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THE AFRICAN ORIGINS OF THE NYAHBINGHI
The Nyahbinghi cult of southern Uganda and northern Rwanda was inspired by a famous and historical woman. The cult was one of a number of possession cults found in Africa in areas which celebrated legendary heroes called emandwas. While in other cults the emandwa could be summoned by any initiated member, access to the spirit of Queen Nyahbinghi was limited to the “bagirwa” (those who initiate) who claimed to have been selected by her as her medium and therefore to have the exclusive power to invoke her presence and interpret her will. The bagirwa were mainly female.
The bagirwa claimed the power to evoke supernatural forces to punish those who angered or ignored her spirit or failed to accede to her demands. After demonstrating these powers the mere threat of exercising them was enough to gain obedience.
To become a follower of Nyahbinghi, a diviner’s advice was required. The purpose was for protection against mishaps in life. Offerings were generally made to Nyahbinghi priests and priestesses who displayed chieflike royal behaviour, maintaining courts with numerous attendants showing royal insignia such as drums. Many wore veils and could not be seen by ordinary people.
The cult had no initiation rites or communal rituals. It brought together diverse tribes in Africa against European rule and was unique because of its effective resistance to colonial rule, utilizing traditional African religious beliefs to paralyze colonial administration.
That a traditional possession cult without a significant ideology could maintain such a tenacious and effective vehicle for opposition to alien rule ensures the Nyahbinghi cult a distinctive position in the history of Africa. In spite of the seemingly strong parochialism of its method and purpose, the Nyahbinghi cult succeeded in immobilizing the administrative efforts of three colonial power for nearly two decades until its suppression in 1928.
The name Nyahbinghi means “she who possesses many things”. The cult was outlawed by all colonialist powers under punishment of jail, beatings and ridicule. Adherents to the cult were often killed. However, when a person who was possessed by the spirit of Nyahbinghi died, Nyahbinghi’s spirit traveled on and possessed someone else, making it impossible to destroy the cult.
Queen Njaving (Navingi) seems to have been the woman after whom the Nyahbinghi was named. Queen Kitami and Queen Muhumusa were the two women leaders who pioneered the spread of the Nyahbinghi cult after the death of Queen Nyahbinghi under tragic circumstances. However, some historians felt that Queen Kitami’s name was just an alternative title for Nyahbinghi and that she was Queen Njavingi.
Queen Kitami was an “Amazon Queen” whose royal drum was stolen by a man named Kamuraral and with it control over her country of Mpororo. After her death she was said to become immortal and continued to issue commands through the mouths of her bagirwa, urging them to regain control over their homeland from alien rulers.
After being suppressed in 1928, the cult rose again during the 1930s with Mussolini’s threat to Ethiopia. It rapidly spread from Ethiopia to every corner of Africa and to the United States. The Congo was one of its main strongholds and many raids were made against the colonialists. Queen Muhumusa was recorded as the fiercest anti-colonialist leader of the Nyahbinghi.
Under her leadership the Nyahbinghi made a determined effort to drive the colonialists from the shores of Africa. She proclaimed herself Queen of Ndorwa and liberator from European domination and launched a war against European occupation of her land. The cult was eventually controlled by placing her under house arrest and lulling the Africans with pacification methods of better education, rival possession cults, better jobs and opportunities.
On Dec, 7, 1935 the Jamaica Times reprinted an article entitled “Secret Society to Destroy Whites” on the Nyahbinghi cult in Africa. The article claimed that the Nyahbinghi had organized a “Pan-Negro” conference in Moscow and that Emperor Haile Selassie I had been appointed officially as the head of the Nyahbinghi.
It reported that his words upon accepting his post were “Death to the enemies of the African race.” The Nyahbinghi was pioneered in Jamaica after this article and the meaning of the Nyahbinghi translated from the Emperor’s words, and the fact that the article said that the word meant “death to the colonialists.”
The Nyahbinghi was begun as a theocratic, active non-violent, control-of-good-over-evil-way of life on the island. It answered the call of the Nyahbinghi in Africa for the evolution of the Nyahbinghi into a way of life that could withstand colonial gunpowder with spiritual might and certainty of the victory of good over evil.
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