Lawrence Warlord Chakaredza

Lawrence "Warlord" Chakaredza, a former radical student leader who now calls himself a spiritual chieftain, is leading a crusade to dig the grand colonialist out of his tomb in the Matopos Hills in the south of this country and restore the site as a shrine for indigenous religions.

"One morning very soon," promises Mr. Chakaredza, "the nation will wake up to find the site cleansed of the white man. And we will be auctioning pieces of Rhodes's grave like they did after the fall of the Berlin Wall”. As for the bones, Mr. Chakaredza says he wants to return them to Britain. Or, if London won't take them, throw them into the crocodile-infested Zambezi and let them drift out to sea. "One way or another, Rhodes must go back to where he came from," grins the 29-year-old activist. Mr. Chakaredza earned his nickname, "Warlord," from his militant oratory and skill at fomenting unrest at the University of Zimbabwe. After he was expelled for troublemaking, he made headlines in 1996 by threatening the Zimbabwe International Book Fair with "total sabotage" if it allowed a gay-and-lesbian publishing house to exhibit. He then founded Sangano Munhumutapa, a cultural pressure group, and in February, he changed his name to Chief Munhumutapa III, after a dynasty of kings who once ruled an empire here. "I am a paramount spiritual chief for all Zimbabweans, not a conventional chief," he says. "My authority extends throughout the whole country." Indeed, he does have supporters ranging from ethnic cultural revivalists to certain prominent black businessmen.

Mr. Chakaredza condemns Rhodes's choice of a burial site as "an act of cultural aggression." But in nearby Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, children, both black and white, study at the Rhodes Preparatory School. The "Hall of Chiefs" in the city's natural-history museum is dominated by Rhodes memorabilia. Very few locals are prepared to endorse any "desecration" of the tomb.