Sahwira

ritual friend

Ukama uhu

Sahwira ishamwari yepedyo isiri hama yeropa, yakasungana newe nemhuri yako. Husahwira hunogona kutanga sehushamwari kana kukumbirwa, wobva wasimbiswa nemabiko enyama nedoro. Madzisahwira vanochengeterana zvakavanzika, vanopana mazano uye vanogona kutukana vasingatsamwirani. Parufu, sahwira ane basa guru pakuviga nepakurova guva.

Mienzaniso

Parufu sahwira achitaura nezvasahwira wake kuti asiye zvekuroya, akaromba, anobata mushonga.

Vamwe vanoti madzisahwira mazhinji anenge akatanga dziri shamwari, vokura vachiwirirana vozopedzesera vava vanasahwira.

Kana nyunyuto ichiitwa pachigarisani nyakunyunyuta anogona kutuma sahwira wemunhu waari kunyunyutira kuti andotaura naye.

DiviFriendship

Anokudana kutiSahwira

KukwazisaSahwira; madzisahwira or vanasahwira for several.

In English

A sahwira is a family's ritual friend, bound by a lifelong pact, who may speak bluntly and plays a set part at funerals.

A sahwira is not a blood relative but a friend bound to you, and often to your whole family, by a pact of mutual help. Many such bonds begin as ordinary friendships that deepen with time; others are asked for, and once accepted the pact is sealed with a small feast at which one friend brings meat and the other beer. Madzisahwira keep each other's secrets, may take what they need from each other's homes (except a wife), share meat at feasts, give sound advice, care for each other in illness, and may insult each other and speak of shameful things without giving offence.

The bond shows most at death. A sahwira buries his friend, may lead the burial of a stranger with no kin, and eases the family's grief by imitating the dead man; at a funeral he may even tell his own friend in public to give up witchcraft, a licence only this bond allows. At kurova guva a sahwira led the ceremony in some accounts, and in the one described in the kurova guva report he held down the goat with the muzukuru, smeared its stomach contents on the grave, served the dead man's beer by seniority and received a pot of beer called nyoro in thanks. A sahwira can also carry a complaint between neighbours so that the two are reconciled.

Mibvunzo.

What is a sahwira in Shona culture?

A sahwira is a ritual friend bound to a person and their family by a lifelong pact of mutual help. The sahwira may speak bluntly, even insult, without giving offence, and has a set part at funerals.

What does a sahwira do at a funeral?

A sahwira helps bury the dead, eases the family's grief by imitating the deceased, and at kurova guva may lead the ceremony, slaughter the goat with the muzukuru and serve the dead man's beer.

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