By Dr Masimba Mavaza | Many people lost their lives fighting for Zimbabwe. Some died in the foreign land like in Mozambique Zambia Tanzania and many countries. Some were brought home to their families and laid to rest, others were buried on the foreign soil where they died and many went missing in action. However, these heroes are never forgotten. But the remains of the first Chimurenga heroes were taken to England.

Taking them to England was a sign to show their followers that they are following useless people.

Before Nehanda died she screamed and said “ mapfupa angu achamuka” my bones will rise again. This became the prelude to battle cry of the Chimurenga 2.

Believe it or not the name Mbuya Nehanda became synonymous with the war and indeed the fighters felt protected by her name.
One can not even imagine being killed in action and then being left there. But Nehanda was killed in action and humiliated by being denied a decent burial. Instead her scull has been displayed in a museum even to this date. Nehanda has become a sign of humiliation and this has plunged the country into a curse. Any soldier would want to come home any way possible.
ZIMBABWEANS SHOULD BE ASHAMED.
Mugabe failed to bring Nehanda home and he was burried in an unknown grave. Mugabe’s burial can be taken lightly but in Shona culture if your butial is done by your wife it is a curse on you and your chikdren. Mugabe was buried by the direction and influence of his wife. “Akavigwa nevatorwa”. One can enjoy power now but if you muss the opportunity to do the right thing because you are busy doing something sooner or later it will catch up with you.
Now people are trying to rebury Mugabe. Who ever thought that Mugabe would be buried in a tiny room away from the public he has become a hero to. Who ever thought that a junior Father from the catholic church will bury Mugabe. Lessons must be learnt from this.
The world over has sought to embarrass victims of war or defeated leaders by burying them in a shallow unmarked grave. Burying them like animals like dogs. The humility of defeat followed them to the unknown grave. Their efforts and names are forgotten as they are thrown in an unknown grave.

Many leaders who were defeated were humiliated even in their deaths. Their burials are reduced to nothing. They are called dictators or evil people. This is the list Zimbabwe has condemned Mbuya Nehanda to.
Lybian laid Muammar al-Qaddafi to rest in a secret, unmarked desert grave to prevent his burial place from becoming a shrine for his supporters or a target for his opponents. The drainage pipes outside Sirte where Qaddafi was captured and the cold storage facility in Misrata where his corpse was temporarily stored, pictured above, have already become major attractions for Libyans. Up to today Lybians do not know where Gadaffi was buried. Zimbabweans have shown Nehanda a muddle finger.

They have cut down the tree where she was hanged. They have replaced it with a statue yet her bones are displayed in a museum.

The U.S. officials cited concerns about creating a shrine as the reason why they committed Osama bin Laden’s body to the sea.
This fear of establishing shrines for reviled figures has a long history; the English ruler Oliver Cromwell, for example, was posthumously hanged in the 17th century and his head wasn’t laid to rest until 1960. But the concern over Qaddafi’s final resting place had us wondering: Do the burial places of controversial leaders really become shrines? In short, yes.

Neganda’s story is a sad story to live with. She has been out in the list of some of the people who are known to have history emanating from evil spirits to dismembered hands are almost too bizarre to be believed. But yes thats the list Nehanda has been put to by her own people. The government has become too tired to fight for her bones back.

Nehanda has been out in the group of those who had contentious burials, from Hussein to Hitler. What a shame?

Zimbabwe must set an Accounting Agency’s mission to provide the fullest possible accounting for missing personnel to their families and the nation.
America On Sept. 13, brought home 26 fallen WWII heroes from around Europe.
“Our director likes to say, ‘the mission we do here is a sacred one with a moral imperative,’” explained U.S. Army Capt. David Macaspac, DPAA recovery team leader. “It’s the right thing for us to do considering the sacrifice they made for us.” Yet Zimbabweans think this is demonic. They have embraced Christianity in a very confused way. Those who introduced you to Christianity are going all over the world collecting the remains if their heroes. But we believe it is demonic.
The Americans boasted after bringing remains home “This mission couldn’t be accomplished alone. Being a key Air Mobility Command base, Joint Base Charleston was tasked to provide the airpower and rapid mobility needed to return these WWII soldiers back to American soil.@.
“We want to support those who sacrificed their lives to the fullest,” Dixon said. “This is an extremely important mission for everyone involved. It’s very fulfilling and very moving to be able to bring these folks home. It means the world to me. ”
“The remains returning to U.S. soil is just the start of the identification process. They are then taken to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, to conduct DNA testing so the remains can be positively identified. Once their identities are determined, they are returned to their families and loved ones.
“The end goal is to bring closure to the family. It’s an amazing experience.”

We know that Bringing home those missing in action can be hard work, however, finding and recovering the remains affords these fallen heroes the chance to have the respectful burial and repatriation they earned. It is painful that Zimbabwe is the only country not repatriating its heroes. Have we already forgotten what they have done for us.
It would be humbling and gratifying to know that 100 years later my country didn’t forget, and that they still made the effort to find me and bring me home, Nehanda would say from her humiliating museum display. That’s just very humbling.

We still wait for a day when As the Zimbabwean flag-draped coffins will be carried out of the Plane one by one, everyone in attendance linning the ramp to render a final salute to each hero returning home. This showed the utmost care the Zimbabwe gives to each service member who sacrifices their life.

Those who think that this is in Christian must thing again. In the UK at
the west end of the Nave of Westminster Abbey is the grave of the Unknown Warrior, whose body was brought from France to be buried here on 11th November 1920. The grave, which contains soil from France, is covered by a slab of black Belgian marble from a quarry near Namur. On it is the following inscription, composed by Herbert Ryle, Dean of Westminster:
BENEATH THIS STONE RESTS THE BODY
OF A BRITISH WARRIOR
UNKNOWN BY NAME OR RANK
BROUGHT FROM FRANCE TO LIE AMONG
THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS OF THE LAND
AND BURIED HERE ON ARMISTICE DAY
11 NOV: 1920, IN THE PRESENCE OF
HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V
HIS MINISTERS OF STATE
THE CHIEFS OF HIS FORCES
AND A VAST CONCOURSE OF THE NATION
THUS ARE COMMEMORATED THE MANY
MULTITUDES WHO DURING THE GREAT
WAR OF 1914-1918 GAVE THE MOST THAT
MAN CAN GIVE LIFE ITSELF
FOR GOD
FOR KING AND COUNTRY
FOR LOVED ONES HOME AND EMPIRE
FOR THE SACRED CAUSE OF JUSTICE AND
THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLD
THEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS BECAUSE HE
HAD DONE GOOD TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD
HIS HOUSE
Around the main inscription are four texts:
(top) THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS,
(sides) GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS
UNKNOWN AND YET WELL KNOWN, DYING AND BEHOLD WE LIVE,
(base) IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE.
My heart bleeds when I read these. Why is it Zimbabweans are not worried about their own heroes. Are they eating so much that they are now blinded by the fruits of freedom which were watered by Nehanda.
Really when can Nehanda be brought home. For how long shall we dither. What more action do you want to bring our heroes home. These heroes deserve better.

Vazet2000& yahoo.co.uk