Young spirit medium unsettles Chief

Intriguing claims by a 24-year female spirit medium that the Munyaradzi chieftainship is in wrong hands could see Urayayi Munyaradzi losing his position as chief.

The Munyaradzi chieftainship has of late not been without controversy, with Urayayi only being installed in 2016 after years of wrangling.

A new controversy has now started with the emergence of Elizabeth Fadzanai, who claims to be the spirit medium for Karivari Marumbi who is the great matriarch of what is now known as the Munyaradzi chieftainship.

At the Chiefs' Hall in Mpandawana on Tuesday, an entranced Fadzanai recited the oral tradition of the Munyaradzi chieftainship to a bewildered audience which included current Chief Gutu, Edmund Masanganise and members of the Munyaradzi royal family.

Fadzanai claimed that Karivari Marumbi's spirit was not happy that the chieftainship created for her by Chief Chinomukutu (now Chief Gutu) over 200 years ago was now being held by descendants of her husband's children with another woman.

Fadzanai said in the 18th Century, Karivari, a seer with rainmaking powers, came with her husband Wanonoka Mushoriwa Nyashanu from an area in the present day Mozambique and travelled to an area in the present day Bulawayo.

While in Bulawayo, they received a message that a seven-year drought was devastating Chinomukutu's land.

They left Bulawayo for Chinomukutu where she managed to bring rainfall thereby pleasing the then Chief Chinomukutu who then gave her some land to be chief.

The new chieftaincy stretched from Manjerenje to Rasa and from Dewure to Sote but as time went by, old age caught up with Karivari and she delegated her son Chinemasahwi Nyashanu to perform leadership duties on her behalf as she could no longer do that herself.

Karivari died in 1814 in Mazizi, Zvavahera area of present day Gutu district and Chinemasahwi carried on as chief. When Chinemasahwi died, the throne was tempered with by other power-hungry people and it ended up in the hands of Zingwena Munyaradzi, Chinemasahwi's half-brother.

Marumbi claimed that it was that injustice that led to endless misfortunes for the Munyaradzi chieftainship including complex succession wrangles.

She said that could only come to an end if the royalty is restored to Karivari's own descendants most whom can now be found among the Rasa clan.

Representatives of the Munyaradzi family seemed to agree with Fadzanai's representations and suggestions that the chieftainship be suspended until the new issues are resolved.

There are, however, reports that some of the royal house members want to apply for a court interdict against Fadzanai whom they regard as a threat to their legitimacy.