2. It’s power is in the dead instead of the living
3. It will destroy & kill in order to appease the dead
“HOW DO YOU BUILD A STATUE WHILST SHUTING DOWN HOSPITALS?” pic.twitter.com/aBckJkoKpQ
– Shingi Munyeza (@ShingiMunyeza) July 8, 2020
“Why waste money like this in a nation where millions are food insecure and maternal mortality remains a scourge?” MDC Alliance spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere said last week. She said the money spent on the statue could have been better spent on increasing funding to the Harare maternity hospital that bears Mbuya Nehanda’s name.
Critics accuse Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF party and government of co-opting Nehanda’s legacy for political gain.
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It was meant to unite a nation, but instead it is dividing it yet deeper along political and religious lines. A bronze 3.5 metre-high statue of Mbuya Nehanda, who played a key role in Zimbabwe’s fight for independence from colonial rule, has stirred up controversy because of the way it depicts her.
Mbuya Nehanda, or Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, was a spirit medium who helped to lead the country’s 1896 rebellion (known as the First Chimurenga) against white settlers. The rebellion was crushed and Nehanda and other rebel leaders were arrested and hanged.
Only one photo of Nehanda, taken shortly before her execution, survives. It shows an elderly woman standing next to Sekuru Kaguvi, another spirit medium who was hanged.
Zimbabwe: Not an Iota of Similarity - Statue of War Heroine Divides Zimbabweans allafrica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from allafrica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.