Shato · python
Shato is the python. A Shona dictionary names Mheta as what people of the shato totem are called, and a study note on Shona totems lists mheta, the water python, among the totems. It is kept by the Shato Mheta clan, praised as Mheta, Saunyama, Svova, Svongongorongo and Chikata, those who move on their bellies.
The Shato poem is one of the shortest in the Mitupo 2025 collection, which prints it under the heading Svova and Nyoka, the snake: a handful of names and the line that the clan travels on its belly. A Shona school textbook gives a longer hunter's praise for the Nyoka and Mheta people, of the kind a wife recited when her husband came home with meat. It places them at Mozi and Panga, says they live on dust and travel on the belly, and calls them the children of Kandamiviri, who shot two arrows and the hawk fled.
Shato mutupo wevanhu vanoera shato, nyoka huru. Vanodaidzwa seMheta, Saunyama, Svova naChikata, vanofamba nedumbu. Detembo rokurumbidza muvhimi rinovati vana vaKandamiviri, vanopona nehuruva. Rinovakwazisa vari kuna Mozi nokuna Panga.
The python. A Shona-English word list gives shato as python, a Shona dictionary describes it as the largest of the snakes, patterned, crushing its prey rather than biting it, and a study note on totems lists mheta, the water python.
A Shona dictionary gives Mheta as the name people of the shato totem are called by, the Mitupo 2025 collection prints the Shato Mheta poem under Svova and Nyoka, and a school textbook greets the Nyoka and Mheta people in one praise.
Shato Mheta.
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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