Legend has it the hero of Zimbabwe’s first revolutionary struggle against colonial rule, Mbuya Nehanda, was captured by the British in 1897, hanged and then beheaded. Her skull, together with other remains and spiritual items, were shipped in a sack to England as trophies of conquest.

For over 30 years Zimbabwe has been trying to recover these remains, believing her skull remains on display in a British museum. "We cannot have other people keep the remains of our ancestors in a cardboard box elsewhere," said Dr Godfrey Mahachi, Director of the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe.

If this is true, which English museum holds the skull of the most well-known, popular symbol of resistance to colonial rule in modern Zimbabwe?

Nehanda’s name has always had a special potency for Zimbabwe’s nationalist movement. A powerful spirit medium of the Shona people, Nehanda was one of the leaders of the First Chimurenga revolt in 1896/97 against the administration of Cecil Rhodes’ British South African Company. Tried and sentenced to death in March 1898 at a hearing Zimbabweans describe as unlawful and hastily scrambled, her struggle against colonial rule continued right up to the moment she was hanged.

British diplomats in Harare are understood to support Zimbabwe's efforts to see the repatriation of her remains. However, tracing these remains is proving problematic.

London’s Natural History Museum is the most likely candidate. But the Museum insists there is no evidence to confirm whether Nehanda’s skull is held within their huge collection of 20,000 human remains. The Museum says it is committed to working with the Government of Zimbabwe by sharing all the information on the remains of eleven individuals from Zimbabwe held in the Museum's collection. But after carrying out archival research, they told Returning Heritage there is no evidence to suggest these remains include either the skull of Nehanda or the remains of other leaders from the Chimurenga revolt.

"The information available does not provide names or precise identities for these people", a spokesperson told us.

"None of the information provided makes any links to the First Chimurenga. The remains were found in multiple locations and donated to the Museum across the 19^th and 20^th centuries."

Natural History Museum, London

The Museum has shown its readiness in the past to follow the UK Government's guidelines for the treatment of human remains and has repatriated human remains to Tasmania and Torres Strait Islands communities. It continues to co-operate with the Government of Zimbabwe and right now is preparing to discuss the repatriation of the Zimbabwean human remains in their collection. The Museum had expected to host a delegation from Zimbabwe in 2020, but the pandemic delayed this meeting. The Museum now expects to host a delegation, led by the Zimbabwean High Commissioner to the UK Christian Katsande and Dr Godfrey Mahachi, early in 2022.

Several Zimbabwean press reports indicating the skull could be held by the V&A Museum appear widely off the mark.

After this was written.....

Bring Back our Bones (BBOB), a Zimbabwean activist group, is campaigning to recover the remains of the heroes of the 1890s uprising against British rule, including the remains of Mbuya Nehanda. They are asking British museums to open archives and produce documentation for bones in their collections. They are also considering legal action. According to activist Vusi Nyamazana, Zimbabweans are angry. "It's a moral and a spiritual issue," he says in the New Zimbabwe (May 2023). "They belong to us and they need proper funerals."

(See New Zimbabwe)

Photo: Mbuya Nehanda

Courtesy of Forbes Africa