Humba · Pig
Humba Nyanguru is a Shona clan of the Humba totem, the wild pig, which its detembo also calls Nguruve. Its men are greeted as Humba and Makombe, and its women as Humba or VaHonde. The detembo also praises the clan as Chiunga, Chomera, Mutakurwa, Nyanguru and Chitambanamatope, the child of Matope.
Maita Chiunga, Maita Humba, Mwana waMakombe, Chomera,
Maita Nguruve, Mutakurwa. Zvaitwa tateguru wangu Makombe, Maita waDukudza, ari Jekacheka.
Maita Chirema, Chirimanemuromo, Mapadza aripo,
Asi muchiapa varanda. Maita vari Barwe, Gwindingwi guru, Vanodzira imba nematope,
Muno muromo unenge gombe rekucheresa mvura. Zvaitwa Nyanguru, Makapedza rudzi rwavamwe nenyuchi,
Maita vakarota, Zvaonekwa Rima, Tatenda vaChevakaranga naChibonoyo.
Zvaitwa waGosa, Mwana waZunzangara. Maita variKaromokapuwe.
Tinotenda variMatitima. Kuna Nyadekese, kuna Zambezi. Aiwa zvaitwa mwana waMatope.
Zvaonekwa Nyanguru. Zvaonekwa Humba. Nguruve, Chitambanamatope.
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 Chiunga and Humba, as Nguruve and Mutakurwa, and calls it the child of Makombe, 'my ancestor Makombe' (tateguru wangu Makombe). It greets the clan at Barwe and the great Gwindingwi, at Karomokapuwe and Matitima, and at Nyadekese and the Zambezi, and names Dukudza at Jekacheka, Chevakaranga and Chibonoyo, and Zunzangara.
It praises the clan as Chirema and Chirimanemuromo, the one who ploughs with its mouth: the hoes are there, but they are given to the servants (mapadza aripo, asi muchiapa varanda). It speaks of those who plaster the house with mud, remembers that the clan once destroyed another people with bees (makapedza rudzi rwavamwe nenyuchi), and closes on Nyanguru, Humba and Chitambanamatope, the child of Matope.
The poem also thanks the clan as waGosa. Duramazwi reChiShona gives Gosa as a name of seniority in the chief's house among the Nguruve people.
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.
Humba Nyanguru mutupo wehumba, inguruve yomusango. Varume vanokudzwa seHumba naMakombe, vakadzi seHumba naVaHonde. Detembo ravo rinovadaidza kuti vana vaMakombe, Chiunga, Mutakurwa naChomera. Rinovakwazisa vari Barwe, Nyadekese nekuZambezi. Rinopera richiti Nyanguru, Humba, Nguruve, Chitambanamatope.
These facts concern the Makombe title and the Barwe, not this clan alone. The detembo calls the clan the children of Makombe and greets it at Barwe. Bourdillon's ethnography of the Shona records Makombe as the title held by the rulers of the Barwe state, which lay across the trade routes running inland from Sena. The Portuguese defeated the Barwe in 1646 and afterwards treated the Makombe as a subject ruler, but the Barwe kept their independence, went to war against Portuguese rule in the late nineteenth century and were finally defeated only in 1917. The Barwe live mostly in Mozambique, with a small group on Zimbabwe's eastern border.
Mitupo: A Collection of Some of Zimbabwe's Totems, p. 24; The Shona Peoples: An Ethnography of the Contemporary Shona, With Special Reference to Their Religion, p. 33; The Shona Peoples: An Ethnography of the Contemporary Shona, With Special Reference to Their Religion, p. 34; The Shona Peoples: An Ethnography of the Contemporary Shona, With Special Reference to Their Religion, p. 41
The wild pig. A study note on totems glosses humba as the wild pig or warthog, and Duramazwi reChiShona defines it as the pig of the wild (nguruve yomusango). The Nyanguru detembo calls the clan both Humba and Nguruve.
The poem calls Makombe the clan's ancestor (tateguru wangu Makombe) and the clan the child of Makombe, and greets it at Barwe. Bourdillon's ethnography records Makombe as the title of the rulers of the Barwe state.
Men are greeted as Humba and Makombe, and women as Humba or VaHonde. The detembo also calls the clan Chiunga, Nguruve, Chomera, Mutakurwa, Chirema, Chirimanemuromo, Nyanguru, waGosa and Chitambanamatope.
In Nyanga, 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 Humba 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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