thumb|170px|Chief Mkwawa
Chief Mkwavinyika Munyigumba Mwamuyinga (c. 1855 – 19 July 1898), more commonly known as Chief Mkwawa or Sultan Mkwawa, was a Hehe tribal leader in German East Africa, based in Kalenga, Iringa region, who opposed the German colonization. The name "Mkwawa" is derived from Mukwava, a shortened form of Mukwavinyika, meaning "conqueror of many lands".
As a young child he was named Ndesalasi, meaning "troublemaker". As an adult he was named Mtwa Mkwava Mkwavinyika Mahinya Yilimwiganga Mkali Kuvagosi Kuvadala Tage Matenengo Manwiwage Seguniwagula Gumganga, meaning: "A leader who takes control of the forests, who is aggressive to men and polite to women, who is unpredictable and unbeatable, and who has the power that it is only death who can take him away."
thumb|Mkwawa's fort at Kalenga in 1894, illustrated by Von Schele
Life
thumb|170px|[[Edward Twining|Sir Edward Twining returning the skull]]
Mkwawa was born in Luhota and was the son and successor of Sultan Munyigumba, who died in 1879.
In July 1891, the German commissioner Emil von Zelewski led a battalion of soldiers (320 askaris with officers and porters) to suppress the Hehe. On 17 August, they were attacked by Mkwawa's 3,000-strong army at Lugalo, who, despite only being equipped with spears and a few guns, quickly overpowered the Germans and killed Zelewski.
On 28 October 1894, the Germans, under the new commissioner Colonel Freiherr Friedrich von Schele, attacked Mkwawa's fortress at Kalenga. Although they took the fort, Mkwawa managed to escape. Subsequently, Mkwawa conducted a campaign of guerrilla warfare, harassing the Germans until 1898 when, on 19 July, he was surrounded and shot himself to avoid capture at the site of the Mlambalasi Rock Shelter. Mkwawa's body was buried a few meters away from the rockshelter.