Mhara · impala
Mhara is a small antelope, and sources differ on its English name. A Shona dictionary describes it as a small, reddish wild animal that moves in herds, and a Shona-English word list gives gazelle. It is kept by the Mhara Chikonamombe clan, the Mbuya, greeted as Chikonamombe, Mashayamombe, Gusho and Dzangare, the children of Maromo.
The Mitupo 2025 collection prints a pair of poems for this clan. They agree on its names, Mbuya, Chikonamombe, Mashayamombe and Gusho, on Maromo, and on the Dzete people who came out of Renje. The first gives the animal one image, the mhara that leaps as if it flies and keeps from treading the ground when it runs, and greets the clan at Gombwe, Rare and Zvihota, the hill made of earth with not a stone on top.
The second is a poem of history. It greets the clan at Chivhu, says it never changed its totem, calls it one blood with Maromo of Chivhu and Hwedza, and follows it through Mhondoro and across the Mupfure to Chikomba, Rare and Mvuma, with some moving on to Sanyati, Chegutu and Gokwe. It closes by praising Mashayamombe's people as heroes who refused to pay tax or to lose their land, and who rose in the Chimurenga.
Mhara mutupo wevanhu vanoera mhara, mhuka diki yemusango yakatsvukuruka. VaMbuya vanokudzwa seChikonamombe, Mashayamombe naGusho, vana vaMaromo. Detembo rokutanga rinotaura nezveMhara inobhururuka, isingatsiki pasi kana yomhanya. Rechipiri rinorumbidza vaMashayamombe vakaramba kutera mutero vakatanga Chimurenga.
The sources do not settle its English name. A Shona dictionary describes the mhara as a small, reddish wild animal that moves in herds, and a Shona-English word list gives gazelle; earlier text on this site named it the impala in one place and the roan antelope in another. The first Chikonamombe poem speaks of the mhara that leaps as if it flies.
The second Chikonamombe poem praises Mashayamombe's people as heroes who refused to pay tax or to lose their land, and who rose in the Chimurenga. The sources used here say no more about him.
Mhara Chikonamombe.
Traditionally, people of the same mutupo and chidawo do not marry: they are counted as one family. Between different Mhara clans some families allow it, often after a ceremony that cuts the kinship (kucheka ukama).
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