Mai Chaza

Mai Chaza (1914 – 25 December 1960) was a Zimbabwean church leader and prophetess who broke away from the Methodist Church in the 1950s to found her own faith-healing movement, Guta raJehovah (City of God), which was also known as the "Mai Chaza Church". Born Theresa Nyamushanya, she was often referred to by her thousands of followers as Matenga ("The Heavens"). Her church established a large commune where she lived until her death. Although it was influential for a time, since her death her church has shrunk in numbers, but continues to attract sick people looking for spiritual healing.

The rapid growth of her church necessitated a move first to Mount Dangare in the Zimunya Communal Lands near Umtali (now Mutare, in eastern Zimbabwe) in 1956, and subsequently to Zvimba District north-west of Harare, in 1960. It was at Zvimba that Mai Chaza died on 25 December 1960. According to legend, she disappeared from her coffin as it was being lowered into the grave, thus fulfilling her statement that she would "not have a grave here on earth".

In 1954, Mai Chaza relocated to Kandava's village within the Seke Reserve in Mashonaland, about 100 miles (160 km) south-east of Harare. She quickly attracted numerous followers; by the end of 1954, the village, built on a site measuring only one acre, had grown to 615 domiciles with around 2,500 inhabitants. They called it the Guta raJehovah or City of God. In her new identity as a prophetess, the self-proclaimed Mutumwa ("Messenger [of God]" or "Angel"), Mai Chaza received thousands of supplicants wishing to find cures for their medical conditions. She was hailed by her followers as Mai Muponesi ("Mother Saviour), Matenga ("Heavens"), Gwayana ("Lamb"), or as an African reappearance of Christ. Satellite "Cities of Jehovah" with healing centres were established in several locations around Rhodesia, and also in neighbouring Bechuanaland (now Botswana). She was said to have summoned the spirits of the 19th century Ndebele king Lobengula, the historical spirit medium Chaminuka and the founder of Rhodesia, Cecil Rhodes, and to have released them from purgatory and reconciled them.

Within a few years of the Guta raJehovah being founded, satellite "Cities of Jehovah" with healing centres were established in several locations around Rhodesia. A 1954 visitor to the Guta described the scene:

Mai Chaza's style of worship mixed Methodism with African traditional healing. Her followers numbered at least 60,000 people by the end of the 1950s and were drawn largely from the ranks of the poor and uneducated. They adopted a distinctive uniform, worn by both men and women, of khaki tunics and shorts with red belts. They were inducted into the Guta by Mai Chaza personally. There was no ceremony of baptism; instead, they had to confess their sins and be touched on the head by Mai Chaza.

Mai Chaza was born in 1914 to the Nyamushanya family and married Chiduza Chaza of Wedza, by whom she had six children. A devout Methodist, she was originally active within the ruwadzano, the Methodist Church's prayer groups in Zimbabwe. In 1948 she was driven from her home in the mining town of Concession after being accused of causing the death of a sister-in-law through witchcraft. She moved to the township of Highfield in Salisbury (now Harare), where she was given shelter by another Methodist family. She became ill around 1953–54 and was thought to be have become deranged before falling into a coma. Her husband divorced her and returned her to her family.