Mukuruvambwa · sheep
Mukuruvambwa is a praise name, not an animal: it is how the Gwai poem, printed in the Mitupo 2025 collection as Gwai Gumbi, thanks its clan, and that poem praises the hwai, the sheep. It is carried by the Mukuruvambwa Gwai clan, greeted as Gwai, Gumbi, Chuma and Gora, the children of Mbarure.
The poem kept here is the Gwai poem. Its opening sets out the clan's standing: Moyo ndizvo, wealth beyond counting, and a chieftaincy taken from it by Mabvakure. It greets the clan at Goromonzi, Mhondoro and Mashayamombe's, calls it the children of Mbarure, Chigondo, Nyamhunga and Gora, and closes on the owners of the land, Sahayi and Changamire.
Mukuruvambwa chidao, kwete zita remhuka. Idetembo reGwai rinorumbidza hwai. Vanorumbidzwa seGwai, Gumbi, Chuma naGora, vana vaMbarure. Detembo rinoti umambo hwavo hwakatorwa naMabvakure.
The sources point different ways. The poem of the Mukuruvambwa Gwai clan praises the hwai, the sheep. A Shona dictionary gives the tortoise as the animal of Gwai, and gives Gumbi, one of this clan's names, as a praise name of the Shumba (lion) people of Mukuruwambwa. Lists that give Mukuruvambwa as the dog are not borne out by any source here.
Yes. The Mitupo 2025 collection prints one poem for them, headed Gwai Gumbi, which thanks the clan as Gwai and as Mukuruvambwa.
Mukuruvambwa Gwai.
Traditionally, people of the same mutupo and chidawo do not marry: they are counted as one family. Between different Mukuruvambwa 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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