{"id":3442,"date":"2022-06-18T18:12:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-18T18:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/?p=3442"},"modified":"2022-06-30T16:17:42","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T16:17:42","slug":"charwe-was-not-a-medium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/","title":{"rendered":"Charwe Was Not A Medium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It was only much later when I was an adult did I come to the knowledge that Mbuya Nehanda was actually a spirit who possessed Charwe Nyakasikana. All Along I just thought that Mbuya Nehanda was her name. Charwe became only known for the spirit that possessed her. That became her identity. Which also created a picture in my mind that she had to be an old lady. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Nehand-print-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3454\"\/><figcaption>Nehanda by Baynham Goredema (<em>297mm x 420mm<\/em>, <em>Linocut Print<\/em>, <em>2021<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Since understanding that Charwe was a medium for Mbuya nehanda it led me to question where Nehanda\u2019s spirit is today? Were her role and purpose only in fighting against the colonial oppressors? Why has she not seen the suffering of Zimbabweans today? Why can she not manifest today and lead a new revolution and chimurenga (uprising) against the current oppressors? Or could it be that Nehanda\u2019s spirit is manifesting in modern-day fighters like Fadzayi Mahere who are standing up to oppressive powers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From a different perspective, I think Charwe Nyakasikana was not a spirit medium at all but a fearless, bold woman who stood up for her rights and for the rights of her community and people. But because the patriarchs of that age did not want to accept women as leaders they attributed her fighting to spirit to a being possessed by the ancestors and hence became palatable for other men to accept and follow her lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we take we take the idea of the spirit medium then in depicting Mbuya Nehanda we can depict her in any way we see fit and not necessarily as the vessel she chooses to inhabit in the historical case it is Charwe. So no visual depiction of Mbuya Nehanda can be considered to be inaccurate or wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was only much later when I was an adult did I come to the knowledge that Mbuya Nehanda was actually a spirit who possessed Charwe Nyakasikana. All Along I just thought that Mbuya Nehanda was her name. Charwe became only known for the spirit that possessed her. That became her identity. Which also created [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":297,"featured_media":3570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,123],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fine-art","8":"category-nehanda-re-imagined"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Charwe Was Not A Medium - The POVO Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As a spirit medium, when depicting Mbuya Nehanda we can depict her in any way we see fit and not necessarily as the vessel she chooses to inhabit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Charwe Was Not A Medium - The POVO Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a spirit medium, when depicting Mbuya Nehanda we can depict her in any way we see fit and not necessarily as the vessel she chooses to inhabit.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The POVO Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-18T18:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-30T16:17:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nehanda_Main_14.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"980\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"621\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/bayhaus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Baynham Goredema\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/\",\"name\":\"The POVO Journal\",\"description\":\"And The People Spoke\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nehanda_Main_14.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nehanda_Main_14.jpg\",\"width\":980,\"height\":621},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/\",\"name\":\"Charwe Was Not A Medium - The POVO Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-18T18:12:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-30T16:17:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/fde61f314a2e834814ef75c5f50f2a1e\"},\"description\":\"As a spirit medium, when depicting Mbuya Nehanda we can depict her in any way we see fit and not necessarily as the vessel she chooses to inhabit.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Charwe Was Not A Medium\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/fde61f314a2e834814ef75c5f50f2a1e\",\"name\":\"Baynham Goredema\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/porty_bay-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/porty_bay-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Baynham Goredema\"},\"description\":\"Baynham Goredema is a multidisciplinary designer with over 20 years experience. Over the years I have worked with various organisations both corporate and non profit, managing projects from idea conceptualisation, liaising with clients, managing talent, sourcing suppliers and taking projects through to final production in various mediums from print to web. An urge to create saw him explore various forms of creative expression, from multimedia game design, to protest typography design, writing and even recording music. He works on various self initiated projects, the flagship being the POVO brand. An avid linocut printmaker which kick started with his inaugural Solo exhibition titled Creativism -The politics of art.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/thesovereignstate.org\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bayhaus\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/baynham-goredema-a6a26818\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/bayhaus\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/author\/baynham-goredema\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Charwe Was Not A Medium - The POVO Journal","description":"As a spirit medium, when depicting Mbuya Nehanda we can depict her in any way we see fit and not necessarily as the vessel she chooses to inhabit.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Charwe Was Not A Medium - The POVO Journal","og_description":"As a spirit medium, when depicting Mbuya Nehanda we can depict her in any way we see fit and not necessarily as the vessel she chooses to inhabit.","og_url":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/","og_site_name":"The POVO Journal","article_published_time":"2022-06-18T18:12:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-30T16:17:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":980,"height":621,"url":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nehanda_Main_14.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/bayhaus","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Baynham Goredema","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/#website","url":"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/","name":"The POVO Journal","description":"And The People Spoke","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nehanda_Main_14.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/nehanda_Main_14.jpg","width":980,"height":621},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/","name":"Charwe Was Not A Medium - The POVO Journal","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2022-06-18T18:12:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-30T16:17:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/fde61f314a2e834814ef75c5f50f2a1e"},"description":"As a spirit medium, when depicting Mbuya Nehanda we can depict her in any way we see fit and not necessarily as the vessel she chooses to inhabit.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/charwe-was-not-a-medium\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Charwe Was Not A Medium"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/fde61f314a2e834814ef75c5f50f2a1e","name":"Baynham Goredema","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/porty_bay-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/porty_bay-150x150.jpg","caption":"Baynham Goredema"},"description":"Baynham Goredema is a multidisciplinary designer with over 20 years experience. Over the years I have worked with various organisations both corporate and non profit, managing projects from idea conceptualisation, liaising with clients, managing talent, sourcing suppliers and taking projects through to final production in various mediums from print to web. An urge to create saw him explore various forms of creative expression, from multimedia game design, to protest typography design, writing and even recording music. He works on various self initiated projects, the flagship being the POVO brand. An avid linocut printmaker which kick started with his inaugural Solo exhibition titled Creativism -The politics of art.","sameAs":["http:\/\/thesovereignstate.org\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bayhaus","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/baynham-goredema-a6a26818\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/bayhaus"],"url":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/author\/baynham-goredema\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3455,"href":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3442\/revisions\/3455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/povo.africa\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}