Bonga · Wild Cat
Bonga Chihwa is a Shona clan of the Bonga totem, the wild cat, and Chihwa is its chidawo. Its men are greeted as Chihwa, and its women as Bonga or Chihwa. The detembo also praises the clan as Sigauke, Mutambara, Garwe, Bumhi and Ngonyamu.
Maita Bonga Chihwa Maita Sigauke Bonga Chihwa
Mwaita Mutambara Mwaita WaGarwe Mutupo wetakagurirana Matikaha ngekuone tsimba
Kuona mumhu tinodedera Mwaita Bumhi Muera Imbwa Wanodya ichifamba
Chadonha pasi hawadyi Dehwe rehosi tusa vanthu Karimera mutete
Zvaitwa Ngonyamu
Your mutupo and its detembo as an image for WhatsApp, your status or a post, carrying the Kwaunobva mark.
The detembo thanks the clan as Bonga Chihwa and as Sigauke, Mutambara and WaGarwe, and closes on Ngonyamu. Duramazwi reChiShona defines bonga as a wild cat (katsi yemusango) taken as a totem by the people of Chihwa, and gives Chihwa as the chidawo of those who keep Bonga.
The poem praises the clan as Bumhi and as Muera Imbwa, the one who keeps away from the dog, and says that on seeing a person they tremble (kuona mumhu tinodedera). It describes their ways with food: they eat while on the move (wanodya ichifamba), and what has fallen to the ground they do not eat (chadonha pasi hawadyi).
Those who carry a totem do not eat its animal. Some families keep away from one part of it only, such as the heart, and the old belief holds that a person who breaks the rule loses their teeth.
The praise names are for every day, not only for ceremonies: a person is greeted by them, thanked with them, and a wife praises her husband with his.
Bonga Chihwa mutupo webonga, katsi yemusango. Varume vanokudzwa seChihwa, vakadzi seBonga naChihwa. Detembo ravo rinovatenda seSigauke, Mutambara, WaGarwe, Bumhi naNgonyamu. Rinoti vanodya vachifamba, uye chadonha pasi havachidyi.
The wild cat. Duramazwi reChiShona defines bonga as a wild cat (katsi yemusango) taken as a totem by the people of Chihwa. It is not the tortoise, which in Shona is kamba.
Chihwa is the chidawo of those who keep Bonga as their totem, as Duramazwi reChiShona gives it, and the name the clan's men are greeted by.
Men are greeted as Chihwa, and women as Bonga or Chihwa. The detembo also calls the clan Sigauke, Mutambara, WaGarwe, Bumhi, Muera Imbwa and Ngonyamu.
In Chimanimani, though families carrying it live all over Zimbabwe and beyond.
Traditionally, people of the same mutupo and chidawo do not marry: they are counted as one family. Between different Bonga clans some families allow it, often after a ceremony that cuts the kinship (kucheka ukama).
Pick your totem and clan once. The app greets you by your praise name after that.
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