Shumba · Lion
Shumba Gurundoro is a Shona clan of the lion totem, Shumba. Its men are greeted as Shumba and Gurundoro, and its women as Masibanda or AShumba. The detembo calls the clan the child of Mbari and greets it as VaDupwa, VaSamaringa and Mhonda, the people who keep both the lion and the leopard.
Evoi Shumba, Gurundoro, Zvaitwa vaMbari, maita vaDupwa, VaSamaringa, Mhonderapachena
Yakapondera pasina gwenzi. Zvaitwa Shumba yangu yiyi. Maita Mhonda, maita vari Dziva raSekwa.
Kuziva zvenyu vechikomo cheHarare. Waita mwana waMbari, Mukonde wangu yuyu. Maita zvenyu vaera shumba nembada,
Mbada inamavaramavara, Isakananvza ichisiya rimwe vara rayo, Haiti iri idema iri idzvuku.
Maita vomudziva ravaSekwa, maita vaDombwe. Aiwa maita zvenyu mhuru yoMutoko. Zvaitwa, zvaonekwa mwana waMbari,
Shumba yangu yiyi, Gurundoro.
Your mutupo and its detembo as an image for WhatsApp, your status or a post, carrying the Kwaunobva mark.
The Gurundoro detembo keeps returning to Mbari: the clan is thanked as VaMbari in its opening lines, as the child of Mbari in the middle, and again at the close. It greets them as VaDupwa, VaSamaringa and Mhonda, at the pool of Sekwa and the hill of Harare, and among the Dombwe, and near its close it greets them as the calf of Mutoko (mhuru yoMutoko).
It opens with a picture of the lion as Mhonderapachena, the killer in the open that struck where there was no bush to hide in. Then it does something no other Shumba poem in the Mitupo collection does: it thanks the clan as those who keep both the lion and the leopard (vaera shumba nembada), and gives several lines to the leopard and its many spots (mbada inamavaramavara).
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.
Shumba Gurundoro mutupo weShumba. Varume vanokudzwa seShumba naGurundoro, vakadzi seMasibanda naAShumba. Detembo ravo rinovati mwana waMbari, VaDupwa naVaSamaringa. Rinoti vanoera shumba nembada, mbada inamavaramavara. Pedyo nokupera rinovati mhuru yoMutoko.
Their detembo says so. It thanks them as those who keep both the lion and the leopard (vaera shumba nembada), and goes on to praise the leopard's many spots. It is the only Shumba poem in the Mitupo collection that does.
It praises the lion as a killer in the open. The detembo says Mhonderapachena yakapondera pasina gwenzi, the killer who struck where there was no bush to hide in. Mhondi is the everyday word for a killer and gwenzi for a bush.
Men are greeted as Shumba and Gurundoro, and women as Masibanda or AShumba. The detembo also calls the clan VaMbari, VaDupwa, VaSamaringa, Mhonda and Mukonde.
In Harare and Mazowe, 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 Shumba 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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