing them in the historical and spiritual continuity with the seminal spirit medium Charwe-Nehanda, and how they called upon her, I argue that it granted them an increased immunity to witchcraft allegations, a heightened status, and a spiritual efficacy that they were able to successfully mobilize, greatly increasing their agency in the process.

In closing, it is important to analyze the topic of witchcraft, accusations of witchcraft, and religious syncretism with its ability to open opportunities for women, for many reasons. First, as previously discussed in the case of David Lan and his analysis during the War of Liberation, the ideas underlying witchcraft practices and beliefs can be mobilized against the most vulnerable populations within communities, and result in harmful physical violence, ostracization, and even death. Contemporarily, this can be Austin 59

seen in various southern African states where those with developmental disabilities, mental illnesses, or trauma, especially children, are increasingly the victims of violence because their behavioral characteristics put them outside of what is considered normative; hence, the children are labelled as witches, with charismatic Pentecostalism, a predominant Christian denomination and spiritual movement in Zimbabwe, being a driving factor for the legitimation of witchcraft accusation and stigma through their religious cosmology.154 In other words, while religious syncretism does have potential benefits for some groups that are normally marginalized, it equally has the potential to marginalize other susceptible groups in the process.

Additionally, when it comes to gender and patriarchy, it is important to note that these women, in co-opting male or patriarchal authority with its symbols are not merely standing in the place of a man or having their gender be subsumed with masculinity to format themselves to their new leadership roles; with the adoption of traditional religious symbols, categories, and ceremonies, they blended gender not to form a composite of male and female but actively pushed beyond gender boundaries and the religious systems they inhabited to create something new.155

Moreover, with the institutionalization of traditional healers, and the processes of becoming a nanga in 1981 through the passage of the Traditional Medical Practitioners

154 Sandieon, Rain. Clre and he Emergence of Sigma Toard Children Wih Deelopmenal Disorder in Gedeo, Ehiopia. Maer Thei, Unieri of Ea Anglia, Ag 2019, 14-15. 155 For more on Western African systems of gender and the complex positions women can inhabit in pariarchal em ee Ifi Amadime Male Dagher, Female Hbands: Gender and Sex In An African Socie page 54-56. Austin 60

Act, nangas being under the auspices of the state could pose bureaucratic barriers for women in the future who wish to mobilize the historical connections analyzed here.156

This action has not stopped other women from becoming nangas to gain a reputation for state and local praise for their efforts, like the infamo Dieel Nanga ho promied to able to elicit diesel, a much needed resource, from a nearby mountain range.157 Further research is relevant especially as it relates to historical and contemporary AICs institutionally barring women leadership and demonizing local religious traditions that have been able to empower women through both Shona and syncretic Christian understandings of women as spiritual leaders.

156 Zachrion, Witchcraft and Witchcraft Cleansing, 38. 157 K.P. Matereke and P. Mungwini, The Occl, Poliic, and African Modernities: The Case of Zimbabe Dieel Nanga, in African Identities Vol. 10, No. 4, (November 2012), 426. 61

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