Nzou · elephant
Nzou is the elephant totem. A study note on Shona totems says the elephant stands for strength, and a clan that keeps it stands against laziness, and the Wikipedia article on the Shona names the rulers of the Mutapa state as the Elephant dynasty. It is kept by the Mbano Matemavi and Samanyanga clans.
The Samanyanga poem is a portrait of the elephant: its great ears, its way of walking, the breaker of trees (Matyoramiti), the keepers and watchers of the forests who walk surveying the land. A Shona dictionary explains Samanyanga as the clan's pride in the long tusks of its animal, and gives Mhukahuru, the great beast, to the clans of big-bodied animals such as the elephant. The Mbano Matemavi poem says less of the animal and more of its people: those of Chikwaka and Dzimwe, across the Nhora, who build with stone because wood rots or is eaten by termites.
The Mbano poem links its clan with the Korekore, and, like the Moyo Sinyoro poem, praises something as good as milk, eaten by those who have no teeth. The Mitupo 2025 collection also prints a poem for a further Nzou clan, Nhari Unendoro, which it places in Dande among the Tsunga.
Nzou mutupo wevanhu vanoera nzou. Detembo reSamanyanga rinorumbidza nzou nenzeve dzayo, kufamba kwayo nokuvhuna miti, richivati vatariri vemasango. Samanyanga chidao chinoratidza kudada nenyanga refu dzenzou. Detembo reMbano Matemavi rinotaura nezvevanhu vokwaChikwaka vanovaka nematombo.
The Wikipedia article on the Shona counts the Elephant dynasty, the rulers of the Mutapa state, among the major dynasties of the old Shona states. It says the Mutapa state reached the coast of Mozambique on the strength of its trade, gold above all, and that the Portuguese slowly wore it down and fought what remained of it until 1902.
Shona people (Wikipedia print), p. 3
A Shona dictionary explains Samanyanga as a Nzou praise name that shows the clan's pride in the long tusks of the elephant.
The Wikipedia article on the Shona calls the rulers of the Mutapa state the Elephant dynasty. The sources used here say no more about their totem.
Yes. A Shona school textbook, Dada Nerurimi RwaAmai, says the musician Oliver Mtukudzi, a Korekore, was of the Nzou Samanyanga totem.
Nzou Mbano Matemavi, Nzou Samanyanga.
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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