Chimurenga

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Chimurenga is a word in

The concept is also occasionally used in reference to the land reform programme undertaken by the Zimbabwe government since 2000, which some call the Third Chimurenga. Proponents of land reform regard it as the final phase in what they hold to be the liberation of Zimbabwe by economic and agrarian reforms that are intended to empower indigenous people, despite the economic collapse that soon followed, which some have labelled the "Third Chimurenga" as being the catalyst.

In a modern context, the word may denote a struggle for human rights, political dignity and social justice.^[1] The expression is also used in context with modern Zimbabwean music, Chimurenga music.

Etymology

The name Chimurenga is coined from the great ancestor of the now Shona, Venda and Kalanga people. The Nambya people are also a part of this group. Their ancestor was known by the name Murenga Musorowenzou (Head of an Elephant), known by the Venda as Thoho yaNdou and Sholo reZhou.^[2] The later two have named their cities after this man while the Shona honoured him by naming their wars of struggle after him.

First Chimurenga (1896-1897)

The First Chimurenga is now celebrated in Zimbabwe as the First War of Independence. It is also known in the English speaking world as the Second Matabele War. This conflict refers to the 1896–1897 Ndebele-Shona revolt against the British South Africa Company's administration of the territory.^[3]

Mlimo, the Matabele spiritual/religious leader, is credited with fomenting much of the anger that led to this confrontation. He convinced the Ndebele and Shona that the white settlers (almost 4,000 strong by then) were responsible for the drought, locust plagues and the cattle disease rinderpest ravaging the country at the time. Mlimo's call to battle was well timed. Only a few months earlier, the British South Africa Company's Administrator General for

In June 1896, Mashayamombe led the uprising of the Zezuru Shona people located to the South West of the capital Salisbury. Mashayamombe worked with the local spiritual leader Kaguvi, and during this period a white farmer, Norton and his wife were killed at Porta Farm in Norton.

The third phase of the First Chimurenga was joined by the

Mlimo was eventually assassinated in his temple in

The Second Chimurenga, also known as the

Chimurenga also refers to a style of music first branded by Thomas Mapfumo, who mixed indigenous African rhythmic patterns and instruments such as mbira (thumb piano), drums, gourd rattles with Western styles (electric guitar) in songs that achieved wide popularity among the protest movement against white minority rule. Today the term Chimurenga music refers to popular Shona music from Zimbabwe.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chimurenga.