Case file · Sacred site
The Mwari oracle and the 1896 rising
In 1896 Ndebele and Shona rose against the British South Africa Company, encouraged, settlers believed, by the oracle of Mwari speaking from caves in the Matobo Hills, whom they called the Mlimo.
1896 CE · -20.60, 28.50 · status: disputed
The account
In June 1896 the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham said he had shot the Mlimo in a cave in the Matobo. Mwari shrines at Matonjeni in the hills are still consulted for rain.
The sceptical view
Historians doubt that the man killed was the oracle's voice at all; a colonial inquiry questioned whether he was even involved. Position approximate.