The following is a brief interview with the visiting director of the Zimbabwe National Museum And Monuments, Dr Godfrey Mahachi who has flown into London over the remains of the fallen First Chimurenga heroes.

The initiative to repatriate the fallen heroes’ bones was launched during the Robert Mugabe days when the skulls were first identified and then packed into boxes.

Around that time, Govt Spokesman Nick Mangwana was blocked by a combination of London staff and traditional leaders from touching the remains on the basis that he is not a royal. He was at the time trying to carry the remains back to Harare when traditional leaders ordered him not to tamper with the royal skulls, on the basis that he is “a descendant of peasants.”

Sources tell ZimEye that the British museums have 13 skulls of Zimbabwe’s fallen heroes. Requests by this news network for pictures of the skulls had been rejected at the time of writing as the museum has in recent years declassified the items from their shelves so they can be handed back to the Zimbabwe govt.

Once in Zimbabwe, the skulls are likely going to be turned into iconic assets for the recently built continental museum of African Liberation which is near the Heroes Acre in the capital, Harare.

ZimEye caught up with Dr Godfrey Mahachi at the country’s embassy in London where he responded to the following questions.

1. How many trips have you done to UK so far, and what’s the guarantee that this time you will go home with Nehanda and others’ bones?

2. Why is there little success or low initiative to date; is it because Nehanda is from Mashonaland and the current govt is led by Karangas?

3. For years running, we hear the bones are there. But where are the pictures?

4. What significance is this this matter to the national good?

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