Hwesa · Mouse
Hwesa Musoni is a Shona clan of the Hwesa totem, the mouse (mbeva), which its detembo greets by name. Its men are greeted as Musoni and Hwesa, and its women as MaMbeva. The poem also calls the clan Vaerambeva, those who keep the mouse as their totem, and VaRemba and VaMwenye.
Maita mbeva, Musoni, Warukore,
Munhuwakure, Zungunde, Mutswandiani,
Akagara ngozi, VaRemba, Vauyi,
Nyamunaka, VaMwenye, Vasingasone neshinda nhema,
Vaerambeva, Vakashoshonora shono mumwena, Aiwa zvaitwa Musoni.
Your mutupo and its detembo as an image for WhatsApp, your status or a post, carrying the Kwaunobva mark.
The Musoni detembo opens 'Maita mbeva', thanking the clan as the mouse, and later calls them Vaerambeva, those who keep the mouse as their totem. It greets them as Musoni, Warukore, Munhuwakure, Zungunde, Mutswandiani, Vauyi and Nyamunaka, and as VaRemba and VaMwenye.
Musoni means one who sews, and the poem keeps to that picture: its people are those who do not sew with black thread (vasingasone neshinda nhema). The collection that prints the poem heads it 'Musoni Shinda', shinda being thread.
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.
Hwesa Musoni mutupo wembeva. Varume vanokudzwa seMusoni naHwesa, vakadzi seMaMbeva. Detembo ravo rinotanga richiti 'Maita mbeva', uye rinovadaidza kuti Vaerambeva, VaRemba naVaMwenye. Rinoti havasoni neshinda nhema.
The mouse (mbeva). The Musoni detembo greets the clan as mbeva, and the Wikipedia article on the Shona lists Mbeva, Hwesa and Katerere as names of the mouse totem.
Their detembo calls them the people who do not sew with black thread. That is what the poem says; none of the sources used here gives the reason.
Men are greeted as Musoni and Hwesa, and women as MaMbeva. The detembo also calls the clan Warukore, Munhuwakure, Zungunde, Vaerambeva, VaRemba and VaMwenye.
In Buhera, Nyanga and Hwedza, 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 Hwesa 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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