KwaunobvaAbout Kwaunobva
About Kwaunobva
A Shona heritage reference: the language, the totems, the proverbs and the customs, published on the web and carried offline in the app.
What this is
Kwaunobva means where you come from. It began as an app for Shona speakers who wanted their own totem, a proverb's real meaning or a word's definition without a search engine guessing at it. This website publishes a large part of the same material so it can be read on any device and found by anyone looking.
Eleven collections sit behind it: Duramazwi, the dictionary; Tsumo, proverbs with their meanings; Nyaudzosingwi, the ideophones; Mitupo, the totems with their clans and praise poems; Madimikira, the idioms; Ruzivo, customs and ceremonies; Zvirahwe, riddles; Ukama, kinship terms; Mutauro, grammar notes; Ngano, folktales; and Zviera, taboos.
Shona first
Every record is written in Shona and glossed in English, not the other way round. A proverb keeps its Shona explanation as well as an English one, a praise poem is printed as verse, and a riddle holds its answer behind a tap the way a chirahwe is meant to be asked.
Where the material comes from
Entries are compiled from published Shona dictionaries, printed collections and cultural records. Every one of those works is credited by name below. Where a source is under copyright, the material here is either short factual word data or prose written afresh from a facts outline, never a reproduction. If you hold rights in material here and want it handled differently, write to us and we will act on it.
Who makes it
Kwaunobva is built by Invalcre, which also makes Danho for ZIMSEC past papers, Provisional for the Zimbabwe licence test, and Bhaibheri for the Shona Bible.
Credits
Every work the entries on this site were compiled from, in the order they entered the collection.
- Kwaunobva (kwaunobva.com) cultural data (Kwaunobva)
- English-Shona dictionary word list
- Madimikira (Shona idioms)
- VaMudzenda, Ngano Dzepasichigare
- Zviera neUmiliro (Shona taboos and word relations)
- Nyaudzosingwi (Shona ideophones)
- mutato_mulilo, Tsumo DzeChiShona: Shona Proverbs Database
- Tsumo dzeChiShona (proverb collection)
- Shona Notes (mipanda 1-21)
- ChiShona Module, Vol. 1 (Government of Zimbabwe)
- Ukama (Shona kinship terms)
- J. M. Gombe, Tsika DzaVaShona
- M. F. C. Bourdillon, The Shona Peoples: An Ethnography of the Contemporary Shona, With Special Reference to Their Religion
- Richard Chashamba (compiler), The Roora Process
- Mhuka Nevana Vadzo (Animals and Their Young)
- Zvirahwe Nemhinduro (Shona riddles and answers)
- 30 Shona Riddles (Zvirahwe) With Answers (ZimbOriginal)
- Duramazwi reChiShona (monolingual Shona dictionary)
- Shona-English word list (bundled sqlite)
- Mitupo reference (bundled sqlite)
- Aquilina Mawadza, Shona-English / English-Shona (ChiShona) Dictionary and Phrasebook, 2000 (Hippocrene Books)
Everything here, offline, in your pocket.
The full dictionary, every proverb, all sixty totems and the riddles. No data, no ads, no account.
