Tembo · zebra
Tembo is the zebra totem, also called Mbizi, and its poems dwell on the zebra's stripes and on its having no horns. It is kept by the Mazvimbakupa, Shumba Samaita and Wakapiwa clans. The Wikipedia article on the Shona notes that in the zebra group women are called Madhuve, and men Dhuve or Mazvimbakupa.
The Tembo poems praise the zebra's looks. Mazvimbakupa and Shumba Samaita call it the hornless beast of the wilderness (njuma yerenje, njuma isina nyanga) and the zebra that adorns itself like a woman (mbizi yakashonga mikonde savakadzi), and Mazvimbakupa and Wakapiwa share the line that to look at a zebra is to look at its legs. A Shona dictionary explains several of the names: Manjenjenje for the beauty of the zebra's colouring, Mangarivari for its stripes, Maromo for the size of its lips.
Mazvimbakupa is much the longest. It names many places, Dzimbahwe and Manyika among them, remembers that Bindu and Chigudza died at Manyochwa, and thanks maDhuve, the child of Chihota. Shumba Samaita calls its clan Tembo Shumba, says it came from Marenje, links it with Mutasa and Chikanga and thanks VaMoyo. Wakapiwa names Chivara, Benhura, Nemhapa and Ziki. Mazvimbakupa and Samaita also speak of VaZungu, traders who came in cloth.
Tembo mutupo wevanhu vanoera mbizi. Madetembo avo anorumbidza mavara embizi nokushaya nyanga kwayo, achiiti Njuma yeRenje. Vakadzi vanonzi Madhuve, varume Dhuve kana Mazvimbakupa. Chidao chaMazvimbakupa chakabva pakuti vainzi havanyimi, vanofarira kupa vanhu zvinhu.
Yes. The Wikipedia article on the Shona lists Mbizi and Tembo together as the zebra totem, and a Shona dictionary calls Tembo the totem of people who keep away from the mbizi, the zebra.
A Shona dictionary says the name comes from the Tembo people being known as generous: not stingy, but fond of giving to others.
Madhuve, says the Wikipedia article on the Shona. A Shona dictionary adds Manjuma, for women of the Mazvimbakupa zebra who are proud that the zebra has no horns, and Chivaraidze, for women of the zebra of Chihota.
Tembo Mazvimbakupa, Tembo Mazvimbakupa, Tembo Shumba Samaita, Tembo Wakapiwa.
Traditionally, people of the same mutupo and chidawo do not marry: they are counted as one family. Between different Tembo clans some families allow it, often after a ceremony that cuts the kinship (kucheka ukama).
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