Kaguvi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kaguvi or Kagube or Kagubi, was a "lion spirit" or mhondoro of the Zezuru Shona people of Zimbabwe. The name is also given to the spirit's medium, a man called Gumporeshumba (c1870-1898) who was one of the leaders of the Shona Rebellion against European rule in 1896-1897.

Gumboreshumba (meaning: The foot / claws of a lion) also known as Kagubi, lived in Chikwaka's Kraal in the Goromonzi Hill, near Harare Zimbabwe. He was obviously a man of some substance in the area. He was married to a daughter of Chief Mashonganyika whose kraal was some three miles to the south of the Goromonzi Hill and he also had wives from the kraal of headman Gondo which is also in the vicinity of Goromonzi Hill. He became known as a supplier of good luck in hunting and was able to speak to people “from the trees and the rocks”. He was believed to be the spirit husband of the other great Shona spirit, Nehanda. He was a powerful spirit medium, along with Mbuya Nehanda and Mkwati, he was instrumental in organizing the first nationwide resistance (known in Zimbabwe as the First Chimurenga), and known to the then colonial rule as the Rebellion of 1896-7 in the then Rhodesia.

The eye section of Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare under UZ is named in honour of Kaguvi and his medium.