Nungu · porcupine
Nungu is the porcupine, and the totem also goes by Ngara: a Shona dictionary gives Ngara as the totem of those who keep away from the nungu. It is kept by the Nungu Hlatiwayo clan, praised as Matikiti, Chikandamuseye, Dekete, Mafuyateya, Gondemukande, Maposa and Gandirwana.
The Hlatywayo Nungu poem, as the Mitupo 2025 collection spells it, is a prayer of thanks as much as a praise. It runs through the clan's names, greets it at Serere Burauta and Dimire, and ends by asking the forefather not to forget his people but to keep on giving to them, for that is why they would rather die here.
The collection prints it beside a second Ngara poem, Ngara Wamambo, which this site keeps as Zimuto Nungu. They share Maposa and the Chikanda names (Chikandamuseye in one, Chikandamina in the other). A Shona dictionary explains several Ngara praise names: Mushayachiraswa, because nothing of the porcupine is thrown away, quills, hide and meat alike, and Chirasamihwa, for the quills it sheds when it is attacked.
Nungu mutupo wevanhu vanoera nungu, unonziwo Ngara. Detembo reHlatywayo rinovarumbidza seMatikiti, Chikandamuseye, Dekete naMaposa. Rinopedzisa richikumbira kuti vasakanganwe vana vavo, varambe vachivapa. Duramazwi rinoti vanonzi Mushayachiraswa nokuti panungu hapana chinoraswa.
Yes. A Shona dictionary gives Ngara as the totem of those who keep away from the nungu, the porcupine, and the Mitupo 2025 collection prints the Hlatywayo Nungu and Ngara Wamambo poems in one section.
A Shona dictionary explains it as the Ngara's pride that nothing of their porcupine is thrown away: its quills, its hide and its meat are all used. The Ngara Wamambo poem says the same.
Nungu Hlatiwayo.
Traditionally, people of the same mutupo and chidawo do not marry: they are counted as one family. Between different Nungu 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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