Last year, sometime in November 2024, while I was asleep, I experienced something that I can only describe as deeply unsettling.A very strange voice appeared in my dream. It was not vague or distant, it was clear, direct, and emotionally charged. The voice was angry, and for the entire night it kept repeating the same words to me over and over again: “Why do you persecute us .
liberate us from this dark cloud.”The repetition was relentless. It felt deliberate, as though the message itself mattered more than explanation. The dream was so powerful that I could not simply sleep through it.
I woke up several times during the night, and when morning came, I found myself sitting with it, trying to make sense of what I had heard. To my surprise, I could not find any logical meaning. There was no obvious connection to my immediate life or circumstances.Eventually, I allowed it to pass.At the back of my mind, I tried to rationalise it.
Read Full Article on Bulawayo24
[paywall]
I told myself it was one of those things that happen when the body is under stress when you sleep dehydrated or exhausted and the mind uses strange signals, sometimes even nightmares, to force you awake. I convinced myself it was physiological, nothing more. Still, something about it lingered.Then sometime in April 2025 around the 18th, the dream returned.The voice was exactly the same.
The words were exactly the same. But the tone had changed. It was no longer angry.
It was sad. Almost disappointed. The sadness in the voice disturbed me more than the anger had.This time, the visuals were far more intense.
I could see old people seated quietly. Some were wearing long robes. Others were dressed in animal skins.
They were not speaking. They were not moving. They were simply sitting there, all of them looking directly at me, as though waiting to see what I would do with the message being delivered.I woke up immediately, shaken.This time, I could not dismiss it.
I felt genuine concern. I spoke to people around me and tried to seek meaning. I even searched online, not because I expected definitive answers, but because I needed context.One of the first interpretations I encountered suggested that dreams involving elders especially those wearing robes and animal skins often relate to ancestral guidance, inherited responsibility, primal memory, or a connection to ancient knowledge and tradition.
It also emphasised that the meaning depends heavily on the dreamer’s personal context and emotional response.Days passed. The idea stayed with me. I managed to live with it, but it never left my thoughts entirely.Then, in August 2025, during the Heroes Day commemorations, the dream appeared again and this time it was overwhelming.
I woke up drenched in sweat. My body reacted before my mind could catch up. The same voice was there, repeating the same message, but the imagery had changed completely.This time I saw massive rocks balanced in a fragile equilibrium, suspended as if time itself had paused.
They were on the verge of falling. On one side stood old people dressed in animal skins. On the other stood old people wearing long robes.
The tension was unmistakable. If the rocks tipped to either side, there would be casualties. The balance felt symbolic, deliberate, and dangerous.Then one of the elders in long robes spoke directly to me.
He called me by my totem and said:”Mzukulu akahambe, skhulule, akahambe uLodzi.” (Grandchild, liberate us! Rhodes Must Go)The words were repeated six times. I woke up immediately.From that day onwards, I knew deep within myself that this was not random.
Whether one understands it spiritually, psychologically, or historically, I knew that the underground gang (our ancestors) were trying to communicate something urgent.And that understanding forced me to ask a question I had never seriously confronted before: why would the ancestors want Rhodes gone?That question pushed me back to history.I began reading more deliberately. I consulted several history books, but one stood out clearly: “Zimbabwe: Diverse but One” by veteran nationalist historian Cain Mathema.In that book, I encountered a crucial idea, ‘Zimbabwe’s political history cannot be separated from its spirituality’. Mathema explains that at the end of each kingdom and the beginning of another, national spirit mediums would relocate to the new political centre and establish residence at the new shrine.At one point, these national spirit mediums were located at Great Zimbabwe.
That is why Matobo is not just land. It is not just scenery. It is not just heritage.
It is a national spiritual centre. To this day, it houses national shrines.Kings were buried there for a reason. Under the Mwari religious tradition, they were believed to continue watching over and protecting the people in death.
These kings did not simply die; they transitioned into national spirit mediums.Once I understood this, everything began to connect.There is something profoundly significant about Matobo. And it became clear to me that this significance was exactly what had been communicating with me. The message was simple but heavy: there is an unwanted guest there.
That guest is Cecil John Rhodes.Matobo is sacred precisely because it is where kings were buried. These were the kings of Zimbabwe, whose spiritual authority transcended death. Their presence sanctified the land.Now here is what must be understood.During the colonisation of Africa, colonial systems did not operate blindly.
They invested time and resources into understanding indigenous societies, especially the systems that worked. One of the systems they identified as powerful was native spirituality. It unified people.
It legitimised authority. It sustained resistance. And because of that, it made the colonial project deeply uncomfortable.That is why spirit mediums such as Mbuya Nehanda and Sekuru Kaguvi were executed so publicly and so brutally.
Their deaths were not random acts of cruelty. They were strategic acts meant to disintegrate the spiritual backbone of the country.Cecil John Rhodes stands at the centre of this colonial project. He is the godfather of colonial conquest in this region, and his legacy continues to haunt us.
Rhodes lived in Zimbabwe. He studied Zimbabwe. He understood Zimbabwe’s history.
[/paywall]
