Nzou · Elephant
Nzou Samanyanga is a Shona clan of the Nzou totem, the elephant. Its men are greeted as Samanyanga and Mhukahuru, the great animal, and also as Nyamasvisva and Unendoro; its women are greeted as Chihoro or Mandlovu. The detembo adds Bondorouswa, Marigazvuru and Matyoramiti.
Ewo Nzou, Maita Samanyanga, Maita Bondorouswa,
Maita vari Mapanda, Zvaonekwa varidzi vamasango, Tatenda Nzou, Marigazvuru,
Hekani Matyoramiti, Ewo ganda, ewo Muvi, Maita murarandimire,
Murewo wakapaikwa pamhangwa yomuti, Zvaitwa chirandu, Vane nzeve dzinenge mahapa,
Mukati tsimba rinenge chisero, Maita Jeranyama, Mutsikapanembiri, Tatenda Chirandu chamatondo,
Maita vari Chibara chaManyika, Munetsoka dzinotyakaira pakufamba, Vatariri vemasango,
Munofamba muchiyeva matunhu, Aiwa zvaitwa Nzou, Samanyanga, Zvaonekwa Nyamatsimba.
Mhukahuru.
Your mutupo and its detembo as an image for WhatsApp, your status or a post, carrying the Kwaunobva mark.
The Samanyanga detembo is a portrait of the elephant. It greets the clan as Samanyanga, Bondorouswa, Marigazvuru, Matyoramiti (the breaker of trees), Jeranyama and Mutsikapanembiri, and it closes on Nyamatsimba and Mhukahuru, the great animal. It pictures a footprint as wide as a winnowing basket (tsimba rinenge chisero).
It calls the clan the owners and the watchers of the forests (varidzi vamasango, vatariri vemasango), who walk about surveying the land, and greets them at Mapanda and at Chibara chaManyika. It also calls them Chirandu, and Chirandu chamatondo.
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 Samanyanga mutupo wenzou. Varume vanokudzwa seSamanyanga naMhukahuru, vakadzi seChihoro. Detembo ravo rinovadaidza kuti Matyoramiti, Marigazvuru naNyamatsimba, varidzi uye vatariri vemasango. Rinoti tsimba ravo rinenge chisero. Rinovakwazisa vari Mapanda neChibara chaManyika.
The Wikipedia article on the Shona names the Elephant as the dynasty of the Mutapa state, a fact about the Nzou totem as a whole rather than this clan. A Shona school textbook records that the musician Oliver Mtukudzi, born in Harare in 1952, was a Korekore of the Nzou Samanyanga totem.
Shona people (Wikipedia print), p. 3; Dada Nerurimi RwaAmai, Danho II Vol. 2, p. 71
Nzou Samanyanga. A Shona school textbook records that he was Korekore and of the Nzou Samanyanga totem.
Men are greeted as Samanyanga, Mhukahuru, Nyamasvisva and Unendoro, and the detembo also calls the clan Bondorouswa, Marigazvuru, Matyoramiti, Jeranyama, Mutsikapanembiri and Nyamatsimba. Women are greeted as Chihoro or Mandlovu.
The Wikipedia article on the Shona names the Elephant as the dynasty of the Mutapa state. It does not say which Nzou clan.
In Mount Darwin, 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.
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Provisional Test ZimbabweZimbabwe VID test and Highway Code
DanhoZIMSEC O and A Level past papers
BhaibheriThe Shona Bible and its hymnals
DenheZimbabwe's public record
