HomeOld_PostsTracing the Shona back to Great Lakes: Part Six

Tracing the Shona back to Great Lakes: Part Six

Published on

IN the last article we identified the Shona as belonging to three primary totem groups, Shava, Soko and Moyo.
We pointed out that the many other totems that exist among the Shona today are most likely secondary derivatives.
As the families grew in number, some assumed new totems/identities to facilitate ‘cheka ukama’ or inter-marriages.
Others changed totems when they conquered new territories or sought to hide their identities for security reasons.
Acquiring a new totem also bestowed authority and a separate identity from the original group.
The Shava, who are descendants of Mushavatu, one of Murenga’s sons, take their totem as the ‘eland’, the largest animal in the antelope family.
The eland is called mhofu or nhuka (Shona) or ntuka (Chewa).
We have discussed how the eland is considered a sacred animal (mhuka inoera) among not only the Shona of Zimbabwe, but other related communities in east, central and southern Africa.
Evidence from oral traditions shows that the mhofu totem is associated with the original family group that later grew to be the present day Shona and their relatives.
It is not by coincidence that ‘museyamwa’ the ‘chidao’ of the ‘mhofu’ clan is used in street language to refer to black Zimbabweans.
People will say ‘zvinhu zvaana museyamwa’ meaning things related to local Africans.
Legend has it that Mambiri, the ancestor of the vaMbire, whose descendants are the present-day Shona and their relatives such as the Kalanga and the Venda, had three wives.
He loved the first (vaHosi) and the third wife (mainini vechipiri) and built each a beautiful village (musha).
These are the famous two (mbiri) villages that earned our great ancestor the name Mambiri.
These villages were built in Guruuswa or Tanganyika in present-day Tanzania. The second wife, we understand, lived more like a servant and her residence was never elevated to a full separate village.
When the vaMbire, inspired by the spirits of their ancestors, decided to migrate south to present day Zimbabwe, they all belonged to one family which identified with the ‘eland’, mhofu/nhuka, an animal that had deep religious significance in their lives.
They segregated into three groups: one group retained the original eland totem. These were the descendants of Mushavatu (Mushavanhu), and called themselves Shava.
Today in Zimbabwe they are called ‘vaHera’, with Buhera as their centre of recent diversity.
The second group assumed the Soko totem.
Legend has it that these were the descendants of Mambiri’s first born son who had changed his totem to Soko as a way of appeasing the ancestral spirits for the abomination of impregnating his own half-sister, Mambiri’s daughter from his third and youngest wife.
The whole group then decided that one of them be the arbiter, the one to settle disputes that might arise.
They chose the son born by the less-favoured second wife of Mambiri to become the arbiter or in short, the ruler or chief.
The one chosen to be chief was to look after the interests of all members of the group and rule without fear or favour.
He was expected to have a big open heart for everybody, not to favour any one group or individual.
He assumed the ‘totem’ ‘Moyo’.
The Moyo group were the rulers.
They ruled over the whole nation.
These were the Mwenemutapas and the Mambos that ruled the empire.
They had to have a good heart (Moyo) to accept and look after everybody else. All their descendants have assumed the totem ‘moyo’.
The Moyos had to have an animal as a symbol for the totem group.
The cow, mombe, was chosen to represent the ‘Moyo’ mutupo as it best represents the role to be played by the ruler or chief.
Hence members of the ‘Moyo’ totem are called ‘chirandu’ because cattle are used to settle all disputes (mirandu) just as money is used in modern societies. Cattle provide meat, milk, hides, manure and can be sold to get money which can also be used to settle debts or ‘mirandu/mhosva’.
To emphasise that the chief had to accept everybody, the ‘Moyo’ clan was also called ‘Bvumavaranda’ meaning one who accepts the people he rules over. ‘Dhewa’ and ‘Dlembeu’ are other names attached to the ‘Moyo’ mutupo.
The ‘Mhofu or Shava’ were the main branch of this ancestral group of the Shona.
They assumed responsibility for feeding the nation.
They were the mother or ‘Amai’ of the whole group.
They were the tillers of the land, responsible for agricultural production and food security.
It was them who went to the holy shrines presided over by their brothers the Soko, to pray to ‘Mwari/uMlimo’ for the rains so that good harvests could obtained.

7 COMMENTS

  1. I must thank the writers on the Shava article. I was born and live in Cape Town. My father Hakunavanu (Joseph) and his younger brother Jairos (Phoenix) came from Chivi district. I am delighted to know how important the Shava clan was and what a big role they played in the history of Zimbabwe. It would appear from the article that they also performed a priestly function. This is important because I believe that my relatives and ancestors were indeed men of the Hebrew faith (Levites) who travelled from Sudan (also known as Kush in the Bible) to finally settle in Zimbabwe. Their kinsmen, the Lemba, has been identified through DNA testing as descendants of Aaron the High Priest of ancient Israel.

  2. THIS IS TRUE ACCORDING TO TRIED AND TESTED RESEARCH THE MHOFUS ARE THE REAL MOTHER ROOT OF ALL MASHONAS MHPFU MUST BE RESPECTED ALL OTHER KINGS WHO ARE RULING IN ZIM ARE FAKE MHOFUS ARE THE REAL KINGS

Leave a Reply to tino Cancel reply

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest articles

Kariba Municipality commits to President’s service delivery blueprint

By Kundai Marunya IT is rare to find opposition-controlled urban councils throwing their weight on...

The resurgence of Theileriosis in 2024 

THE issues of global changes, climate change and tick-borne diseases cannot be ignored, given...

Britain haunted by its hostile policy on Zimbabwe

TWO critical lessons drawn from the recent debate on Zimbabwe in the British House...

The contentious issue of race

 By Nthungo YaAfrika AS much as Africans would want to have closure to many of...

More like this

Kariba Municipality commits to President’s service delivery blueprint

By Kundai Marunya IT is rare to find opposition-controlled urban councils throwing their weight on...

The resurgence of Theileriosis in 2024 

THE issues of global changes, climate change and tick-borne diseases cannot be ignored, given...

Britain haunted by its hostile policy on Zimbabwe

TWO critical lessons drawn from the recent debate on Zimbabwe in the British House...

Discover more from Celebrating Being Zimbabwean

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading