IN the last episode of this series exploring the misuse of ethnicity to divide Africans, we stated that we have a wide ethnic common denominator that must form the basis of our national unity.
In this article, we further identify and highlight more examples of our common ancestry and ethnic origins.
We gave the VaHera of the Mhofu totem as an example of family members who have settled in different parts of the country and been labelled as separate ‘tribes’.
I give the above examples to show that closely related people can be, and have been, separated through colonially created ‘tribes’ that have no basis in reality.
The ultimate aim is to ‘divide and rule’.
Small-minded village politicians seeking cheap popularity often exploit these erroneous ethnic identities.
They will mobilise locals against a successful businessperson perceived to be from another province or district who is then conveniently labelled as belonging to a different ‘tribe’ or region.
One interesting example involved a Government official who was allocated a piece of land under the Land Reform Programme.
When Jackson Gumbo (real surname but not first name) went to establish his farming operations, locals jeered at him saying: “Go back kwenyu kuMasvingo!
“Kuno ndokwedu kumaKorekore (Mashonaland West).”
Many people of the Gumbo totem, also known as Madyirapazhe, reside in Gutu District under Chief Gutu of the Gumbo totem.
The main clan, however, are resident in Shamva and Goromonzi districts, less than 50km from Harare.
When Gumbo told me about the hostility from his neighbours which seemed to be based on a perception that he belonged to a different ‘tribe’ or ethnic group, I advised him that those villagers had no basis for their claims.
In the first place, part of the Gumbo clan in Masvingo Province, labelled as belonging to the Karanga tribe have their main totemic branch in Musana Communal Lands, Shamva District.
Shamva, by all counts, is located on the high veld, ‘pauzuru’, ‘Zezuruland’, if we can use another misnomer.
So the Gumbo clan of Musana, who stretch across to Chief Chikwaka’s area in Goromonzi, are ‘Zezurus’.
Chief Gutu, the younger brother of Musana, who settled in Masvingo, belongs to a different tribe, ‘Karanga’, or does he?
Chief Gutu is installed by his elder, Chief Musana.
They belong to the same clan; they belong to the same, not different, tribes despite living in different parts of the country.
That says the tribal identities used by our colonisers and adopted by our independence Government are false and deliberately misleading!
Gumbo did not know of the Gumbo link between Gutu (erstwhile ‘Karanga’), where he hailed from and Musana, (erstwhile ‘Zezuru’), his kith and kin.
I told him he is neither Karanga nor Zezuru; he is a Madyirapazhe.
If he really had to ‘go home’, he should just travel 50km from Harare to Musana in Shamva and he would be home among his Madyirapazhe kinsmen.
That would save him the cost of a trip all the way to Masvingo.
Another example relates to members of the Gushungo clan. The Gushungos are traditionally known to hail from Zvimba Communal Lands, an area that the white colonialists and their missionary allies designated as the land of the ‘Zezuru tribe’. But over in Masvingo we find more Gushungos who migrated from Zvimba.
Chief Serima is Gushungo.
He and his people speak Shona with a distinct accent typical of people resident in the Masvingo region.
The colonial Government called the dialect Karanga and the people Karanga tribe.
Can Chief Serima be separated from his kinsmen of Zvimba? Is he now belonging to a different ‘Karanga’ tribe by virtue of geographical location?
That cannot be; in his veins flows the same blood as that of his Zvimba cousins.
The ethnic separation of essentially two brothers living in different areas has no basis in fact.
And yet it is the basis for creating unwarranted so-called tribal groupings by our erstwhile colonisers.
The fake tribal groupings have been used to fan internecine wars between closely related people who have been made to believe that they are different even where their languages have many similarities.
The weakened communities are then unable to defend their interests as ‘divide and rule’ tactics are used to destabilise them.
In Zimbabwe, the Constitution drafters decided to recognise or create several languages among the Shona groups.
While this was supposed to cater for the rights of diverse people, the truth is that it is a tool for fragmenting communities and significantly weakening the national unity so important for promoting national development.
The English speak many versions of their national language depending on geographical location on the island.
Cockney, one of many dialects of English almost sounds like a different language altogether.
But the English have retained their Standard English as the official language underpinning national cohesion.
In Zimbabwe, we could have done the same; retain and enrich Standard Shona, while encouraging children to learn their local mother tongue versions.
One suspects an underhand move by the constitutional writers to smuggle in a destabilising element such as separate languages for different communities, which do not unite but ultimately separate people.
While different ethnic groups may have their own separate languages, speaking a different language does not in itself create a separate ethnic identity.
Unfortunately lack of knowledge has left many believing, albeit falsely, that by speaking different dialects of the same language (Shona, for example), they belong to different ethnic groups.
In Zimbabwe, Korekore, Zezuru, Karanga and Manyika define geographical areas within Zimbabwe.
There is no basis for using them to create tribes!
That practice is a diabolical attempt to divide the people through false ethnicities.
Unfortunately, some unscrupulous politicians have attempted to build their political fortunes by fanning ‘tribal’ animosities.
The British developed and used ethnic divisions as a strategy to control and rule colonial peoples.
The independent Africans should reject both the tribal identities and the geographical provinces (Manicaland, Mashonaland, Matabeleland in Zimbabwe) all meant to consolidate and perpetuate divisions among the people.
We are most grateful that the Great Murenga Sororenzou, our ancestral great grandfather and the other great ancestral spirits (Kaguvi, Nehanda, Mukwati, Chaminuka and others), rubbished these fake divisions and united the black population, bringing the Ndebele and Shona together to fight a common enemy, the British invaders, as a united family in both the First and Second Chimurenga.
It is sad that some small-minded local politicians, seeking to mobilise political support for their narrow sectarian interests, play up the fake ’tribal’ card.
If you mobilise the so-called Korekores or Manyikas or Zezurus around yourself, and marginalise the populations in the other regions, how do you hope to win the majority vote to enable you to rule the country?
Our Constitution requires that all people be treated equally. We need unity in diversity.
Those who aspire to national leadership must seek the mandate of all citizens.
This will not be served by masquerading as a champion of Karanga, Zezuru or Ndebele tribal or ethnic groups.
People who spend time plotting against each other on the basis of some perceived ethnic differences do so to the detriment of the collective national interest and are saboteurs.
Their crime amounts to treason because they work to destroy the collective integrity of the state.
All citizens must strive to unite in the struggle for national development because unity is our strength!