Shato · Python
Shato Mheta is a Shona clan of the Shato totem, the python, a snake also called mheta, the water python. Its men are greeted as Chikata, Saunyama and Svova, and its women as Mheta or Saunyama. The detembo also calls the clan Svongongorongo and the ones who move on their bellies.
Shato, Mheta, Maita Saunyama
Maita Mheta, Svova nepasi, Svongongorongo,
Maita mafamba nedumbu, Chikata.
Your mutupo and its detembo as an image for WhatsApp, your status or a post, carrying the Kwaunobva mark.
The Shato detembo is short. It greets the clan as Shato and Mheta, as Saunyama, Svova, Svongongorongo and Chikata, and as the ones who move on their bellies (mafamba nedumbu), the way of the snake. The collection places it under the heading Svova - Nyoka, the snake.
A Shona school textbook prints a second praise for the same people, of the kind a wife gave her husband when he came home from the hunt with meat. It calls him nyoka, mheta and shato, places the family with Mozi and Panga, says they live on dust and travel on the belly, and names them the children of Kandamiviri, who threw two arrows and made the hawk flee.
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.
Shato Mheta mutupo weshato, nyoka. Varume vanokudzwa seChikata, Saunyama naSvova, vakadzi seMheta naSaunyama. Detembo ravo rinovati mafamba nedumbu. Mumwe mudetembo unovadaidza kuti vana vaKandamiviri, vanopona nehuruva, vanofamba nedumbu.
The python. The totems study note names mheta as the water python, and the detembo greets the clan as the ones who move on their bellies. The collection lists it under Svova - Nyoka, the snake.
Men are greeted as Chikata, Saunyama and Svova, and women as Mheta or Saunyama. The detembo also calls the clan Shato and Svongongorongo.
A Shona school textbook gives an example: when he brings meat home from the hunt she thanks him as nyoka, mheta and shato, the child of Kandamiviri, who lives on dust and travels on the belly.
In Nyanga, 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 Shato 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
