Pongo Memorial (Matabele uprising, or First Umvukele, 1896).
The obelisk-shaped monument made of pink sandstone commemorates those civilian prospectors, traders and farmers (32 men, 4 women and nine children; 45 in all) who were killed in the area during the 1896 Matabele rebellion. Easy access to the historical site off the main highway.
How to get here:
From Bulawayo: take the A5 towards Gweru, pass Shangani, 0.9 KM before crossing the Shangani River bridge turn right onto the old single tar road leading down to the low-level bridge. The Pongo Memorial is on the left about 200 metres from the tar road.
From the Zimbabwe Military museum in Gweru take the A5 towards Bulawayo, 56 KM pass the Shangani River bridge, 56.9 KM turn left at the top of the rise onto the old single tar road leading down to the low-level bridge, 57.1 KM Pongo Memorial is on the left about 200 metres from the tar road.
The Memorial is situated to the west of the Shangani River Bridge and it's a mystery why it is called the Pongo Memorial, as the Pongo River is sited about 15 kilometres to the west. However, a number of the victims were killed at the Pongo store on the river, and this probably accounts for the name. The Memorial is certainly neglected and overgrown and has to be searched for before it is found. This is part of the graphic account in FC Selous' Sunshine and Storm describing the scene when Earl Grey, who had replaced Dr Jameson as the Administrator of the BSA Company, arrived at the Pongo store.
"On reaching the Pongo store some twelve miles from the Tchangani (Shangani) river, Grey had found all the outhouses just burnt. The store itself seemed to have been looted but was not at this time burnt down. No trace of the owners could be found, but the ground was thickly covered with the naked footprints of natives, and, more ominous still, a large pool of blood was seen in the road in front of the store. We now know that at this time the recently-murdered corpses of three white men were lying, two of them close to the store, and the third on the top of a rise a short distance away. I was present some six weeks later when the bodies were discovered and buried. The unfortunate men must have been suddenly attacked with knobkerries and axes, as their skulls had all been smashed in. In this instance, the clothes were not removed from the bodies ".