Performed by Tute Chigamba
I dreamed of a man who was very tall. How could I respond? That is when I composed a song that is similar to “Tinovatenda,” called “Chaminuka.” Because Chaminuka is the person I saw in my dream, and he instructed me. He said, “You shall rule, you shall exult, you shall forget, you shall suffer.” He said, “Those are the things I am leaving you. You shall see them.” So now, we are seeing those very things. Yes, in our jubilation, we didn’t know where to begin.
We were told the same thing by the spirit medium VaMutumwa, who said, “You became exuberant. You weren’t able to figure out where to begin. In rejoicing, you exulted. Now, you didn’t figure out where to begin. You should have begun with a black calf, when it was still very young, that is what should have been offered to Ambuya Nehanda. Then people could butcher other cattle, but first a black calf should have been offered to Ambuya Nehanda. Then Ambuya Nehanda would have known that all of her grandchildren had returned from the war. And that all of those bones had finally been returned. She had concluded her war. So those elders of this country, those of you calling yourselves our fathers, you did not do this. You are the ones who were supposed to do it. The President can not do that, because he is your child, who was at war. He was the one leading those children. So he cannot thank himself; rather the elders who remain in this country are the ones to thank the President.”
Even when we had just started celebrating Independence, he said, “You should start with this.” So they didn’t; no one did it. He said, “As you are leaving this undone, we shall leave it up to our ancestors.” That is how this song came to me, “Chaminuka.” So it is a sacred song.