Beta · flying termite
Beta is the totem of the flying termite, ishwa. A Shona dictionary calls Beta the totem of people who keep away from ishwa, and a study note on Shona totems lists beta, termites, among the totem animals. It is kept by the Beta Ishwa and Beta Wabata clans, whose poems greet their people as Dhliwayo.
The Ishwa poem celebrates the flying termites themselves. It watches them climb out of the hole in the anthill, ringed by the other termites, and take to the air when darkness falls; it calls flying their song and their home a sweetness to rival honey, and thanks them for bringing the rain of Matonjeni. It greets the clan at Chimanimani, says it came from Mbire, and tells how it passed beyond Mutasa's country into Makoni's.
Wabata is shorter and mostly a string of praise names: Dhliwayo, Rufura, Mamberere, Mauruka, Chimapwere, Mutiwakopa, Majeketera, Manjuru, Mazivanguva, Matsindira and Madzivire. It too comes back to the termite, likening a girl to one, eaten wings and all. Dhliwayo is the name that joins the Beta poems.
Beta mutupo wevanhu vanoera ishwa. Detembo reBeta Ishwa rinorumbidza ishwa dzichibuda mumwena wechuru kwaita rima, richiti dzakaunza mvura yeMatonjeni. Detembo reBeta Wabata rinodudza mazita akawanda ekurumbidza, akaita saDhliwayo, Rufura naMamberere. Madzinza aya anokudzwa seDhliwayo.
The flying termite, ishwa. A Shona dictionary calls Beta the totem of people who keep away from ishwa, the winged termites that come out of the anthill after rain, and a study note on totems lists beta as termites.
Yes. The Beta Ishwa and Beta Wabata poems greet their people as Dhliwayo, and men of these clans are greeted by it. Women are greeted as MaDhliwayo.
Beta Ishwa, Beta Wabata.
Traditionally, people of the same mutupo and chidawo do not marry: they are counted as one family. Between different Beta clans some families allow it, often after a ceremony that cuts the kinship (kucheka ukama).
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