Mai Chaza
| Mai Chaza | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1914 Buhera, Zimbabwe |
| Died | 26 December 1960 (aged 45–46) Zvimba, Zimbabwe |
| Nationality | Zimbabwean |
| Other names | Theresa Nyamushanya |
| Occupation | Church leader, prophetess |
| Known for | Founder, Guta raJehovah movement |
Mai Chaza (1914 – 26 December 1960) was a Zimbabwean church leader and prophetess who broke away from the Methodist Church in the 1950s to found her own movement, Guta raJehovah (City of God), which was also known as the "Mai Chaza Church".
Mai Chaza was born in 1914 to the Nyamushanya family and married Chiduza Chaza of Wedza, by whom she had six children. A devout Methodist, she was originally active within the ruwadzano, the Methodist Church's prayer groups in Zimbabwe. In 1948 she was driven from her home in the mining town of Concession after being accused of causing the death of a sister-in-law through witchcraft. She moved to the township of Highfield in Salisbury (now Harare), where she was given shelter by another Methodist family. She became ill around 1953–54 and was thought to be have become deranged before falling into a coma. Her husband divorced her and returned her to her family.
When Mai Chaza recovered, she was hailed as having returned from the dead. She announced that she had been instructed by God to become a faith healer, live a celibate life, and heal the sick, especially barren women. She also claimed to have been reconciled with the spirit of her dead sister-in-law. She began working as a n'anga, a traditional healer, telling people the causes of their illnesses in exchange for a payment of two shillings and sixpence. The Methodist hierarchy ordered her to stop and refused her request to have her own preaching circuit. She responded by establishing her own unauthorised circuit.
In 1954, Mai Chaza relocated to Kendaka's Kraal within the Seke Reserve in Mashonaland, about 100 miles (160 km) south-east of Harare. She quickly attracted numerous followers; by the end of 1954, the village, built on a site measuring only one acre, had grown to 615 domiciles with around 2,500 inhabitants. They called it the Guta raJehovah or City of God. In her new identity as a prophetess, the self-proclaimed Mutumwa ("Messenger [of God]" or "Angel"), Mai Chaza received thousands of supplicants wishing to find cures for their medical conditions. She was hailed by her followers as Mai Muponesi ("Mother Saviour), Maqenga ("Heavens"), Gwayana ("Lamb"), or as an African reappearance of Christ. Satellite "Cities of Jehovah" with healing centres were established in several locations around Rhodesia, and also in neighbouring Bechuanaland (now Botswana). She was said to have summoned the spirits of the 19th century Ndebele king Lobengula, the historical spirit medium Chaminuka and the founder of Rhodesia, Cecil Rhodes, and to have released them from purgatory and reconciled them.
...
Wikipedia