Nzou · Elephant
Nzou Mbano Matemavi is a Shona clan of the Nzou totem, the elephant. Its men are greeted as Mbano and Matemavi, and the detembo also calls the clan Makunda, Musiyiwa, Mwoyowevhu, Madzorera and Musenda; its women are greeted as Mbano or Matemavi.
Evo Nzou, Makunda, Maita Mbano, evo Musiyiwa, Mwoyowevhu, zvaitwa Madzorera.
Maita zvenyu vomuGoromonzi, vokwaChikwaka. Zvaitwa vemvuto chena, vomuDzimwe. Maita Matemavi, Mbano yangu yiyi,
Chiuya chinenge mukaka, Chinodyiwa navasina meno, Mhuka isina mutumbi,
Chiuya chavachafema. Maita vari pamhiri paNhora, Vari Dzimwe muGoromonzi,
VokwaChikwaka, Vachivakanamabwe, Kuvaka nomuti unosakara Kana kudyiwa nomuchenje.
Maita zvenyu vari Mutiwaora. Waita waCheza naBenhura, Zvaitwa maKorekore, VaChipahomwoyo.
Aiwa tatenda Musenda, Zvaitwa, zvaonekwa vari Dzimwe.
Your mutupo and its detembo as an image for WhatsApp, your status or a post, carrying the Kwaunobva mark.
The Mbano detembo opens on Nzou and greets the clan as Makunda, Mbano, Musiyiwa, Mwoyowevhu and Madzorera. It names them the people of Chikwaka and of Dzimwe in Goromonzi, those across the Nhora and those at Mutiwaora, and it thanks them as maKorekore, the Korekore, and as VaChipahomwoyo and Musenda. It also names Cheza and Benhura.
It praises the clan as builders in stone (vachivakanamabwe), because a building of wood rots or is eaten by termites (muchenje). It also speaks of something like milk that even the toothless can eat, and of an animal without a body, an image the Moyo Sinyoro poem shares in part.
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.
Nzou Mbano Matemavi mutupo wenzou. Varume nevakadzi vanokudzwa seMbano naMatemavi. Detembo ravo rinovakwazisa vari Dzimwe muGoromonzi nokwaChikwaka, richivati maKorekore. Rinoti vanovaka namabwe, nokuti muti unosakara kana kudyiwa nomuchenje.
These facts concern the Nzou totem as a whole, not this clan alone. The Wikipedia article on the Shona names the Elephant as the dynasty of the Mutapa state, which reached the coast of Mozambique; the Portuguese slowly wore it down and fought its remnants until 1902. The Mbano detembo itself thanks the clan as Korekore.
Shona people (Wikipedia print), p. 3; Mitupo: A Collection of Some of Zimbabwe's Totems, p. 46
Men are greeted as Mbano and Matemavi, and the detembo also calls the clan Makunda, Musiyiwa, Mwoyowevhu, Madzorera, VaChipahomwoyo and Musenda. Women are greeted as Mbano or Matemavi.
The detembo thanks the clan as maKorekore, the Korekore, and greets it at Dzimwe in Goromonzi and at Chikwaka.
It greets the clan as those who build with stones, because a building of wood rots or is eaten by termites.
In Goromonzi and Shamva, 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 Nzou 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.
Made in Zimbabwe by Invalcre (Pvt) Limited. Free, and they work offline.
Provisional Test ZimbabweZimbabwe VID test and Highway Code
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BhaibheriThe Shona Bible and its hymnals
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