Shava · Eland
Shava Mhizha is a Shona clan of the Shava totem, the eland, which its detembo also calls Nhuka. Its men are greeted as Mhizha and Mhofu yomukono, the bull eland, and its women as Chihera, Vamangurirambezhu or Ziruvi. The poem adds Mupaya and Mukonde, and ends on Shava yangu yiyi, my own Shava.
Maita Mhizha, Zvaitwa Nhuka. Maita Mukonde wangu yuyu,
Vamangurirambezhu vava, Vasingabati mbezhu neshangwa. Maita Mhizha yangu yiyi,
Mupaya, waMabweadziva, Vakadzivira Dzimbabwe kwaMwari. Maita vari Bvumbura,
Aiwa zvaonekwa Shava yangu yiyi.
Your mutupo and its detembo as an image for WhatsApp, your status or a post, carrying the Kwaunobva mark.
The Mhizha detembo is short, and most of it rests on one claim. It thanks the clan as Mhizha and Nhuka, calls it Mupaya of Mabweadziva, and says they shut in and kept Dzimbabwe for Mwari (vakadzivira Dzimbabwe kwaMwari). Duramazwi describes Mabweadziva as the sacred place at Matonjeni where offerings are made to the great spirits of the land, and where people long ago spoke with them. The poem then greets the clan at Bvumbura and closes.
Its other lines praise them as Mukonde and as Vamangurirambezhu, and the line that follows, vasingabati mbezhu neshangwa, plays on that name with the word for famine, shangwa. The poem's word for the clan's animal, nhuka, is an antelope with a fold of skin hanging at its throat, and Duramazwi gives Nhuka as a name of the Shava totem. Mhizha itself is the everyday word for a smith who works iron into hoes and axes; the poem does not say how the clan came by it.
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.
Shava Mhizha mutupo weShava, mhofu. Varume vanokudzwa seMhizha naMhofu yomukono, vakadzi seChihera, Vamangurirambezhu naZiruvi. Detembo ravo rinovati Nhuka naMupaya waMabweadziva. Rinoti vakadzivira Dzimbabwe kwaMwari. Rinovakwazisa vari Bvumbura, richipera nokuti Shava yangu yiyi.
These facts concern the Shava totem as a whole, not this clan alone. The Wikipedia article on the Shona gives Mhofu, also called Mhofu Yemukono, as the eland totem. It uses the same totem to show how far the tie of a totem reaches at a burial: only someone of the dead person's totem may begin the burial, so an Ndebele of the Mpofu totem may begin the burial of a Shona of the Mhofu totem, while a Shona of another totem may not.
Shona people (Wikipedia print), p. 3; Shona people (Wikipedia print), p. 4
Mhofu is the eland and mukono is the male of an animal, so Mhofu yomukono is the bull eland. Duramazwi lists it as a praise name used by people of the Shava totem, and Shava Mhizha men are greeted by it.
The poem calls the clan Mupaya of Mabweadziva and says they kept Dzimbabwe for Mwari. Duramazwi describes Mabweadziva as a sacred place at Matonjeni where offerings are made to the great spirits of the land.
Men are greeted as Mhizha and Mhofu yomukono, and women as Chihera, Vamangurirambezhu or Ziruvi. The detembo also calls the clan Nhuka, Mukonde and Mupaya.
In Hwedza, 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 Shava 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
