nehanda and gender victimhood in the central mashonaland 1896-97 rebellions - revisiting evidence

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Nehanda and Gender Victimhood in the Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions: Revisiting the Evidence Author(s): Ruramisai Charumbira Source: History in Africa, Vol. 35 (2008), pp. 103-131 Published by: African Studies Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25483719 . Accessed: 29/07/2014 08:05 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . African Studies Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to History in Africa. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 163.200.81.3 on Tue, 29 Jul 2014 08:05:54 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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  • Nehanda and Gender Victimhood in the Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions: Revisitingthe EvidenceAuthor(s): Ruramisai CharumbiraSource: History in Africa, Vol. 35 (2008), pp. 103-131Published by: African Studies AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25483719 .Accessed: 29/07/2014 08:05

    Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

    .

    JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

    .

    African Studies Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to History inAfrica.

    http://www.jstor.org

    This content downloaded from 163.200.81.3 on Tue, 29 Jul 2014 08:05:54 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

  • NEHANDA AND GENDER VICTBVIHOOD IN THE CENTRAL MASHONALAND 1896-97 REBELLIONS:

    REVISITING THE EVIDENCE*

    RlRAMISAI ChARUMBIRA University of Texas-Austin

    I

    In 1998 David N. Beach revisited the 1896-97 central MaShonaland rising in colonial Zimbabwe in an article titled "An Innocent Woman Unjustly

    Accused? Charwe, Medium of the Nehanda Mhondoro Spirit, and the 1896-97 Central Shona Rising in Zimbabwe."1 Beach's main thesis was that, contrary to conventional wisdom that placed Nehanda-Charwe (and other leaders) at the center of those anti-European settler rebellions, Nehan da-Charwe might have been "an innocent woman unjustly accused." For Beach, upstart Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba (a male spiritual leader) might have been the real hero, for he was to be found in all the sources and his tracks were better traceable than Nehanda-Charwe, who had a sporadic

    presence in the same sources.

    Since Beach's 1998 study, I have not come across any other original study that has extended or disputed his arguments; to that end, I consider this study a response to Beach's study and an invitation to revisit the histo

    riography of early colonial Zimbabwe through feminist lenses.2 My main

    *I would like to thank my colleagues at Denison University for their support during the

    writing of this paper. Additional thanks to Professors Robert W. Harms and Michael R.

    Mahoney (both of Yale University) who read and commented on an earlier incarnation of this article. My thanks also go to the Editor of History in Africa. !David N. Beach, "An Innocent Woman, Unjustly Accused? Charwe, Medium of the

    Nehanda Mhondoro Spirit, and the 1896-97 Central Shona Rising in Zimbabwe," HA 25(1998), 27-54. 2The historiography about African resistances in colonial Zimbabwe, though extensive, has tended to exclude women's histories. It includes Terence O. Ranger, Revolt in Rhode sia (London, 1967); Arthur Keppel-Jones, Rhodes and Rhodesia: The White Conquest of 1884-1902 (Montreal, 1983); Ngwabi Bhebe, Christianity and Traditional Religion in

    History in Africa 35 (2008), 103-131

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  • 104 Ruramisai Charumbira

    aim is to revisit two major issues Beach raised in his study, and to look at them through a feminist lens in order to understand whether Nehanda-Char

    we was indeed an "innocent woman unjustly accused" or whether some thing else was at play. After giving a brief background to the rebellion in

    MaShonaland, I will look at the issue of the credibility of evidence given by Africans to colonial officials about those who were up in arms against the colonial authority, the British South Africa Company (BSAC), with a focus on women's testimonies. In particular, I will analyze how evidence was col lected and handled when given by men and by women. The spotlight will be on "the Zambezi" woman whose report was deemed unreliable at face value, in stark contrast to similar reports given by men and women who were seen as "friendlies" by the colonial officials.

    Secondly, I will focus on the arrest and trial of Nehanda and Kaguvi (both spiritual leaders in MaShonaland), with an emphasis on Beach's argu

    ment that witnesses against Nehanda-Charwe were men, and those sitting on the court bench were men, and so she was a scapegoat for colonial (i.e., BSAC) inefficiency. It is important to mention here that I do share Beach's sentiments about the political misuses of history, and especially of the fig ure of Nehanda in contemporary Zimbabwe. Where we differ is in the inter

    pretation of sources and of Nehanda-Charwe's historical importance in

    telling a gendered history of the central MaShonaland rebellions in 1896-97. In my assessment of the evidence, I find that the biggest hole in Beach's

    argument about Nehanda-Charwe being a "victim" of gender bias lies in the fact that he did not consider the larger canvas of women's and gender histo

    ry before and during the uprisings to articulate Nehanda-Charwe's actions better. His study does not provide the milieu in which Nehanda-Charwe

    operated?what other women were like in that time period?so that we can

    better assess her actions and Beach's assertions thereof. I look at the events of the 1896-97 uprisings from a feminist standpoint and give a gendered analysis of the power dynamics between the colonizers and the colonized, the women and the men. Thus, instead of focusing only on Nehanda-Char

    we as the sole woman in a sea of men, where she unsurprisingly appears a

    victim, I revisit the evidence to find other women's voices, so that hers gets a woman's and gendered context through which we can better understand her actions in that colonial frontier.

    Western Zimbabwe, 1859-1923 (London, 1979); David N. Beach, War and Politics in Zimbabwe, 1840-1900 (Gweru, 1986), idem., 'The Rising in South-Western Mashona land, 1896-97" (Ph. D., University of London, 1971); Julian Cobbing, "Another Look at the Rhodesian Risings of 1896-1897" JAH 18(1977), 61-84.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 105

    n

    Before June 1896, the Mazoe district in central MaShonaland was a gold field of high potential in colonial minds. In the Rhodesia Herald, the major newspaper at the time, news reports on the district often appeared under a column titled:

    "Mining Intelligence." Syndicates with digs in the area were numerous, and were of different European origins. Companies in the Mazoe included the French South Africa Development (FSAD), the Anglo-French Syndicate, as well as varied German, American, and Portuguese interests.3 The mixing and blending of such diverse European ethnicities and nationali ties presented particular tensions and challenges among Europeans, as well as in their dealings with local and migrant African workers.

    While one cannot say that the Europeans and Africans were homoge neous groups, race became the most important dividing line between these

    groups. Within particular groups, other categories emerged, as the competi tion for resources drew sharp divisions in groups that were on the outside, yet treated as one. Local and immigrant African men competed for menial

    jobs or were forced to work in order to afford the mandatory tax. European men, on the other hand, had to deal with the reality that being British had its

    advantages, as British citizens got first preference in the allocation of resources in the colony.4

    It was in this beehive of mining and settler activity that Nehanda-Char we's Mazoe district joined the uprising in June of 1896 for a variety of rea sons, including taxation, land appropriation, forced labor, control of women, control of trade, cattle, and other forms of economic and political power. In a quarterly report dated 29 January 1896, A. C. Campbell, the Native Com

    missioner for Salisbury, wrote rather candidly for a colonial bureaucrat about the Shona's "attitude towards the white men." Through his interaction with the central Shona, he had learned that "although the attitude of Mashona is apparently friendly, there can be little doubt that we are looked upon by them as necessary evils who must be endured as there is no way of

    giting [sic] rid of us. The Mashonas," Campbell continued, "firmly believe that we will leave one day as they suppose the gold seekers of old [the Por

    3The Rhodesia Herald carried many advertisements of these companies in the years cov ered in this study. 4William Harvey Brown, an American from Des Moines, Iowa, got British citizenship in order to participate in the political life of Salisbury. He became mayor of the town in 1909/10. William H. Brown, On the South African Frontier: the Adventures and Obser

    vations of an American in Mashonaland and Matabeleland (New York, 1899). The 1970 reprint of the same book by the Books of Rhodesia carries Appendix 2,433ff, which has a record of the end of year report of his mayorship in Salisbury in 1910. He was as much a Rhodesian as his fellow (British) settlers.

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  • 106 Ruramisai Charumbira

    tug?ese] did.... That we have settled here for good they do not believe for a slight instant."5 Not many settlers often articulated that reality, choosing instead the position that the Shona in general had been rescued by the Euro

    peans.

    After Campbell's report, articles variously titled "Our Native Troubles" or "The Native Question" began to appear with frequency in the Rhodesia

    Herald. Some expressed colonial denial that the Shona could revolt against Europeans, and that sentiment was captured by one reporter, who comment ed that "our policy of neglecting the native question of Mashonaland because the native question of Matabeleland required attention is bearing its rich crop."6 He went on to say, though, the murders of a British family liv

    ing west of Salisbury in MaShonaland was cause for concern for the set tlers: "[w]e do not see sufficient evidence in the murders to conclude that anything like a general or even a partial rising is contemplated." For that

    reporter, the real anxiety was that should an uprising break out, "the native labor supply would be threatened."7

    The uprisings did happen in Mashonaland, including the Mazoe Valley, at the beginning of June 1896. The Civil Commissioner and Magistrate of

    Salisbury, Marshall H. Hole, writing a report on the events in Mashonaland, noted that the "most important murder in the district [of Mazoe] was that of [Henry] Pollard, whose native police joined the rebels at the commence

    ment of the rising, and have ever since taken a prominent part in the rebel lion."8 Henry Hawkin Pollard, known to the Africans as Kunyaira, was the

    Native Commissioner for Mazoe District, and was listed as missing in June of 1896. He was in charge of that district, and the evidence suggests that he also had business transactions with Nehanda-Charwe.

    Pollard, it turned out, had asked Nehanda-Charwe for several of her vil

    lage's young men to accompany him further north to warn settlers of the

    impending uprising. Those young men, it turned out, became victims of

    uprisings that had already erupted further north, where Chief Mutoko was considered a recalcitrant rebel chief who needed to be subdued to contain the spread of what Africans called chindunduma-the uprising. It could have

    5National Archives of Zimbabwe (hereafter NAZ). NAZ/N1/1/9, A. C. Campbell, "Quar terly Report Salisbury District," 29 January 1896. Unless otherwise stated, all sources are from the NAZ. ^Rhodesia Herald, 2A June 1896. 7"Our Native Troubles," Rhodesia Herald, 17 June 1896. It is worth noting that a signifi cant number of Company reports on the Rebellions first appeared in the Rhodesia Herald.

    For this reason I have canvassed the Rhodesia Herald much more than previous scholars

    on the subject. 8NAZ/Al/12/26, H. Marshall Hole, Report of the Civil Commissioner, Salisbury, 29

    October 1896,17-18.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 107

    been that Nehanda-Charwe, once the uprisings began in earnest in her area, needed the young men Pollard had taken with him and who had not

    returned, and that issue most likely vexed her as the political climate

    changed in the Maz Valley. Nehanda-Charwe thus became suspect as the mover, or one of the movers, toward Pollard's death, and the BSAC and

    Imperial Forces put human and financial resources into finding the suspects, including Nehanda-Charwe.

    Concomitant with the Native Commissioner's search for rebel leaders with his (unnamed) African messengers in the Mazoe was another patrol under the command of Captain Horace McMahon, who, along with other

    patrols in the Mashonaland area, was under the general command of Colonel Edwin Alfred Hervey Alderson. In his report Alderson (like many settlers before him) noted the Mazoe Valley was "a very fertile district,"

    with the caveat that the Mazoe was fertile "in more ways than one [as in it] were members of truculent natives." To Alderson, the Mazoe Africans were "truculent" because it "was in this district that the celebrated doctoress

    Nyanda [Nehanda] lived and held court."9 Alderson's comment and McMa hon's elaborated report on his tour of duty through Nehanda-Charwe's gen eral area of residency adds an important dimension to the idea and reality of

    Nehanda-Charwe's stature in her district. Whether this information was part of the circulated and unfounded

    rumors among Rhodesians that Beach has suggested was the case in the conviction of "an innocent woman unjustly accused" is difficult to support in light of my own interpretation of the same sources. For example, most sources did not mention that women or Nehanda-Charwe were present in the Mazoe "Indaba" or armistice that took place in Mazoe. The only docu

    ment that mentions this is a message from the Officer Commanding at Fort Alderson in Mazoe dated 15 November, 1896 that stated that the troops and some Africans had gone to the front of a Kopje to negotiate, and that "Nahanda, the witch doctoress was present."10

    I am inclined, with the imperfect sources that we have, to conclude that Nehanda-Charwe entered the settler discourse in various ways: through direct contact with the settlers, especially traders and prospectors in the

    Mazoe district, including the dead Pollard; through Africans collaborating with the Europeans; and through the captured women and men held by the colonial forces at Fort Alderson in the Mazoe among other areas. From the

    9Edwin Alfred Hervey Alderson, With the Mounted Infantry and the Mashonaland Field Force, 1896 (London, 1898), 130. See also L. H. Gann, A History of Southern Rhodesia, Early Days to 1934 (London, 1965), 133-39; Ranger, Revolt in Southern Rhodesia, 211.

    10NAZ/AL/1/1/1, Messengers from Mazoe-Dispatehes from O. C. Fort Alderson, 15 November 1896.

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  • 108 Ruramisai Charumbira

    sources close to the events, there is a strong suggestion that Nehanda-Char we was very much involved in the rallying of rebels and in urging people to

    participate in the rebellions, as will be shown when discussing the trial and execution later in the study. From these sources I agree with those scholars whose conclusions have been that Nehanda-Charwe was very much involved in the process, though our reasons for saying so differ.

    By Alderson and McMahon's accounts the fighting in the Mazoe was intense in September of 1896 with armistices held in between.11 "On our

    way up [the hills] we burnt several kraals and mined some important caves," reported McMahon of the scorched-earth strategy they deployed with calcu lated ferocity toward particular places in the Mazoe.12 The mining of impor tant caves included "the cave of the famous witch doctoress Nyanda, who

    was reported to be the cause of most of the discontent prevailing in the dis trict and whose capture was consequently most anxious to effect." The

    Imperial Forces not only destroyed property and killed people in the mined

    places of refuge, they also "captured many arms and cattle" which they included in the Company's loot.13

    More importantly, and consistent with similar conflicts that had hap pened in 1892, was the discovery of "a quantity of property which had been taken by the natives from their murdered victims." This property was all "concealed in Nyanda's cave," and to McMahon's disappointment, "the witch was gone" when they got to mine the said cave.14 Since word had

    gone out that Nehanda-Charwe was the source of inspiration for those

    resisting, McMahon and his men were "determined to destroy [that cave] completely, in order to show the natives that the white man [sic] had little respect for Nyanda's power."15 The blasting of Nehanda-Charwe's cave was a concerted effort to desecrate African sacred places and spaces, a strategy that worked well (in conjunction with natural disasters) to convert more

    Africans to Christianity, especially after the war. The only other evidence that corroborates the idea that the cave found with much loot was Nehanda

    Charwe's cave is that Africans from the area who knew the landscape told the colonials about the cave.

    As the war intensified, a lot of settlers left the colony, some for good, while others later returned. This counter-migration was quite detrimental to

    imperial efforts to make Rhodesia a colony like Canada or Australia. Mid

    UE. A. H. Alderson, With the Mounted Infantry, 162-64.

    12Horace W. McMahon, "Clearing the Granite Range in the Mazoe Valley" in Alderson, Mounted Infantry, 184.

    13Ibid., 185. 14It is worth keeping in mind that dynamite was already in use in the Mazoe, as much

    rock blasting went on in the mining process. 15McMahon, "Clearing the Granite Range," 185.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 109

    November of 1896 saw the "largest point of numbers [about 149, leave]

    since the troubles began, [and] among the departures were many of Salis bury's principal residents." These included Judge Vintcent and his wife, who left a judicial gap, as the Company did not bring in another Judge (Jus tice Watermeyer) until the following year.16 The absence of a judge meant that the settlers were quite nervous about not having an operating justice system that would shield them from accusations by the Cape Town and

    London offices of mistreating Africans. The importance of Nehanda-Charwe was also reinforced by the Chief

    Native Commissioner (CNC) of Mashonaland's report on Nehanda-Charwe and Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba. According to that report, Kaguvi-Gumbore shumba was a "common hunting" mhondoro before the uprisings, but "with

    Nianda, it is different."17 The difference was that prior to the rebellions, Nehanda-Charwe was considered

    "by far the most important wizard in

    Mashonaland," a status that came from receiving tribute from many of the chiefs who took part in the rebellions in that part of Mashonaland. Her posi tion, the CNC understood from his Shona informants, was not because of her own personal charisma, but because of the "title of Nianda [which] is the name of the spirit which she has inherited, her proper name being

    Charukwe [Charwe]."18 Being that Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba accused Nehanda-Charwe and

    VaMponga (another female medium, on whom there is very little informa tion) of "starting the rebellion," the CNC s report lends weight to the idea by suggesting that Africans in the Mazoe communicated with "Kagubi through Nianda [who] also received a large share of the loof'-consistent

    with McMahon's report mentioned above. The loot included "numerous rifles," some of which were obsolete; goods; and gold valued at ?140 The

    CNC went on to say, "I know that she still has concealed ?700, but, from fear of the spirit which she possesses the Natives are afraid of giving any information thereon."

    What the foregoing tells us is that Nehanda-Charwe was powerful because of her spirit, and so were all women before and after her who held that position. Most of the evidence-including that of the African witnesses that I shall get to in the next section?often referred to her (and Kaguvi

    Gumboreshumba) in religious terms, thereby classifying what these figures said as the word of the ancestors that had to be heeded. The British would

    16"The Last Departure. A Large Convoy," Rhodesia Herald, 18 November 1896; "No

    Judge in Salisbury," Rhodesia Herald, 25 November 1896. 17NAZ/W/18, "Report of the CNC of Mashonaland on Kagubi and Nianda," 189?. 18Note that Chargwe would have been the spelling used in those days; I use the spelling

    of Charwe, instead.

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  • 110 Ruramisai Charumbira

    have been wary of charging her of an "intangible" offense such as being "a witch" or for the use of magic that led to the uprising as this would have been difficult to prove. To that end, it was easier to pin her down for the crime of inducing others-through the power of her politico-spiritual office-to murder, especially of an important colonial bureaucrat.

    Thus Nehanda-Charwe, though charged with the crime of ordering or

    participating in the murder of Pollard, was understatedly "guilty" of leading the rebellion as she was the "voice of the ancestor" that vaShona in her area heeded. That the spirit and the woman are synonymous does indeed compli cate matters; just as the Pope cannot be separated from the Church, so

    Nehanda-Charwe cannot, and should not be separated from her spiritual role-whether the historian accepts the religious practices of vaShona or not.

    in

    The new Native Commissioner (NC) for Mazoe, Edward T. Kenny, a for mer translator who had replaced Henry H. Pollard, continued to hunt for the elusive leaders of the rebellions in the Mazoe in early 1897.19 Kenny, how ever, was not able to get any information out of two captured women to include in his report. In August he heard news of the whereabouts of Kagu vi-Gumboreshumba and "his large body of followers" whom he noted, with

    disappointment, had escaped.20 Two months later, an elated report in the Rhodesia Herald announced Kenny's message that "two Native Department messengers have succeeded in capturing two of Kakubi's wives in the Mazoe District."21 Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba was on the run, and the African

    messengers of the Native Department were in hot pursuit, and the women became an important element in his decision to surrender. About a fortnight later, on 27 October, Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba was reported as wishing to surrender. "Kakubi had enough of it, the war doctor desires to join his lady following who are with the Mazoe NC. The authorities expect Kakubi's sur render any moment," announced a Rhodesia Herald report.22 Kaguvi-Gum boreshumba's desire to surrender, the sources suggest, was induced by the

    capture of the women.

    Kenny recommended that his police "who captured Kagubi's women be awarded some small bonus for their able work." The African police insisted that "had Kagubi's women not been captured, [he] would not have surren dered." Kenny went on to suggest that another bonus be extended to those

    19As mentioned earlier, the who's who of these rebellions can be found in Ranger, Beach, and Keppel-Jones, among others.

    ^NAZ/Nl/l/?, NC Mazoe to CNC, 30 October 1897; Rhodesia Herald, 18 August 1897. 2lRhodesia Herald, 13 October 1897.

    22Rhodesia Herald, 27 October 1897.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 111

    fellows in the event that they would capture Nehanda-Charwe, who was still on the run.23 "I am leaving here under cover of darkness tomorrow night to arrest

    'Nyanda' and also if possible 'Wamponga' who are in my district," Kenny informed Taberer. The self-assured colonial wanted to arrest the two women because they were "keeping a lot of my natives from surrendering." Since Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba's surrender had been an anticlimax for Kenny, the capture of Nehanda-Charwe and VaMponga was important for his credentials and career in the colony's imperial bureaucracy. For Kenny, "'Nyanda' [was] the most important of the two," and he meant to pay more attention to capturing her.24

    Taberer added weight to Kenny's keen interest in arresting Nehanda Charwe, a sentiment shared by many a settler as the rebellions tapered off at the end of 1897. At that point she was considered "more dangerous to the

    peace of the country than even Kagubi would be," suggesting that Kaguvi Gumboreshumba had talked and validated the intelligence gathered up to that point, telling the BSAC authorities of the importance of Nehanda-Char

    we in the uprising.25 Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba reiterated his position pub licly when, during his preliminary examination, after dismissing witness testimonies and positing himself as a peaceful man, he announced "I want

    Nyanda, Goronga, and Wamponga brought in, they started the rebellion."26 Since rebellion was not the charge brought against him, or Nehanda-Char we, the issue, it seems, was never pursued, as there is little else by way of evidence to illuminate Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba's accusation of Nehanda

    Charwe.

    An interesting aspect in the collection of evidence against Nehanda Charwe both at die time of the events under study, and in contemporary his torians' use of that archive, is the gendered nature of the use of that infor

    mation, particularly information produced by women. One case in point is Beach's "rumor theory." Beach argues that part of the evidence against Nehanda-Charwe began with unsubstantiated rumors, like those brought into Salisbury on 19 July 1896 by a "'Zambesi' woman" dressed as a man.27

    That rumors abounded in a time of war, where Africans had sabotaged the

    telegraph wires cannot be disputed; what is disputable is the assumption that a woman's evidence was less plausible because it could not be verified. The case of the "Zambesi" woman is particularly poignant, as it brings to the fore many of the often under-researched issues of women's voices and gen der dynamics in sources and the historiography.

    23NAZ/Nl/l/6, NC Mazoe to CNC, 29 October 1897. ^NAZ/Nl/l/?, NC Mazoe to CNC, 30 October 1897. 25NAZ/W/18, "Report of the CNC of Mashonaland on Kagubi and Nianda," n.d. 26NAZ/S/401/253, Preliminary Examination of Kagubi, 29 October, 1897.

    27Beach, "Innocent Woman," 38-39; NAZ/LO 5/2/50.

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  • 112 Ruramisai Charumbira

    First, while that "Zambesi" woman was unique in showing up dressed as a man-an issue I will elaborate on shortly-in the first months of the upris ings in MaShonaland, it was quite common to get news updates in Salisbury about what was going on in outlying areas like Mazoe, Marandellas, and

    Mutoko through Africans always named or prefixed as a "Zambezi boy," or a "Zulu named ..." or a "Mashona boy named . . ,"28 On the first day of

    July 1896 there appeared in the Rhodesia Herald a report of a "Zambesi boy" who had been brought into the Salisbury laager by the Mounted Police. According to the NC's intelligence report (from which the Rhodesia Herald made its report), the "boy's" name was "Zhornette" from Tete.29 The "Zambezi boy stated he left Tete ten days ago to seek work in Salis

    bury."30 He claimed that on his way to Salisbury, he and his companions were captured by "Mashona" in a village near the Gwebi River and while there "had heard the Mashonas planning to kill the Native Commissioner

    Pollard but later learned that the latter had made his escape to Chibonga's Kraal."31 The report went on to say the "Mashonas had captured all of Pol lard's cattle," and were killing anyone who had anything to do with the

    white man, including the "Zambesi boy's" companions. On 15 July another report appeared in the paper of "a Zambesi boy

    named Masiewo [who] arrived this morning" from the Portuguese territory in the north, where he had gone to "buy endoro [ndoro] seashells."32

    Masiewo gave a similar account to that of Zhornette above, in particular that he and four of his brothers were invited into Chipuriro's homestead to par take in a meal and some "friendly informal repast." As the men enjoyed the hospitality of their hosts, they were attacked from behind and three of his brothers were killed there. He did not specify what happened to the other

    brother, only that he escaped to Salisbury, and in Chishawasha he saw "rebels in strong force" who were grouping for an offensive. That intelli

    gence information was not questioned as "unreliable."

    Reports of a similar nature were given by a "Mashona boy named Mee kee" who was caught by "a bushman in a field far away from the road and

    28The term "Zambesi," though never quite defined in the sources probably referred to

    Africans who came from the north or east of the Zambezi River in the north and possibly beyond. 29NAZ/AL/1/1/1 "Statement of Boy named Zhornette, Portuguese from Tete," 28 June 1896. This and the subsequent Rhodesia Herald reports here cited are also in this archival

    series NAZ/AL/1/1/1. As mentioned earlier the Rhodesia Herald reports on official mat ters tend to be the same as those in official records, sometimes verbatim, as the newspa

    per served as the officiai gazette of the BSAC. ^Rhodesia Herald, 1 July 1896. 31Ibid.

    ^Rhodesia Herald, 15 July 1896.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 113

    brought me to Salisbury," accusing him and his people ("Mashona") of killing "the white man. A Zulu named Jack came in early morning," another report went: "he states his master Mr. MacKenzie is here in camp . ..," and that he had walked by night following the telegraph line to get to Salisbury safely. And "two Zambesi boys [who] arrived this afternoon and stated they

    were Ruping's police." A distinctly different report came from Machine, "a

    Shangaan" who had come from the other side of the Mazoe. Machine's statement was made on 3 July 1896. He had worked for a white man who had been murdered and whose name he did not know. However, he said he knew

    "Gunjairo [Kunyaira/Pollard] who had gone to the [Makorekore] country. I saw him go, but not return."33 All these stories did not seem to raise any suspicion of the "unreliability" of either the story or its teller.

    What is particularly important to note in the foregoing reports by the "Zambesi" and other African men is that they were seeking, or had a rela

    tionship with settlers in Salisbury or elsewhere in Mashonaland and the

    colony. The first man was on his way to look for work in Salisbury while the second had left Salisbury about a month before on his ndoro buying trip.

    The third and last two had established relationships with particular white men. What this suggests is that both men and their (real or imagined) mur dered companions had or sought labor relations with the white settlers.34 The men were also

    "foreign" for the most part. Reporting to the authorities on African rebel activity was no different for

    the women who were in similar circumstances, making it particularly curi

    ous that Beach would hold onto only one report by the "Zambesi woman," as though men did not also produce such information, some of which was uncorroborated. As I illustrate below, with the exception of the "Zambezi woman," other women who reported the death of black or white people were, like the men mentioned above, considered "foreign" or local "friend lies" and, therefore, shared a sense of vulnerability with the European set tlers of being killed by "the Mashonas." Beach's choice to "prove" inno cence, or at least to question, Nehanda-Charwe's guilt, while very important and needed for historical accuracy, is curious in its disregard of Nehanda

    Charwe's contemporaries' agency in the whole process and in our under standing of women's and gender history in that time period. Analyzing

    Nehanda-Charwe's position from the point of view of her female contempo raries illuminates her motives better, as a closer look at the story of the "Zambesi woman" tells us that any women that transgressed boundaries-be they spirit mediums or otherwise-were targeted as suspicious.

    33NAZ/AL/1/1/1, Statements of: "Meekee," 29 June 1896; Jack, 3 July 1896; Machine, 3 July 1896. 34It is also worth noting that the African men, with the exception of the "Mashona Mee

    kee," all were "foreign" from the north, "Zambesi" or south, "Zulu" and "Shangaan."

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  • 114 Ruramisai Charumbira

    Another report in the Rhodesia Herald noted that on "Tuesday morning some Basuto women, the family of the murdered Moleli, Wesleyan native

    missionary, came in, after many wonderful escapes." The named Basuto women were Effi and Pauline from the "Marandellas Mission station of

    Nongubo [Nenguwo?]."35 After reporting the death of one James White, the women reported that "they themselves were captured, beaten, and left for dead. The rebels said they had killed all the white man and the women who

    groped towards Salisbury at night did not believe they would find anyone alive here."36 The reporter did not confirm or dispute whether the women

    were indeed injured or not. Their report is also particularly striking as women (African, in particular)

    were generally captured, but not molested, and kept as war booty, but these were molested and then let go. That refraining from molesting women was confirmed by Chikunda, a woman witness against some men?Mabidza, Rowanya and Mawonira?who were accused of murdering William Birkett, a European miner in the Mazoe. Chikunda pointedly told one of the accused trying to evade testimony that she had seen him commit the crime by invok

    ing the reason why she had been spared when she said: "you did see me, you only didn't kill me because I ama woman."31 This (and other women's testimonies in this study) illustrates that women's voices are there in the sources when searched for, and those voices do come out strong and clear in

    many of the court testimonies, demonstrating that when women did get an

    opportunity to contest their oppression, they took advantage of it and do not come off as victims. This, however, is not to argue that in the time period women's oppression was not real issue in the African society studied here? not at all. What I am arguing is that women in history are not synonymous with disempowerment and victimhood.

    The foregoing testimonies bring us to the report given by the "Zambesi" woman?a report which is to me the most poignant in terms of how power is exercised in the construction of the archive, and the historical narrative thereafter. The "Zambezi woman's" testimony is the only one that I came across that begins with the presumption that it was "more or less unreliable evidence." This is not to suggest that just because she was a woman, and I am writing about women here, therefore what she said was accurate and reliable. What I am contesting is that her testimony-both in the primary

    35NAZ/AL/1/1/1, Statement of Effi and Pauline, two Basuto women who have come in from Marandellas Mission Station (Nongubo), no date, but possibly 28 June 1896. The report is sandwiched between that of Meekee (mentioned above) and Zhornette.

    ^Rhodesia Herald, 8 July 1896. 37NAZ/S401/258, Preliminary Examination Mabidsa, Rowanya, Mawonira and

    Gamanya, 20 June 1896, emphasis mine.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 115

    sources and interpretation of those sources-was dismissed, seemingly on the basis of her gender and cross-dressing. In the case of her contemporaries, the dismissal seems to have emanated from the fact that she had crossed both race and gender boundaries, and in the case of today's historian inter

    preting that event, the assumption is that women were victims and made up stories to garner sympathy.

    The Rhodesia Herald report on that woman began: "[a] Zambesi woman attired in man's clothing came into camp last week with more or less unreli able evidence as to the movements of the rebels."38 One might wonder just what made her evidence "unreliable" at first glance. It turns out that it was because "she was the paramour of one of the unfortunate murdered fellows last month, but was not with him at the time of the outbreak and was herself not molested." Although never specified, my hunch is that the "fellow" was a white man. Given that hypothesis, it is most likely that the reason her evi dence was "unreliable" was that she had had a prohibited relationship with a white man. If that "fellow" had been an African, they would have specified that the man was a "native, a Zulu, a Shangaan, or a Zambesi." That even the names of the "fellows" were withheld is particularly telling, as it was coded to silence talk about unacceptable interracial liaisons in a colony founded on racial hierarchies.39 More research could illuminate more on that

    woman and those "fellows."

    What was more, the woman's statement that "rebels were massed at Mt.

    Hampden" was "denied by two native scouts." The fact that Basuto women and all the men's statements cited above were never doubted (by the reporter at the time or the historian today) is particularly curious. The "Zambesi" woman was discredited because she had disturbed the code of conduct, and therefore her statement was treated with suspicion compared to that of "more reliable" source?those that had not violated the racial, sex ual, or dress codes. Her ingenious act of wearing "man's clothing" to dis

    guise herself ruptured the Victorian gender dress code in that colony. She was not only African, but had a relationship with a white man, and after his death, went on to disguise herself as a man-most likely in her lover's clothes-so that she could be safe to walk to Salisbury to deliver the sad news of the death of her lover and his colleagues.

    To me, her piece of evidence is just as important as all the others men tioned above because it tells us about how women sought ways to reshape

    ^Rhodesia Herald, 22 July 1896. 39For an articulation of hierarchies, even among the settlers themselves, see, among oth ers, Ruramisai Charumbira, "Administering Medicine without a License: Missionary

    Women in Rhodesia's Nursing History" Historian 68(2006), 241-66; and A. S. Mlambo, White Immigration into Rhodesia: from Occupation to Federation (Harare, 2002), 49-67.

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  • 116 Ruramisai Charumbira

    Figure 1: "The Capture of Nianda and Kakubi, October 1897Z'40

    their lives at that turbulent moment of the struggle for power in an African land that was becoming a British colony. By denying the woman's evidence as "unreliable," women's voices are rendered irrelevant to the discourse, and if relevant, in need of verification by patriarchal standards of those that created the archive in the nineteenth century and those that use it to write narratives in our time. By including women's historical lives to our narra tives-and the historiography-we shift the obsessive gaze on the "exception al" heroine who was Nehanda-Charwe, the one and only who did what no other woman could have ever done or ever did in Shona history.

    rv

    "The Capture of Nianda and Kagubi," was a powerful image that the BSAC used to good effect to announce the arrest of Nehanda and Kaguvi. Howev er, there are also problems with this evidence when juxtaposed with other

    ^NAZ/Image 3729, see also British South African Company, '96 Rebellions formerly titled Reports of the Native Disturbances in Rhodesia, 1896-97 (Bulawayo, 1975), 127 (facing page). I discuss this image later in this paper.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 117

    contemporary documents. While copies of the picture held at the National Archives of Zimbabwe do not specify the date the original picture was taken, the BSAC Report in which the picture (figure 1) featured among

    many famous ones from the period, gives the date of "October 1897"-a very problematical date. As we've already seen, Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba sur

    rendered on 27 October 1896, and Kenny who left under the "cover of dark" on a mission "to capture Nianda" did not capture her until mid-December 1897. She was reported as arrested on 18 December 1897, suggesting that the photograph that depicts her arrest?or the date attached to it?might be or is unreliable evidence.41

    On 11 January 1898, Frank Spurrur, acting for the Clerk of the Court, prepared a document to go with the preliminary trial of the Africans held in

    custody for alleged involvement in the uprisings of 1896-97 in central Mashonaland.42 Among those were Wata [Hwata], Nianda [Nehanda-Char we], Gutsa, and Zindoga, who were charged with the murder of Henry Hawkin Pollard. All four were committed for trial the next day by the Act

    ing Magistrate Bayley.43 It is from that record that we learn that Nehanda Charwe was 36 years of age at the time of her arrest. According to that record, she was "without a trade or occupation" at the time of the uprisings.

    The indictment against Nehanda-Charwe read as follows: "On the twen tieth of June 1896, at the Mazoe District of Salisbury, Nianda kill and mur der [sic] Henry Hawkin Pollard, alias Kunyaira, in his lifetime a native commissioner there residing."44 The Acting Magistrate of Salisbury Town ship, Cecil Bayley, read that statement to her, and she must have been standing across from Bayley, handcuffed. That was a fledgling colonial judicial system, and the whole process was carried with as much procedure and paper trail as possible. Responding to the charge laid before her, Nehan da-Charwe said: "I heard that Kunyaira [Pollard] had come and they went

    41NAZ/S401/252, Preliminary Examination of Nianda, 11 January 189[7]. Note that this document is misdated as 1898 instead of 1897. 42It is important to reiterate that at this point in the colony, many of the bureaucrats were

    acting officers, as those in office had either died in the war or had shipped out. After the war the colony set out to restructure and outfit most of its posts with "trained Civil ser vants . . ." Hugh Marshall Hole, The Making of Rhodesia (London, 1926), 380. On women workers, particularly nurses in the 1890s, see among others, Charumbira, "Administering Medicine without a License."

    43NAZ/S401/252, Preliminary Examination of Nianda, 11 January 1898. 44The nickname Kunyaira, among many possible interpretations, could mean that it was

    given to him by the Shona of Mazoe because of the way Pollard walked-ib* Kunyaira-to walk with pomp or a sense of self-importance. Or it could well have been a play on one of his names, or meant kunyangira, meaning someone who sneaks up on people, being that he was infamous as an oppressive administrator. Africans did give nicknames to peo

    ple, even their own, that were generally descriptive of that person's character, as was noted by one prospector in the Fort Victoria area Mss. Afr. 66, Rhodes House, Oxford.

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  • 118 Ruramisai Charumbira

    and brought him to me so we ran away we did not go close to him at all that's all I have to say they did not bring him up to the kraal." The record does not say if her statement was contested or not. Being a non-literate both in writing and how the British (colonial) judicial system worked, she "authenticated" the document by scratching an X mark for her signature and as consent that she understood the charge against her. Colonial officials

    Joseph Bottle and Frank Spurrur signed as witnesses. Nehanda-Charwe's statement at the preliminary hearing (and at the trial

    itself) is not easy to understand since it carries conflicting messages. In an attempt to decipher the cryptic nature of her testimony, I will apply a

    methodology of reverse translation here, that is, take the English testimony we have, and turn it into chiShona to try to understand what might have been lost in translation-granted my reverse translation here utilizes twenty first- and not nineteenth-century chiShona.

    First, in her testimony she said: "I heard that Kunyaira [Pollard] had come and they went and brought him to me." That statement confirms that she did know about Kunyaira and saw him on the day that they brought him to her.45 More significant is the fact that they (whoever they were), brought

    Kunyaira to her, but she does not refer to anyone else in the first part of the statement-even the translation here would not be confused with chiShona honorific pronouns that pluralize when mentioned in the second or third

    person. Thus in chiShona she might have said: Ndakanzwa kuti Kunyaira awuya, ndokubva vamuunza kwandiri. It could well be that the translator

    misunderstood the Takanzyva (We heard) and translated it into Ndakanzwa (I heard) and Kwatiri (to us) to be Kwandiri (to me). This would be most like ly if Nehanda-Charwe had spoken with a Shona accent that the translator

    was not familiar with, had a lisp, or had nasal congestion due to the use of ritual snuff (tobacco) that made her T sound project as an Nd sound, making it difficult to understand and translate if one's ear were not well attuned to it. It could have been none of the above, one, or a combination of two, or

    (most unlikely) all three. These are high probabilities, and other than the lisp/linguistic/ nasal con

    gestion likelihoods, the plural could also have been honorific if she meant

    that Kunyaira was brought to her while she was in trance. While that would be the most difficult to verify, and probably would be the least true of all

    possibilities, one cannot exclude it as irrelevant considering that she was a woman of importance because of the Spirit she was channeling. Whatever the possibilities, the first part of the statement is what holds the least obvi ous ambiguity on the face of it.

    45I use Kunyaira when discussing African references to him, and Pollard for European references.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 119

    The second part of her statement is more cryptic and it is very difficult to understand or imagine what went wrong with the translation, as the pronoun shifts from singular to plural. The latter part of her statement: "[s]o we ran away we did not go close to him at all that's all I have to say they did not

    bring him up to the kraal," succeeding the statement "I heard" and "they brought him to me," is at once fascinating and peculiar. In chiShona she

    probably said nezvo takatiza hatina kuswedera pedyo naye zyachose, ndizyo zyandingataura, havana kumuunza pamusha. In the first part of the state

    ment the translation tells us that she utilized the singular pronoun twice: "J heard" and

    "brought him to me," yet in the latter part of the statement she utilized the plural pronoun "we" twice: "we ran away, we did not get close to him." How the statement, without breaking, changed from the singular to the plural in one breath, is itself astonishing.

    One wonders whether the Native Commissioner deliberately mistranslat ed her testimony. If he did, why did he mistranslate?did she say something that implicated Pollard or other BSAC officials and prospectors in the

    Mazoe or something unacceptable to the court like recourse to her reli

    gion/spirituality? I raise these questions because to me Nehanda-Charwe's testimonies at the preliminary and actual trial, as will be discussed in detail below, are the most contradictory and cryptic of all the prisoners' state

    ments that I have read thus far. The cryptic nature of those testimonies rais es important historical questions about the making and/or destruction of evi dence of a key figure in a significant event. It also raises the question of whether the testimony was fudged by the translator and the judge who tran scribed the trial. The important point here is that Nehanda-Charwe's state

    ment sheds little light on the issues, while casting a long shadow on the events of 1896-97 and her role in them. It also makes me wonder why the prosecution never asked her (or any of the significant prisoners) anything about the rebellions proper. It makes me wonder if there is still some evi dence lying somewhere that was (and still is) suppressed that would clarify the case further.

    In the late summer of 1898 Judge Watermeyer in Salisbury began the tri als of those convicted of participating in the uprisings. The general indict

    ments included direct or indirect murder of European settlers and African friendlies.46 According to the trial records, Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba and his companions (Marimo, M'bobo, Chigonga, and Makatsini) were tried first, followed by Nehanda-Charwe and her co-defendants (Hwata, Zindoga, and

    Gutsa?all men). What is key to note is that both trials had, for the most part, the same Judge, set of assessors, and defense lawyers. Also important

    ^For commentary on the Rebellion trial sessions see R. H. Wood, "The 1898 Criminal Sessions," Heritage of Zimbabwe 6(1986), 47-58.

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  • 120 Ruramisai Charumbira

    to note is that, contrary to Beach's interpretation that Nehanda was convict ed because all witnesses against her were male, the same could be argued for Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba, whose three out of four accusers were

    women. The women witnesses against Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba had been widows of African policemen/messengers. The male witnesses against Nehanda-Charwe had deserted duty with private employees of what later became the Native Department, where they were once messengers/police, or in some cases had still been active employees captured by the rebel side.

    On Wednesday, 2 March Nehanda-Charwe and Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba went up for trial separately

    - first Kaguvi and then Nehanda.47 Since these cases have been subjects of much historical debate, I will here focus on

    women and gender dynamics, people and issues that have not been fully addressed in the historiography, especially articulations of gender in the 1896-97 rebellions. This, I hope, will illuminate the fact that Nehanda-Char

    we was not the sole female in those courts, and if gender was manipulated to "frame" her, it could also be argued that gender was manipulated to "frame" Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba through the use of female witnesses.

    Though one cannot, and should not, easily equate these, it is particularly telling that in the major trials of Nehanda-Charwe and Kaguvi-Gumbore shumba, the numbers of witnesses were gender skewed, that is, there were

    more male witness against her, and more female witnesses against him. The real issue that divided these two key figures, in my assessment, was ideo

    logical differences on how to handle the war, as Kaguvi's testimony sug gests.

    Three of the four witnesses in Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba's (and his co defendants') trial were women named Siodzi, Majeki, and Shisutumwe-the fourth was the NC of Mazoe, Edward Kenny.48 The crime was the murder of African policeman/messenger, Charlie, who was seen as a bafu, that is, a sellout pandering to the needs of the European settlers. By taking positions

    within the colonial bureaucracy, men like Charlie were defying the power of men like Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba and other senior males, men who often

    47Gutsa and Zindoga, Nehanda-Charwe's co-defendants, along with 44 other men,

    escaped jail on Friday, 25 February, five days before the trial. "The Escape of Prisoners," Rhodesia Herald, 2 March 1898. In the same paper on the same day was a very small

    item titled "More Native Troubles," which was a report from London, dated 26 February,

    stating that "a general rising has taken place among natives in the Sierra Leone hinter

    land, consequent on the collection of hut-tax, and the European officials and police have

    been attacked. Troops are being sent to their assistance." The general sense of dis-ease

    among the settlers was quite palpable. 48NAZ/S/401/253; unless otherwise stated, the discussion here is based on this court

    record. I have not yet determined what the women's names mean?the way they appear do not make much (Shona) sense to me. The last one was most likely Chisitumwe.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 121

    controlled not only the sexuality of women, but of younger men as well. The women who married men like Charlie were also defying arranged mar

    riages, usually with older men, a practice that had become prevalent in that

    period. Presiding over the court was Justice Watermeyer, with Messrs Aria,

    Wylie, van Praagh, and Eustace as Assessors. Mick J. Murphy, an Irishman, served as Advocate for most of the defendants in the Salisbury trials, and

    Chief Native Commissioner Campbell served as the translator. Shortly after the prosecution stated its case on behalf of the "Queen against Kakubi," Siodzi, a "Mashona woman," took the witness stand. Siodzi and her co-wit nesses were some of the women referred to as Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba's "wives or followers" in the intelligence reports. Siodzi, by her own account, was the widow of one of the African policeman/messenger, Jack, killed dur ing the uprisings-an important detail in a trial of men accused of murdering

    Charlie, also, an African policeman/messenger. There are no other biographical details given to tell us more about who

    Siodzi was and what she did before she found herself in that predicament during the war. She was a witness in the case against Kagubi because she had been "taken prisoner to Kargubi's kraal, Merimo and Zhanta took me," she testified. On the day that Charlie was killed, Siodzi and the other two

    women were out collecting firewood when they said they witnessed the

    killing. She emphatically told the court "Kargubi ordered [the other prison ers] to do it. I heard Kargubi give the order. I heard it with my ears. Kargu bi's words were 'Take Charlie and kill him. He is Bafu-not on our side.

    They took Charlie towards the river," killed him, and came back to report to

    Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba that they had "finished him off." Having wit nessed this gruesome event, Siodzi went on to say that she and her compan ions were always guarded by the men, who warned her that if she "ran away they would finish me off at the same place."

    On cross examination, Siodzi emphasized that "I was not a wife of Kagu bi, I was given to Kagubi's brother [Chigonga]," a man who broke out of jail with 45 other men, but had the misfortune of being one of only three recaptured.49 This "marriage" detail was one that had been discussed in the

    magistrate's court during Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba's preliminary examina tion. It was in this lower court that Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba had first accused Nehanda-Charwe, VaMponga, and Goronga of "starting the rebel lion." What is particularly interesting in the foregoing is that the details Siodzi gave were similar to the details given by the men witnesses in

    Nehanda-Charwe's trial, that is, that the rebellion leader told others to take the victim by the river, and to kill him there. Killings at the river were com

    49"The Escape of Prisoners," Rhodesia Herald, 2 March 1898.

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  • 122 Ruramisai Charumbira

    mon motifs in Shona cosmology in the case of "unnatural" deaths. This was done to "cool" the spirits of the murdered-regardless of age, gender, race, or

    ethnicity-so they would not turn into avenging spirits or ngozi.50 Majeki was the second witness, and she too entered the record as "a

    Mashona woman" and the widow of a "native police killed" during the

    uprisings. For the most part, Majeki corroborated Siodzi's testimony, with the difference that she had known Charlie while she lived at Kaguvi-Gum boreshumba's, and was standing a few feet from where the incident hap pened along with her female comrades. Her testimony emphasized the visu al as well as the auditory-having heard Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba order the death of Charlie "down at the water." Witness number three was Shisi tumwe [Chisitumwe?], who was also "a Mashona woman, formerly wife of a native policeman." Her story of how she got to Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba's

    was the same as Siodzi's: she had been captured by Marimo (Merimo) and Zhanda (Zhanta), probably on the same day or within few days of each other. She had known Charlie from

    "long ago [when] he was Mr. Taberer's police."51 Much of her testimony corroborated the other women's testimo

    ny.

    The case of Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba is less ambiguous (compared to Nehanda-Charwe's anyway) in terms of what transpired in the courthouse about the alleged crime and the defendants' responses. The witnesses said what they heard or saw, or both, and there was little discussion of Kaguvi Gumboreshumba. This

    "tangible" first hand evidence was important for those administering justice, so nothing would backfire when the information hit the desk of those higher up in the colonial bureaucracy. Kaguvi-Gum boreshumba, like Nehanda-Charwe, was charged of murder and not instigat ing the rebellion-something much harder to prove if those so charged were not caught with weapons on their person. To the charges and witness testi

    monies against him, Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba said:

    I have heard what these women say but it is not true. I only want a

    place where I can live. If the government want me to pay for their

    things I will pay with a young girl. I want Nyanda [Nehanda], Goron ga, and Wamponga [VaMponga?] brought in they started the rebel lion.

    ^or more on this see Gilbert Pwiti and Godfrey Mahachi, "Shona Ethnography and the

    Interpretation of Iron Age Zimbabwe Burials: the Significance of Burial Location" Zim

    babwea 3(October 1991), 57-59. 51It is worth pointing out that Charlie's wife Chikunda testified against some other men

    charged of the murder of the gold prospector, William Birkett, killed in or near the Mazoe

    as mentioned earlier. NAZ/S401/258, "Preliminary Examination of Mabidsa, Rowanga, Mawonira and Gamanya," 21 December 1897.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 123

    As the response above testifies, Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba was dismissive of the women's testimonies. He did not even address the issue of Charlie; instead, he went on to tell his "truth," which included a veiled apology to the government/BSAC for whatever he took or destroyed stating that he was

    willing to pay with the life of a little girl. The fact that he saw the life of a little girl as exchange for his freedom does remind us that in his mind and his culture at the time, women and girls from poor households were used as

    (warfare) pawns.52 Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba exculpated himself, telling the court that he was not responsible for his actions against the BSAC. Instead, the two women, Nehanda-Charwe and VaMponga, and another male,

    Goronga, were responsible for his actions against "the government," and the murder of Charlie.

    The defendants' lawyer, Murphy, challenged the women's evidence by asking why they did not "report at once" when the events happened. That

    question, while valid, did not take into consideration that those women were

    prisoners of war, loot that was distributed among the men, as Majeki's testi mony tells: "I was not Kakubi's wife ..., I was given to his brother.

    " The

    women were under surveillance, as the rebel leaders saw them as both lia

    bility (if they escaped, they could report them), and as asset (they could be exchanged for other valuable commodities, including their freedom). Con sidering that those women were widows of former employees of the BSAC, and held against their will, one can understand their emphatic testimonies

    against Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba and his co-defendants. For those women,

    the opportunity to testify against their captors was an opportunity to free themselves of forced marriage and abode, colonial consequences notwith

    standing. After Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba's trial, Nehanda-Charwe was brought

    before the court with the only other defendant, Hwata; the other two (Gutsa and Zindoga) had escaped prison.53 Judge Watermeyer was still presiding, and Herbert Hayton Castens, Acting Public Prosecutor, entered the plea that "Nianda, a Mashona woman . . . , Zindoga a native kitchen boy residing at

    Nianda's kraal..., and Wata and Gutsa both native hunters are all and each or some or one of them guilty of the crime of murder" of Henry H. Pollard. The witnesses against her and her companions were working (or had once

    52One of the witnesses against Nehanda-Charwe, "Pig," claimed his life was spared because he promised "to give them my sister and they let me go." NAZ/S2953. On the issue of women used as pawns in the late nineteenth century see Elizabeth Schmidt, Peas

    ants, Traders, and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870-1939 (Harare, 1992), 30-35. 53NAZ/S401/252, Preliminary Examination of Nianda, 12 January 1898; NAZ/S2953,

    Trial of Nianda, 2 March 1898; "The High Court," Rhodesia Herald, 9 March 1898.

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  • 124 Ruramisai Charumbira

    worked) for the Native Department as messengers and the like. All the wit nesses were men?four Africans and two Europeans?with an additional

    expert witness, a medical doctor named Thomas Stewart, who came in to

    verify that the bones found in a riverbed in Mazoe might belong to Pol lard.54

    The most elaborate testimony was given by an African man named Pig, and this was corroborated by the two other African witnesses. All these men knew Nehanda-Charwe before the uprisings. The fourth witness, Marimbi, a

    messenger, was someone Nehanda-Charwe did not know, and he entered the scene by way of the sack of human bones he brought from Mazoe at the command of the Chief Native Commissioner, Taberer. The bones had been examined by Stewart, who was the district surgeon and who testified that

    they were male human bones, and that the skull was missing. However, he could not definitively say that they were Pollard's remains. As such, Stew art's statement that "[t]hey are some bones of a human male" raises the pos sibility that those bones were that of an African or any other male for that

    matter. The bones did not say (with the limited technology then) what race the man had been, making the whole idea of bringing the bones for exhibi tion as evidence rather pointless and unconvincing.

    The trial transcript also informs us that "the Court" spoke against Nehan da-Charwe. It is not clear who "the Court" was?that is, whether the speak er was the prosecutor, one of the witnesses, the co-defendant, or some other

    person designated with the job of giving a background to who she was and her place in the socio-political life of the Mazoe Valley. However, the state

    ment gives important clues to the possibility that it was made by an African man, possibly the co-defendant or one of the witnesses who came from Nehanda-Charwe's area. What is particularly striking about that speech is the emphasis on the fact that Nehanda-Charwe was a woman who ruled over her brother, Chief Chitaura, who held the title of Hwata, and how "unusual" it was for a woman to hold that position. The speech "by the Court" is worth quoting in full, as it allows me to show some of the turning points in the "invention of tradition," where women were portrayed as not

    belonging in power circles, ever, in Shona history.55

    Nianda was chief of the kraal. Chitaura is her brother. Chitaura was the chief but Nianda had the power. Nianda was over Chitaura. I don't know how we came to be under a woman. Nianda is a mondo ra [mhondoro]. She gave orders. Chitaura obeyed her. All the people

    ^NAZ/S. 2953, Regina vs. Nianda, 2 March 1898; see also, NAZ/401/252, Preliminary Examination of Nianda, Wata, Gutsa and Zindoga, 12 January 1898. 55I borrow the idea from Eric Hobsbawm's introductory essay in Eric Hobsbawm and

    Terence Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (New York, 1983).

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 125

    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 Com missioner's [Pollard's] Office. If people didn't do what Nianda told them, I don't know what would happen. I don't know of her punish ing people. I was afraid of Nianda. I was afraid to refuse to do any thing she told me. I don't know why I was afraid. I don't know of Nianda punishing any member of the kraal.56

    The last foregoing statement was reinforced by Edward Kenny when he

    gave his testimony as Native Commissioner of Mazoe. He testified that Nehanda-Charwe used to live on the west bank of the Mazoe River, and had moved her homestead to the east bank during the rebellions. He went on to

    say "Natives throughout my district called it Nianda's kraal. That would mean she ruled it." Perhaps more than any other testimony given at the trial, the foregoing two statements were most revealing about who she was and

    what others thought of her. The statement

    "by the Court" suggests that Nehanda-Charwe was proba bly the last visible female who held a position of real power within the

    dying Shona political power structures in central Mashonaland. That "Nian da had the power" is quite provocative. That the speaker did not "know how we came to be under a woman" speaks of either ignorance of the history of the people concerned, falsified historical amnesia to please the Judge and

    Assessors in that court of justice, or denial of historical reality cognizant of the changing political and social order in the young colony. What is baf fling is why the speaker did not "know of [any] other women who rule[d] kraals." It seems he was suggesting that Shona women had historically never held any political power, which would have been inaccurate. On the other hand, if he meant that were never the figureheads of power, then he was correct in his assessment and the evidence as far back as the sixteenth

    century bears him out on that score. The irony, of course, was that the plain tiff in all cases was Queen Victoria of England, herself a female ruler and,

    perhaps, a figurehead of an imperial power largely administered and con trolled by men.

    Most importantly, the speaker at Nehanda-Charwe's trial told the court that he was not afraid because of anything that she ever did to anyone, but because he had never known people not doing what she told both the Chief and the people. It could have been an exaggeration or simplification of mat ters?what is important here is the rather absurd suggestion that the people did what they were told to do by her and did it for no apparent reason. What the response: "If people didn't do what Nianda told them, I don't know

    56NAZ/S. 2953, Regina vs. Nianda, 2 March 1898.

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  • 126 Ruramisai Charumbira

    what would happen. I don't know of her punishing people" tells us is that Nehanda-Charwe wielded a kind of power not talked about in the courtroom (or not recorded in the trial transcripts). If he was "afraid of Nianda [and] afraid to refuse to do anything she told me," it suggests that she wielded the power of the invisible, the ancestors, who had the power to bestow and withhold favors from those who did not listen to what the mhon doro/me?iums told them to do, including chiefs like Hwata. In fact, spirit mediums installed chiefs, and were custodians of that position on behalf of the particular people. It also suggests that, perhaps, as a person, she did not

    wield malicious power against any member of her clan because of her posi tion, instead, worked through the power of persuasion that her office implic itly gave her. Incidentally, Nehanda-Charwe defended herself against the

    testimony that she was the ruler stating that "[i]t was called my kraal, but it was only a name," which was true only if you discounted that she was a woman of politico-spiritual power among her people, and also a woman

    betrayed by one of her own, Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba. To the charge that Nehanda-Charwe had given the orders to kill Pollard,

    she held the consistent response that: "I deny giving the order," and "I deny I sent Wata to kill Pollard. If I had sent him, I would own up to it."57 These responses are the ones Beach has argued suggests her innocence in the

    whole saga. Considering that all the evidence presented thus far offers dif ferent dimensions to the tale, Nehanda-Charwe's responses are like that of

    Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba-denying the charge-with the qualitative differ ence that she did not blame anyone else. However, that fact alone does not exonerate her given the evidence thus far examined. At the conclusion of the case the assessors' verdict was that Nehanda-Charwe was guilty of

    ordering the murder of Pollard, but recommended Hwata for "mercy on the

    ground that he acted under fear of Nianda." To that verdict, Hwata did not have anything to say, but Nehanda-Charwe contested it, saying "I did not

    give the order. Why should I hide it if I did it." The Rhodesia Herald ran a report of the trial of Nehanda-Charwe

    (among others) on 9 March 1898. The report (a summary of the trial) had a commentary on her behavior that gives another perspective on that elusive historical figure. "Nyanda [Nehanda] is the lady who, in opposition to Kagubi, started the rival establishment in the Mazoe District, as a war god dess, she had a numerous clientele who worshipped at her shrine," the

    report stated.58 The shrine would have been the one of the caves McMahon

    57Hwata consistently maintained the position that the witnesses were "telling the truth," a

    reality that made the process rather difficult for both of them, and for Murphy, who quit the case because of this conflict. 58

  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 127

    mentioned in his report discussed as having been blasted in the Mazoe to show that "the white man" had no fear of her or of African gods. The "numerous clientele" were the people Kenny had often mentioned in his

    reports in characteristic colonial proprietary tone, complaining to his superi or that Nehanda-Charwe was "keeping a lot of my natives from surrender

    ing" for fear of her.59 In a way this statement undoes Nehanda-Charwe's defense that she did not rule in her district.

    The newspaper report concluded its assessment of Nehanda-Charwe's behavior in prison by noting that

    " the stoical effrontery and natural

    romancing powers she exhibited during the trial, and with which she is

    largely gifted were no doubt the best qualifications in the eyes of the Mashonas, for the profession she had adopted."60 That is a description of a

    self-assured woman, not of a victim. If anything, the description given of

    Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba in the same paper (and in the court records during his own trial) is that of a man turned pathetically compromising. Of Kaguvi Gumboreshumba the Rhodesia Herald reporter wrote: "[h]is appearance greatly belied the great power with which it was said he held over the minds of his deluded and superstitious followers."61

    This difference in attitude between Nehanda-Charwe and Kaguvi-Gum boreshumba was also captured in two other records: a photograph (figure 2) said to have been taken of the two of them after the trial but before the exe cution.62 In that picture she appears more self-possessed, with her hands

    clasped and standing much more upright, leaning against the jail wall. In contrast he looks more on edge, and standing at attention as they might have been told to do so by the photographer. She appears defiant while he seems diffident, and Fr. Francis Richartz's report of Nehanda's last days in prison recorded a woman of agency and self-possession rather than a victim.63

    "Kakubi, the leader of the Mashona rebels .. . was sentenced to death... . With him were condemned Neanda, the famous 'prophetess' of the Mazoe

    and eleven others," began Richartz's report. He went on to say that after the execution dates for those thirteen Africans had been changed several times,

    59NAZ/Nl/l/6, NC Mazoe to CNC, 29 and 30 October 1897. ^The High Court," Rhodesia Herald, 9 March, 1898.

    61Ibid.

    62Figures 1 and 2 need further investigation, as the people depicted as Nehanda and

    Kaguvi in each seem to differ in terms of distinguishing physical features. As mentioned

    earlier, Figure 1 in the BSAC reports states that it was an image of the "capture" in Octo ber 1897, which was true of Kaguvi, but not of Nehanda, who was captured only in December of that year. I might add a note that I am currently working on such a project myself, focusing on Nehanda and historical memory in Zimbabwean history. 63The image also appeared in a report written by Fr. Richartz, 'The End of Kakubi and the Other Condemned Murders" Zambesi Mission Record l/2(November 1898), 53-55.

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  • 128 Ruramisai Charumbira

    Figure 2: Nehanda-Charwe and Kaguvi-Gumboreshumba, ca. April 1898/

    finally to be fixed at 27 and 29 April 1898. Richartz was the prison chaplain and was charged with the task of ministering to the prisoners, including telling them the grim news of their execution dates and "preparing" their souls for the next world Catholic style. The prisoners hoped against hope that their sentences would be commuted to life imprisonment or some other lesser sentence. Between 2 March and 27 April Richartz traveled between his base mission at Chishawasha about twenty miles northeast of Salisbury to the jail, which was in the center of the township. He went to instruct pris oners in the Catholic catechism and prepare them for baptism, so they could die like the prisoner who is said to have converted at the last minute as he

    hung alongside Jesus of Nazareth. It was a rather bizarre way of spreading the gospel, but one seemingly effective in getting more converts from

    ^NAZ/Image 172, no date, perhaps March or April 1898.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 129

    among the prisoners and those on the outside who heard the horrendous news of their spiritual figures, holders of important office in the Shona belief system, made trifling by the colonial judicial system. Where were the ancestors in all this, they must have asked.

    Fr. Richartz's report went on to tell about what it was like visiting Nehanda-Charwe in those last days of her life. "For good reasons, I abstained from visiting Neanda till the day of execution was at hand, as she would have given much trouble to the warders by her hysterics and restless ness," Richartz wrote. However, to his surprise, when he did visit her the

    night before her execution, "she listened willingly and quietly." Richartz's

    abstaining from visiting Nehanda-Charwe until the day before her execution is quite telling. Even though there is little else by way of evidence of what

    transpired in those last weeks and days of her life, from what he said in the

    foregoing, we get a sense that she did not take her condemnation and situa tion without a fight. Her "hysterics and restlessness" were protests and lamentations. When he finally had to tell her news of her execution the next

    morning, he waited until the evening "in order to avoid a scene." Probably knowing that the delivery of such grisly news would not be easy, Richartz took someone to help him deliver the news?Victor, an African convert and catechist of whom little is known.

    However, when in the evening about 6 o'clock I saw her again and in the presence of Victor, who tried his best to persuade her to lis

    ten to me, told her that she had to die the next morning [27 April], she began to behave like a mad woman. She took her blankets and

    wished to leave the cell, and when told to remain and keep quiet, she refused and said she never would endure to be locked up. When I saw that nothing could be done with her I went away with Victor,

    and Neanda began to dance, to laugh and talk so that the warders were obliged to tie her hands and watch her continually, as she threatened to kill herself.65

    The Nehanda-Charwe we encounter as described by Richartz was not

    psychiatrically "mad"-which I believe Richartz meant-but angry at what had happened to her, penned up in a little cell and condemned to die a most inhumane and undignified death for a woman/person of her status. That she could not sit and listen to his proselytizing tells us that she was an engaged person, not a helpless victim mentally beaten down by men. Being that Richartz did not record most of what she said to him when he spoke to her,

    65Richartz,"End,"53.

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  • 130 Ruramisai Charumbira

    we have to read between the lines of his descriptions to understand what was going on in that tormented woman's mind.

    Richartz's report tells us he was more interested in what he considered a "difficult" mission of converting the most resistant. He was fixated on con

    verting her, but she resolutely resisted his proselytizing, a situation that must have felt like a failure for him because the harder the convert, the more

    satisfying the conversion for the proselytizer, as was the case with Kaguvi Gumboreshumba.66 Kaguvi acted much like Nehanda-Charwe each time Richartz visited him to proselytize; refusing to hear any of his Christian

    messages. However, that all changed once his daughter was brought in by Richartz. The daughter, Dziripi, was one of the Jesuits' new converts at Chishawasha, and Richartz brought her as an insider who could potentially convince her own father about the

    "good news" that the Catholic priest was

    bringing to him.67 Once Kaguvi agreed to conversion, Richartz increased his devotion toward him, heaping him with praises of what a "good" man he had become before his death. We do not know what Nehanda-Charwe told Richartz each time he tried to convert her, other than that each time, includ

    ing the morning of her execution, when he "tried to bring her to a better frame of mind, she refused, called for her people and wanted to go back to her own country-the Mazoe-and die there."68

    ^I did not have access to Richartz's diary while in Zimbabwe. A Jesuit priest said he was

    working on it, and flatly told me there was nothing else to say about the matter of Richartz that had not already been said

    - an idea to which I hold a different view.

    67It is worth noting that Richartz's conversion of notable prisoners like Kaguvi-Gumbore shumba was made possible by the intervention of a woman, Kaguvi's daughter Dziripi,

    whose name he spelt Dziribi, and of whom he wrote:

    As Dziribi, Kakubi's daughter, one of our school-girls, wanted to see her

    father before his death, I asked for permission for her from the acting Magis trate, Mr. Bayley, and called her to town on the Tuesday. She arrived in the afternoon with her sister, Likande, and I went with them and our native

    Christian boy, Victor, to the gaol and had a conversation with Kakubi , who

    had given me in the morning some hope of changing his mind, when he should see his child. The conversation with Kaguvi, during which Victor and

    Dziribi did their best to induce him to yield and listen to my instruction and receive baptism, had the good result that Kakubi promised to do as they

    asked.

    Kaguvi did get baptized just before his execution, and was?fittingly?given the name Dismas: Richartz, "End," 55.

    68Ibid., 53-54.

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  • Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions 131

    V

    On Wednesday, 27 April 1898 Nehanda-Charwe sent anguished cries into the early morning sky in Salisbury. She kicked and screamed as prison war dens dragged her to the escaffold. After much hustling, the prison guards hoisted her up and hooked her neck to the noose. A prison warden covered her head and face with a black pouch-like cloth, tying it at the back of her head and stood back. She wailed, lamenting her plight to her ancestors. On a cue from the chief prison warden, the executioner pulled the trap door. The

    rope caught her throat in mid-lament. A heavy thud was heard. Her body quivered as her spirit left to meet those to whom she had called out for

    delivery to no avail. For a moment, there was a chilling silence?no bird

    chirped, no one moved. Nehanda-Charwe wokwa Hwata passed on.69 To my mind Nehanda-Charwe's story, seen through a woman's and a

    gendered perspective, tells us about a woman who was more than simply a

    victim; it tells us about a woman who was neither a feminist nor an anti colonial heroine. Rather, I believe, it tells us about a woman locked in the

    power struggles of her times with her peers. To see her as victim is to take

    away her agency, an agency better appreciated when her story is contextual ized appropriately. Women's testimonies herein remind us there were more

    heroines than just our usual Nehanda.

    69Ibid., 54-55.

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    Article Contentsp. [103]p. 104p. 105p. 106p. 107p. 108p. 109p. 110p. 111p. 112p. 113p. 114p. 115p. 116p. 117p. 118p. 119p. 120p. 121p. 122p. 123p. 124p. 125p. 126p. 127p. 128p. 129p. 130p. 131

    Issue Table of ContentsHistory in Africa, Vol. 35 (2008), pp. i-iv, 1-492Front MatterPerspectives on Fifty Years of Ghanaian Historiography [pp. 1-24]Spoken Reminiscences of Political Agents in Northern Nigeria II [pp. 25-62]Exotic Plants of Western Africa: Where They Came from and When [pp. 63-102]Nehanda and Gender Victimhood in the Central Mashonaland 1896-97 Rebellions: Revisiting the Evidence [pp. 103-131]Mapping Shekgalagari in Southern Africa: A Sociohistorical and Linguistic Study [pp. 133-143]Finding Bosutswe: Archeological Encounters with the Past [pp. 145-190]The Role of N.C. Ejituwu in the Development of Niger Delta Historiography [pp. 191-207]Mombasa Cathedral and the CMS Compound: The Years of the East Africa Protectorate [pp. 209-229]Examining Text Sediments: Commending a Pioneer Historian as an "African Herodotus": On the Making of the New Annotated Edition of C.C. Reindorf's "History of the Gold Coast and Asante" [pp. 231-299]The Historiography of HIV and AIDS in Uganda [pp. 301-325]"The Lost Province": Neglect and Governance in Colonial Ogoja [pp. 327-345]Beyond Diversity: Women, Scarification, and Yoruba Identity [pp. 347-374]Reflections on the Oral Traditions of the Nterapo of the Salaga Area [pp. 375-400]The Benin Kingdom in British Imperial Historiography [pp. 401-418]African Words, Academic Choices: Re-Presenting Interviews and Oral Histories [pp. 419-438]Chipimpi, Vulgar Clans, and Lala-Lamba Ethnohistory [pp. 439-453]Cartographical Quandaries: The Limits of Knowledge Production in Burton's and Speke's Search for the Source of the Nile [pp. 455-479]Forgotten Expedition into Guinea, West Africa, 1815-17: An Editor's Comments [pp. 481-489]Are Unpublished Sources Best? Reflections on a Seventeenth-Century Dutch Source [pp. 491-492]Back Matter