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‘Chimurenga’: the Shona Rising of 1896–97

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

D. N. Beach
D. N. Beach
Affiliation:
University of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
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Extract

There was a basic similarity between the way in which Rhodesian colonial historians looked at the central Shona chimurenga (rising) of 1896 and T. O. Ranger's seminal Revolt in Southern Rhodesia 1896–7: both thought in terms of a pre-planned conspiracy led by religious authorities and a simultaneous outbreak on a given signal. Ranger' reconstruction of the organization of the chimurenga, however, depended partly upon the misreading and misquotation of the sources. In fact, the rising was neither pre-planned nor simultaneous. In the second quarter of 1896 limited resistance to European rule was being carried on in separate, unconnected outbreaks and some communities were thinking of starting a full-scale hondo (war); the threat of famine caused by locusts led certain central Shona leaders to contact the religious leader Mkwati in the Ndebele area, then in revolt against the Europeans, in search of locust medicine. News of European defeats transmitted by these contacts led to a full hondo in the Umfuli valley, which triggered a ‘ripple effect’ in which Shona communities resisted or collaborated as the news reached them. The element of religious leadership was limited and the element of central pre-planning non-existent. This makes the success and commitment of the local Shona communities all the more impressive, even though it was a traditionalist rather than a proto-nationalist rising.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , July 1979 , pp. 395 - 420
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

1 Unless otherwise stated, all archival and historical manuscript references are to the National Archives of Rhodesia: A 1/12/26, Hole, H. M., Civil Commissioner Salisbury, to Secretary, BSA Company, London, 29 October 1896Google Scholar, printed in BSA Company, Reports on the Native Disturbances in Rhodesia 1896–97 (London, 1898)Google Scholar, reprinted as The '96 Rebellions (Bulawayo, 1975), 69.

2 The '96 Rebellions, 55.Google Scholar

3 In October 1896 the Company had not yet identified the Kaguvi medium as a factor in the rising, but by December his influence in the Hartley and Salisbury districts had become apparent, and his role was mentioned in the report by Inskipp, P., Under-secretary to the Administrator, Salisbury, 1897Google Scholar. (The '96 Rebellions, 79.)

4 Hole, H. M., ‘Witch-craft in Rhodesia’, The African Review, 6 11 1897.Google Scholar

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6 A 1/12/27, Gabriel, L. H. to Scanlen, Sir Thomas, Salisbury, 27 March 1896Google Scholar, passed on a rumour of an Ndebele presence around Salisbury and a long-planned rising. From then on ‘scares’ were legion.

7 Chivanda, C. G., ‘The Mashona rebellion in oral tradition. Mazoe District’, unpubl. University College of Rhodesia Honours Seminar Paper (1966), 8Google Scholar. Chivanda's criticism of traditions included the observation that the exact sequence of events was not always preserved accurately, a point that my own research confirms.

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9 The prime contender for pan-Shona political unity before 1896 was the Changamire Rozvi state, but this had finally surrendered to the Ndebele in 1866. It is argued in Beach, D. N., The Shona and Zimbabwe 900–1850 (Gwelo and London, in press)Google Scholar, that the state had not achieved the degree of political unity previously assumed.

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14 Ibid. I.

15 Ibid. 81.

16 Ibid. 196.

17 Ibid. 200, 225.

18 Ibid. 191.

19 Ibid. 86.

20 Ibid. 127–90.

21 Ibid. 190.

22 Ibid. 202–4.

23 Ibid. 212–18.

24 Ibid. 218.

25 Ibid. 282.

26 Ibid. 219–220.

27 Ibid. 222.

28 Ibid. 210–12.

29 Ibid. 203.

30 Ibid. 203.

31 Ibid. 203–4.

32 Ibid. 205.

33 Ibid. 202.

34 Ibid. 204–5.

35 Ibid. 209–220.

36 Ibid. 205.

37 Ibid. 266–7.

38 Ibid. 289–92, 285–6.

39 Ibid. 292–4.

40 Ibid. 289–92.

41 Ibid. 291–2, 300.

42 Ibid. 303–4.

43 My emphasis.

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49 E.g. N3/33/8 NC (Native Commissioner) Marandellas to CNC, c. 1 Jan. 1904; Chivanda, , ‘Mazoe’, 5 and N1/1/9 NC Salisbury to CNC, 21 Jan. 1896.Google Scholar

50 E.g. the Gomwe (‘Ngomo’), Mutekedza, , Maromo, Gutu, Mugabe and Chirogwe incidents of 1892–3.Google Scholar

51 S. 183, vol. 1, BSA Police Regimental Orders, 1 Jan. 1896 to 14 May 1897.

52 N 1/1/9 NC Lomagundi to Sec. Nat. Dept. 26 Sept. 1895; N 1/1/3, NC Hartley to CNC 29 Dec. 1895; N 1/1/9, NC Salisbury to Sec. Nat. Dept. 22 July 1895; EC 4/2/1, CNC to Administrator, 31 Jan. 1896.

53 It is not suggested that all theft was classifiable as resistance.

54 Similarly, not all cases of murder can be definitely linked to aggrieved employees, for lack of evidence.

55 N 1/1/2, NC Charter to CNC, 19 Feb. 1895; J 1/9/1, Ferreira to RM Salisbury, 14 July 1895.

56 CT 1/56/6, MC Lomagundi to Acting Ad. Salisbury, 14 Aug. 1894.

57 N 1/1/5, A. J. Jameson to MacGlashan, Lomagundi, 30 May 1895.

58 N 1/1/6, W. L. Armstrong to H. M. Taberer, 17 July 1898, encl. ‘Report on Mtoko's district or Budjla’; The '96 Rebellions, 53–4, 59Google Scholar; N 1/1/9, NC Salisbury to CNC, 22 April 1895.

59 N 1/1/11, NC Umtali to CNC 15 Apr. and 4 May 1896.

60 A2/1/6 Acting Ad. to NC Brabant, 8 Oct. 1894; A2/1/5, G. C. Candler to RM Umtali, 13 Aug. 1894.

61 A 1/12/36, CNC to Acting Ad., 17 and 19 June 1896.

62 Edwards, W., ‘Wiri, 2’, NADA 38, 1961, 8Google Scholar; EC 1/1/1 Acting Sec. to Council, Salisbury to CNC, 20 Apr. 1896.

63 Edwards, , ‘Wiri, 3’, NADA 39, 1962, 19–21Google Scholar; Rusike's people fired on police in April 1895, N 1/1/9 NC Salisbury to CNC 6 Apr. 1895.

64 N 1/1/3, NC Hartley to CNC 24 May 1896.

65 Farrant, J., Mashonaland Martyr, Bernard Mizeki and the Pioneer Church (Cape Town, 1966), 202–4Google Scholar; Edwards, , ‘Wiri, 3’, 24.Google Scholar

66 N 1/1/11 NC Umtali to CNC 21 Dec. 1896.

67 NVC 1/1/1 NC Chibi to CNC 11 Sept. 1897 and NC Chibi to NC Belingwe 17 Oct. 1897.

68 N 1/1/11 NC Umtali to CNC 6 Apr. 1896.

69 A 1/15/4, OC Victoria to CSO Salisbury 26 Oct. and 6 Nov. 1896; N 1/1/12 NC Victoria to CNC 28 Dec. 1896.

70 A 1/12/31 RM Victoria to Sec. Ad. 30 Mar. 1896; A 1/12/34 Strickland, Charter to Ad. 24 Apr. 1896.

71 St Clair, A., ‘On the white man's trail’, African Monthly, v, 5 (12 1908), 42–5Google Scholar, 48–50; Laing, D. Tyrie, The Matabele Rebellion (London, 1897), 131–4Google Scholar, and NC Belingwe reports.

72 S.401, 338, Regina, vs. Kanzanga, , Sakara, Kugushu and Tsimota, 30 Aug. 1898Google Scholar, evidence of Kanyenze, Sipolilo, Makori, 2 June 1898; A 1/12/27, evidence of Masiewo, 8 July 1896; a similar killing of labour migrants took place in the same area in 1901, N3/1/9 Acting NC Lomagundi to CNC 8 June 1901.

73 S. 401, 379, Reg. vs. Chikwaba and Matowa, 22 Nov. 1898, evidence of Chikwaba, 24 Aug. 1898, Matowa, 24 Aug. 1898 and Zirewo 19 July 1898.

74 Laing, , Matabele Rebellion, 134.Google Scholar

75 N 1/1/6 NC Mazoe to CNC 30 Oct. 1897; LO 5/4/6 Under-Sec. Ad. to London Board, 5 Nov. 1897.

76 LO 5/4/6 Report of NC Marandellas 30 June 1897; LO 5/4/8 Report of NC Marandellas 31 Dec. 1897.

77 Cobbing, ‘Absent priesthood’, 77–9.Google Scholar

78 It is not certain why this area should have been so thinly populated, apart from its being a high sodic-soil area. The Ngezi dynasty between the Umsweswe and the Rutala hills had been fragmented by raiding in the 1860s, but there is no evidence for intensive settlement before the mfecane for a considerable distance south of the Umsweswe.

79 N 1/1/3 NC Hartley to CNC 11 Apr. 1896.

80 A 1/12/35 Strickland, Charter, to Ad. 11 May 1896.

81 S. 401, 1–40 Reg. vs. F. D. A. Payne, 20 May 1895.

82 An apparent anomaly also to be seen in the south-eastern lowveld, caused by the necessity for the people to travel long distances between settlements.

83 NB6/3/1 Report of NC Belingwe 30 June 1897; NB 1/1/2 ANC Filabusi to CNC 21 Mar. 1898.

84 Cobbing, , ‘Absent Priesthood’, 76.Google Scholar

85 N 1/1/3 NC Hartley to CNC 24 May 1896; N 1/1/6 NC Mazoe to CNC 30 Oct. 1897. On the confusion caused by Muzhuzha house in the identification of ‘Ndebele’ near Hartley, see Beach, D. N., ‘Kaguvi and Fort Mhondoro’, Rhodesiana, xxvii (1972), 38Google Scholar n, 45. Ranger noted NC Hartley's reference to Mashayamombe's contact with Mkwati for the purpose of getting locust medicine, but read a political significance into it because it also reported the plan to attack the Hartley police and traders. In Revolt, 202, he omits the statement that this plan has been abandoned, though he had mentioned it in ‘The organization of the rebellions of 1896 and 1897, Part Two, The rebellion in Mashonaland’, History of Central African Peoples Conference (Lusaka, 1963), 5.Google Scholar

86 Ranger, , Revolt, 202–3Google Scholar, traces Tshihwa's movements through LO5/4/1 NC Chilimanzi to CNC 7 and 10 January 1897, and assumes that Tshihwa visited Mashayamombe's three times, on Mkwati's orders in April and June, and with Mkwati in October. Tshihwa in fact made no reference to any journey there in April, only to the ‘second’ and ‘third’ journeys.

87 S.401, 391, Reg. vs. Zuba and Umtiva 20 Feb. 1899, evidence of Marowa, 6 Dec. 1898. Italicized words omitted in Ranger, , Revolt, 220.Google Scholar

88 Pasipamire, , the famous Chaminuka mhondoro medium killed in 1883Google Scholar, was of the Rwizi dynasty, and his only connexion with Chivero was a common totem, shava. On his actual role in Ndebele–Shona politics, see Beach, D. N., ‘Ndebele raiders and Shona power’, J. Afr. Hist. xv 4 (1974), 647.Google Scholar

89 N 1/1/6 NC Mazoe to CNC 30 Oct. 1897; Beach, , ‘Kaguvi and Fort Mhondoro’, 33 4Google Scholar; N 1/1/9 NC Salisbury to CNC 3 Mar. 1898.

90 N 1/1/6 NC Mazoe to CNC 30 Oct. 1897. Ranger, , Revolt, 218Google Scholar, omits all reference to this haggling over the medicine price, and to the separate contact with Mkwati made by the Kaguvi medium. On the location of Kaguvi's first base, see this reference and White's map in Hist. MSS WH1/1/2.

91 NSE2/1/1 NC Hartley to NC Gwelo 28 Sept. 1897.

92 University of Rhodesia History Department Texts 35, 40–1 Ctr.

93 L2/3/43, Brabant to Ad. 27 Aug. 94; A1/12/27 Evidence of Tshenombi et al. 13 July 1896.

94 URHD Text 35 Ctr.

95 LO 5/4/1 NC Chilimanzi, to CNC 10 Jan. 1897.Google Scholar

96 A 1/12/10 NC Charter to Ad. 3 Apr. 1896; A 1/12/13 Beal to Vintcent 12 July 1896.

97 A 1/12/35 Beal to Vintcent 1 May and 6 May 1896; LO 5/6/1 Grey to Kershaw 12 May 1896; Cobbing, , ‘Absent priesthood’, 78.Google Scholar

98 A 1/12/27 Evidence of Tshenombi 12 July 1896.

99 A 1/12/27 Evidence of Machine, 4 July 1896 and later statement.

100 Ranger, , Revolt, 182, 190.Google Scholar

101 LO 5/4/1 NC Chilimanzi to CNC 10 Jan. 1897; A 1/12/27 Evidence of Tshenombi et al. 12 July 1896. Tshihwa stated that he and Bonda had been told to ‘accompany’ the ‘Mangoba’, not that the latter were an escort for them.

102 S. 401, 213, Reg. vs. Zhanta, evidence of Zhanta. Italicized words omitted in Ranger, , Revolt, 221Google Scholar. Evidence for robbery in Hartley was very slight from March to June: N 1/1/3 NC Hartley to CNC 29 Mar., II Apr., 26 Apr., 26 Apr. and 14 May 1896.

103 S. 401, 215, Reg. vs. Zawara, evidence of Zawara 23 Nov. 1897.

104 The evidence for the southern Lomagundi district shows clearly that a message from the Kaguvi medium arrived in Zvimba's area and was given to the medium of the recently dead Zvimba Musundi, Zvimba and his brother Musonti. A son of Zvimba went with a force to spread the word to Nemakonde. S. 401, 256 and 301, Reg. vs. Mangojo et al. 27 May 1898, S. 401, 260 and 341, Reg. vs. Msonti, Aug. 1898, S. 401, 378, Reg. vs. Samkanga 22 Nov. 1898. There was a man from Zvimba's at Kaguvi's, but he was only involved with the death of the African policeman Charlie some time after the first killings, S. 401, 253, Reg. vs. Kargubi et al. 8 Mar. 1898.

105 The ‘ripple’ effect was originally considered by Ranger and rejected because it clashed with the opinion of the Company ‘experts’ of 1896, ‘The rebellion in Mashonaland’, 2. Significantly, the word Chindunduma often used to describe the 1896 hondo means ‘ripple’ as well as ‘rage’.

106 A 1/12/27 re-examination of Machine, 4 July 1896. Edwards noted that fires were seen on the hills near Marandellas on the evening of 19 June (‘Wiri, 3’, 25–6) and much later wrote that they were seen on the previous night and also far to the west at Goromonzi and Jeta (Edwards, W., ‘The Wanoe’, NADA, iv (1926), 21).Google Scholar

107 Revolt, 191–3, 225–6. Ranger dates the Mashayamombe outbreak five days too late.

108 Beach, , ‘Kaguvi and Fort Mhondoro’, 36–8Google Scholar. None of Mashayamombe's people mentioned Tshihwa, Bonda or Ndebele at their trials.

109 S. 401, 334, Reg. vs. Dekwende, 26 Aug. 1898, evidence of Dekwende, Pemimwa, Sipanga; N 1/1/3, NC Hartley to CNC 19 Apr. 1898, evidence of Mandaza.

110 S. 401, 246, Reg. vs. Rusere and Gonye, 24 Feb. 1898, evidence of Rusere 3 Feb. 1898.

111 A 1/12/27 Evidence of Jan, 16 June 1896.

112 N 1/1/3 NC Hartley to CNC 19 Apr. 1898.

113 The '96 Rebellions, 62.

114 D 3/5/1 Reg. vs. Marubini, 12 July 1898, evidence of Urebwa, see also S. 401, 380, Reg. vs. Mahughlu et al. 27 Nov. 1898. The evidence for a very short interval between the first arrival of the news of the rising and the decision by the people to rise also emerges in: D3/5/1 Reg. vs. Kondo, and Matungwa, , evidence of Biri, 18 04 1898Google Scholar: ‘Billy [a Xhosa trader near Charter] had been warned he was going to be killed – he knew he could not get away as there were Mashonas living all round.’ S. 401, 213, evidence of Wampi, , ‘Zhanta was Kagubi's postman, he brought a message that day that the Mashonas must kill the whites.’ S. 401, 241Google Scholar, Reg. vs. Mutuma, 27 Feb. 1898, evidence of Chinyanga: ‘I remember the word coming to kill all the whites in June two years ago. Next day Joe [Norton] and his driver came to our kraal [and were killed]; S. 401, 243, Reg. vs. Chizengeni, et al., 23 Feb. 1898Google Scholar, evidence of Tagamania: ‘I never heard of killing the whites till Chizengeni called for his impi to kill him’; S. 401, 295, Reg. vs. Mzilingeni and Mtshenge, 21 May 1898, evidence of Mafunga and Mlele: William and Hendrick, Cape Africans, had been at a beer party, started for home ‘and just then Kagubi's impi came up…’ and people from the party joined it, followed them and killed them; S. 401, 381, Reg. vs. Tshinwada and Tshisaka 23 Nov. 1898, evidence of Chikuni, , ‘At the beginning of the rebellion a messenger from Mashangombe came to our kraal and gave orders to kill all whites and their native servants…so at daybreak the prisoners and I took our kerries and went to kill him’; S. 401, 255Google Scholar, Reg. vs. Mashonganyika, evidence of Mashonganyika, ‘Mr Campbell came the day the god said kill all the white people.’ These are the cases that give an indication of the time involved. None claim that there was a pre-arranged rising or that there was a long interval between the decision to rise and the actual killings.

115 A 1/12/36, Firm to Ad. 19 June 1896.

116 S. 401, 381, evidence of Chikuni; URHD Texts 41 Ctr.

117 LO 5/4/1 NC Chilimanzi to CNC 10 Jan. 1897.

118 A 1/12/27 evidence of Tshenombi et al.; URHD Texts 34–52 Ctr. The rising in the Charter district appears to have spread rather more slowly than in other districts, which tends to support the idea that Bonda's group and messengers from Mashayamombe influenced the three local resistance rulers independently, A 1/12/36 Firm to Acting Sec. 16 June 1896, Firm to Ad. 18 June 1896, 19 June 1896, 22 June 1896.

119 Hist. MSS WE 3/2/6, reminiscences of M. E. Weale; A 2/14/1 Acting Ad. to Short, 25 Oct. 1893; A 1/12/36 Firm to Scanlen 26 June 1896 and Ref. 96 above.

120 LO 5/4/1 NC Chilimanzi to CNC 10 Jan. 1897; Hist. MSS. WE 3/2/6, Reminiscences of M. E. Weale; BA 2/9/2 Hurrell to GOC 2 Aug. 1896.

121 N 3/14/5 NC Hartley to CNC 29 Mar. 1915 and linked documents.

122 S. 401, 241, Reg. vs. Mutuma, 22 February 1898, evidence of Mutuma, italicized words omitted in Ranger, , Revolt, 221.Google Scholar

123 A 1/12/27 Report of Jim Matabele, 19 June 1896; The '96 Rebellions, 81.

124 The '96 Rebellions, 82.

125 Ibid. 83–95.

126 Garlake, P. S., ‘The Mashona rebellion east of Salisbury’, Rhodesiana, xiv (1966), 2–3Google Scholar; S. 401, 255, Reg. vs. Mashonganyika 3 Mar. 1898, evidence of A. D. Campbell. The timing of Zhanta's movements would appear to have been as follows: two unnamed messengers from the Kaguvi medium travelled to Chikwaka's and summoned Zhanta and a few others to Kaguvi's. Zhanta arrived there and saw the loot gathered and the Ndebele from Mkwati's. The loot probably came from Thurgood's agent George's station nearby. Zhanta then returned to Chikwaka's on 19 June and gave the news of the rising. Assuming that each man travelled only 30 miles a day over the 60 miles between these places, and that each slept a night on the road and at each end of the journey, the first messengers need have left Kaguvi's only on 14 June. But it is unnecessary to assume such a tight schedule: as Zhanta pointed out, when he started he thought he was going to get locust medicine, so the first messengers could well have started before 14 June.

127 Edwards, , ‘Wiri 3’, 24–31Google Scholar; Hodder-Williams, , ‘Marandellas’, 29–40Google Scholar. The 19th would appear to be the decisive date: Edwards's police deserted that afternoon and the fires were seen that night. Farrant, , Mashonaland Martyr, 188–217Google Scholar. Farrant adopted a pre-Rangerian stance and assumed a general Ndebele presence in each district.

128 A1/12/36 Scanlen to Firm, 23 June 1896; Edwards, , ‘Wiri 3’, 31.Google Scholar

129 The '96 Rebellions, 59–60, 63–4, 98–101; A1/12/22, note by MacGlashan, Jan. 1897.

130 Ranger located the Nyamweda–Norton area in Mazoe, and confused house-head Gutu soko of the Shawasha with the Gutu gumbo dynasty of the south.

131 See files S. 401 and D3/5/1 in general.

132 Beach, , ‘Kaguvi and Fort Mhondoro’, 33.Google Scholar

133 Beach, , ‘The rising in South-western Mashonaland’, 146.Google Scholar

134 Beach, , ‘Kaguvi and Fort Mhondoro’, 38Google Scholar. Other long-distance raids by Mashayamombe and Bonda in 1897 were on refugee camps in Charter and the neutral Ndebele settlement at Hangayiva, 45 and 65 miles away, respectively, N1/1/2 NC Charter to CNC 24 Jan. 1897, N 1/1/3 NC Hartley to CNC 12 Sept. 1897. These raids, which were essentially for supplies for the beleaguered Mashayamombe stronghold, involved the killing of several women and children.

135 The joint attack on the Alice mine in June 1896 may have been partly due to its location near the junction of the Hwata–Chiweshe and Nyachuru territories.

136 N1/1/3 NC Hartley to CNC 6 Aug. 1897.

137 Beach, , ‘Kaguvi and Fort Mhondoro’, 39–40.Google Scholar

138 A1/12/14 Nesbitt to Vintcent, 5 Aug. 1896. See ref. 90.

139 LO5/4/1 NC Chilimanzi to CNC 10 Jan. 1897.

140 Ranger, , Revolt, 289–7Google Scholar. The Company officials were partly led to exaggerate the influence of the Kaguvi medium because their base in Salisbury lay between the two areas where he did play a great part.

141 Ranger, , Revolt, 158–9Google Scholar; N1/1/8 NC Ndanga to CNC 2 Mar. 1897.

142 I would now revise my opinion, stated in my thesis, that Muposi Chikore had been an undisputed Mambo before c. 1893.

143 N1/1/2 NC Charter to CNC 11 Mar. 1897; LO5/4/2 Report of CNC Mashonaland, 19 Mar. 1897; LO5/4/2 Armstrong to CNC 20 Feb. 1897.

144 N1/1/8 NC Ndanga to CNC 2 Mar. and 30 Mar. 1897. Italicized words omitted by Ranger, in Revolt, 291Google Scholar. Mpanga and Mtshetstunjani (Masesenyana) are identifiable as mfecane Ngoni from Fortune, G., ‘A Rozvi text with translation and notes’, NADA xxxiii (1956), 72, 80Google Scholar, and Robinson, K. R., ‘A history of the Bikita district’, NADA xxxiv (1957), 78–9.Google Scholar

145 Ranger, , Revolt, 289–92.Google Scholar

146 Most Rozvi groups of any size had committed themselves to the rising long before, and many had been defeated.

147 N1/1/2 NC Charter to CNC 19 Mar. 1897; LO5/4/2 NC Makoni to CNC c. February 1897. It is possible that the Kaguvi medium and Bonda did try to get help from Chiduku's Rozvi, though nothing came of it, but the Mavangwe Rozvi 35 miles away were not involved.

148 N1/1/8 NC Ndanga to CNC 30 Mar. 1897.

149 LO5/6/7 NC Gwelo to CNC 1 Dec. 1896 and 13 Jan. 1897; LO5/6/8 NC Gwelo to CNC 2 Feb. 1897; N1/1/3 NC Hartley to CNC 9 Nov. 1897.

150 N1/1/2 NC Charter to CNC 14 Mar. 1897. The evidence that Mkwati started a shrine north-east of Salisbury is thin, and depends upon the correctness of officials' assumptions that a screened cave was a cult centre, N1/1/9 NC Salisbury to CNC 19 Aug. 1897.

151 Beach, , ‘Kaguvi and Fort Mhondoro’, 43–4Google Scholar. This uses the same documents as Ranger, who omits mention of this quarrel

152 LO5/4/1 Harding to CNC 3 Dec. 1896 and 19 Jan. 1897; N1/1/9 NC Salisbury to CNC 22 July and 1 Aug. 1897. This uses the same sources as Ranger.

153 LO5/4/2 Howard to Grey, 12 and 20 Mar. 1897, Armstrong to CNC 20 Mar. 1897; LO5/4/3 Armstrong to Grey 29 Apr. 1897, CNC to Grey, 10 May 1897; LO5/4/4 Armstrong to CNC 26 May 1897; LO5/4/5 Harding to Moleyns, 21 Sept. 1897; LO5/4/6 Harding to Moleyns 9 Oct. 1897; N1/1/6 Armstrong to Taberer 17 July 1898; N1/1/7 Armstrong to CNC 27 Feb. 1897, 19 and 20 Mar. 1897, 14 and 26 May 1897; N1/1/9 Armstrong to CNC 20 Mar. 1897. This uses the same sources as Ranger.

154 A1/9/1 Brabant to RM Victoria 26 Apr. 1892; URHD Texts 34–5, 38, 41 Ctr; A1/12/27 evidence of Tshenombi et al., 13 July 1896; URHD Texts 41 Ctr, 68 Bha.

155 URHD Text 44 Ctr; Sumner, H. E., ‘The Kwenda story’, NADA, ix, 4 (1967), 4Google Scholar; White, J., ‘The Mashona rebellion’, Work and Workers in the Mission Field, 04 1897, 151Google Scholar. For reasons why the Njanja would have wanted to preserve their missionaries, see Beach, D. N., ‘The initial impact of Christianity upon the Shona: the Protestants and the southern Shona’, Christianity South of the Zambezi, 1, ed. Dachs, A. J. (Gwelo, 1973), 25–40.Google Scholar

156 A1/12/27, evidence of Marandowri, 13 July 1896.

157 Edwards, , ‘Wanoe’, 24Google Scholar; Mangwende, W., ‘To understand the Shona rebellion one has to understand the Shona past’, URHD Honours Paper (1973), 6Google Scholar. As a footnote, I might add that as a result of my 1969 paper on collaborators circulating among scholars at St Augustine's Penhalonga, a boy named Chivi has apparently been victimized, by his fellow-pupils. (Private information.)

158 Ranger, , Revolt, 214–17Google Scholar, 219, 224–5.

159 Ranger, , Revolt, 219.Google Scholar

160 S. 401, 253, Reg. vs. Kargubi et al., 8 Mar. 1898, evidence of Kargubi. Italicized words omitted in Ranger, , Revolt, 212Google Scholar, where the statement is taken as a serious comment on the religious organization of the rising. It looks a lot more like an attempt to transfer the blame; of all the prisoners tried, those in the Kaguvi medium's group were possibly the most unstoic.

161 LO5/4/4, Van Niekerk to CSO 8 June 1897.

162 Ranger's, Revolt picture of 1896Google Scholar was so attractive to Zimbabwean nationalists in the 1960s (Cobbing, , ‘Absent priesthood’, 61, 82–4Google Scholar) that for a long time it was looked upon as the last word, rather than the first, on the chimurenga. Later, it began to encounter criticism: in Maputo in 1977 resistance studies stressing the roles of rulers and spirit mediums were considered as ‘élitist’ (Ranger, , ‘The people in African resistance’, 140Google Scholar) while Tsomondo, M. presaged some of the points made here in ‘Shona reaction and resistance to the European colonization of Zimbabwe, 1890–8, a case against colonial and revisionist historiography’, J. S. Afr. Affairs, ii, i (1977), 11–32.Google Scholar