TOMO NYIRENDA AND THE MWANA LESA MOVEMENT OF 1925.
INTRODUCTION
Tomo Nyirenda will go down in history as one of the most notorious religious leaders Northern Rhodesia (present day Zambia) has even seen. The story of Tomo Nyirenda and the Mwana Lesa Movement of 1925 is a tragic demonstration of how fanatical beliefs can lead people down a very dangerous path. The “witch finding” and the “witch killing” conducted by Tomo Nyirenda and the Mwana Lesa Movement would eventually lead to the arrest, trial and execution of Tomo Nyirenda in 1926.
THE EARLY LIFE OF TOMO NYIRENDA
Tomo Nyirenda was born and raised in Nyasaland (present day Malawi). He belonged to the Henga ethnic group which is a subdivision of the Tumbuka people of Malawi. He received school education at Livingstonia Mission in the Northern part of Nyasaland, the mission was run by the Free Church of Scotland.
As was the case with many young people from Nyasaland, Tomo Nyirenda migrated to Northern Rhodesia in search of greener pastures. After searching for a job for some time, he managed to find himself a job as a cook in Broken Hill (present day Kabwe). During this time he also did a number of other jobs on the Copperbelt region of Northern Rhodesia.
TOMO NYIRENDA BECOMES A RELIGIOUS LEADER
During his time in Northern Rhodesia, Tomo Nyirenda became acquainted with the Watch Tower Movement which had began to gain widespread popularity. While working at a mine near Mkushi, he listened to the sermons of Watch Tower preachers. He found their message and beliefs convincing. In February 1925, he was converted to Watch Tower by his fellow Nyasas who had acquired influence in the Watch Tower Movement. After his conversion, he was baptized and he began to preach in April 1925.
His preaching aroused a lot of enthusiasm among the people such that the British colonial authorities soon imprisoned him and charged him with the offence of not registering as a ‘foreigner’.
After his short detention, he continued to preach. In line with the Watch Tower doctrine of the time, he preached a creed which stressed opposition to the white regime and promised the coming of black Americans who would drive away the white colonialists. He also preached that the second coming of Jesus was at hand and there was need for people to be baptized as a way to show that they had been saved. At this time he was held in high regard by the Watch Tower Movement because he was one of the most educated and one of the most articulate of their evangelists.
As Tomo Nyirenda preached the word of God, he emphasized the need to forsake the evil of this world. One of his most important messages was that all witches and wizards had to repent and throw away their charms.
TOMO NYIRENDA “THE WITCH FINDER”
Gradually, Tomo Nyirenda began to drift away from the central teachings of the Watch Tower Movement. His message and practice began to change. His preaching became fixated on the issue of witches and wizards. He shifted from merely calling people to repent and moved to detecting which person was a “witch”. He used full immersion baptism to identify the witches hidden among the faithful. During baptism, those who could not be completely immersed in water were deemed witches. At this time, the only consequence for those who he pointed out as witches was that they were excluded from being part of the baptized congregation.
TOMO NYIRENDA ENTERS CHIEF SHAIWILA’S CHIEFDOM
Tomo Nyirenda decided to take his preaching into the Lala Chiefdom of Chief Shaiwila. By the time he was entering the chiefdom, Tomo had already gained a reputation as an evangelist, baptizer and most importantly a witch finder. The tales of these “skills” he possessed made him very popular in the Lala villages and a large number of villagers visited him in order to be baptized.
Because of this frenzy that Tomo had created in the Lala villages, news of his activities reached Chief Shaiwila who sent one of his headmen to go and observe Tomo’s activities and then bring him to the Chief. Upon finding Tomo, the headman and his men observed how Tomo was conducting his baptisms and they also asked him and his followers to sing some hymns. Convinced by what they had witnessed, the headman and his men also asked to be baptized by Tomo. After their baptism, they started off to the place where Tomo Nyirenda would meet Chief Shaiwila.
TOMO NYIRENDA MEETS CHIEF SHAIWILA
A meeting was set up between Tomo Nyirenda and Chief Shaiwila of the Lala people. This meeting would prove to be the most important element in the development of the “Mwana Lesa Movement”. Tomo Nyirenda and Chief Shaiwila developed a close friendship. After a series of talks with Tomo Nyirenda, Chief Shaiwila gave Tomo the authority to baptize all the people in Chief Shaiwila’s chiefdom and to kill all those who proved to be witches.
The villagers in the chiefdom received Tomo Nyirenda with great excitement as he carried out his baptisms. The people regarded him as a prophet and a messiah who was sent by God. The title “Mwana Lesa” which means “Son of God” was bestowed upon Tom Nyirenda by the people. Everywhere he went he began to call himself by the title “Mwana Lesa” and this elevated the spiritual reverence that people had for him. It is because of this title that his religious movement began to be referred to as the “Mwana Lesa Movement”
THE KILLINGS
After securing the support of the chief, Tomo Nyirenda’s crusade against those who he identified as witches began to take a radical turn. Tomo Nyirenda would get those who had been denounced as witches and take them to a river. Tom, dressed in long white robes would then declare that God had told him that these were witches. Tomo and his followers would then hold the victims under water until they drowned. The people would sing hymns as they stood looking at the lifeless bodies of those who had been labeled “witches”.
After drowning the first five people, he showed the dead bodies to Chief Shaiwila who told Tom to continue weeding out the witches in the village by killing them.
It is alleged that the alliance which existed between Chief Shaiwila and Tom Nyirenda was for the purpose of Chief Shaiwila to cement his position as Chief and get rid of political challengers to his throne. It is alleged that the chief would use Tomo Nyirenda to label some of the chief’s political enemies as “witches” and drown them during baptism. It is difficult to ascertain the legitimacy of this allegation. What is clear is that for Tomo Nyirenda, killing witches was a religious crusade.
For the rest of May 1925, Tomo travelled across Chief Shaiwila’s chiefdom conducting baptisms and killing those who were labeled as witches. Fifteen people became victims of Tomo Nyirenda’s killing spree during this period. Even as these killings were happening, members of the community did not oppose them. Tomo was actually becoming more popular because people felt that he was eliminating the witches. Villages even began to compete to attract him to their village. Everywhere he went, people would shout “Mwana Lesa” and many young preachers and deacons volunteered to join the “Mwana Lesa Movement”. The Mwana Lesa Movement also went as far as Ndola where some people were also killed.
However, at the end of May, news of the killings reached the native police who began searching for Tomo Nyirenda. Nyirenda was tipped off about this situation and he decided to flee to Belgian Congo (Present day D.R. Congo) were some Congolese chiefs were urging him to go and deal with witches in their area too.
TOMO NYIRENDA IN CONGO
Tomo Nyirenda shifted his activities into Congo. He was accompanied by a large number of his Lala followers as well as some Swaka people who had joined the Mwana Lesa Movement. Tomo and his followers settled in Chief Mufumbi’s area which was inhabited by the Wena Mukanda ethnic group. In this area, the Mwana Lesa Movement also started conducting the “witch killings”.
Within two months of Tomo residing in Chief Mufumbi’s chiefdom, Tomo allegedly killed about 176 “witches” by drowning them. Even some of Tomo’s staunchest followers had started to become concerned about the high number of killings. Chief Mufumbi reassured them by telling them that in Congo it was okay to kill people who had been found to be “witches”. Tomo proclaimed that getting rid of witches was his assignment from God and that he would continue to do so. He assured his followers that he would not get arrested by anyone and that God would protect him from any attack.
By July 1925, the numbers of people coming for baptism started to reduce. It appeared that people in the villages had began to lose interest in the Mwana Lesa movement. This change in the mood of the people culminated in an attack on Tomo Nyirenda. A mob of villagers with some police officers from the Belgian colonial government had gathered with ropes and guns and they were marching to where Tomo Nyirenda was. When news of this impending attack reached Tomo he told his people not to be afraid. When the mob and the police officers reached where Tomo was, they asked who “Mwana Lesa” was and Tomo Nyirenda was identified. A police officer fired his gun at Tomo Nyirenda and somehow the bullet missed Tomo and killed another person. In the ensuing confusion, Tomo then grabbed the gun from the Police officer, reloaded and shot the police officer. Seeing what had happened, everybody scampered in different directions.
Even though Tomo Nyirenda survived this incident, he now knew that his time in Congo was up. News reached Tomo Nyirenda that the Belgian colonial government would send another expedition of police officers to look for him. He and his supporters decided to scatter back into Northern Rhodesia.
TOMO NYIRENDA RETURNS TO NORTHERN RHODESIA
Upon returning to Northern Rhodesia, Tomo Nyirenda lived in the Serenje area and began to conduct his baptism activities there. In Northern Rhodesia, the authorities were still looking for him. The Serenje Native Commisioner had a number of police patrols looking for him. The police had a hard time finding him because some headmen concealed him and even supplied him with some food as he kept evading the police.
THE ARREST AND TRIAL OF TOMO NYIRENDA
After evading the police for some time, Tomo Nyirenda was finally tracked down near Kasemu stream in September 1925. An informant had given the police information on where to find him. When Tomo saw the police officers he tried to run away but they managed to chase after him. He was caught, arrested and taken to the Boma.
The police officers had heard stories that Tomo Nyirenda used supernatural powers, so because they were afraid that he might perform a miraculous escape they bound his hands very tightly with wet ropes. The tightness of the ropes had cut him and injured him and after some time these injuries developed an infection which led to gangrene. The gangrene rendered Tomo crippled.
Tomo was put in Jail and he appeared in court in February 1926. The verdict of the court case was that Tomo Nyirenda and Chief Shaiwila were sentenced to death. The execution was carried out and Tomo Nyirenda was hanged at the Broken Hill Prison Square.
CONCLUSION
The story of Tomo Nyirenda is a significant one in Zambian history. It demonstrates how quickly radical beliefs can lead people to commit horrendous acts. The Mwana Lesa Movement grew within the space of a few months and within these few months they had left a trail of death. The combination of Tomo’s religious beliefs and the assistance provided by the traditional leaders in the areas where he operated was a dangerous alliance. Perhaps the story of Tomo Nyirenda would have been different if he had pursued only the conventional doctrines which he had received when he first became a Watch Tower evangelist and avoided violent doctrines of “purifying” the world. It is important to note that of all the influential Watch Tower evangelists of this era, only Tomo Nyirenda resorted to killing people. The sad reality is that most people will remember Tomo Nyirenda as the evangelist who turned into a murderer.
(By Zambian Footprints)