Rhodes and Malindidzimu in the Matobo Hills

View from Malindidzimu

” I already know about this place. I visited it in the pictures. I have seen these round rocks and this curved dwala (ruware) in the pictures”, I quipped in answer to a question from a colleague as we were standing right at where Cecil John Rhode’s remains are purportedly lying. He had asked me a question as to whether I had visited the area before. His was an air of how the tour was interesting and informative. I then laughed, and went on to tell him that there wasn’t anything different from what I had seen virtually except the breeze around and the lizards which seemed to have been accustomed to constant visits by people and no longer cared much whether they were around or not.

Today I want to reflect on the issue of Matobo hills in Matebeleland South province, on the southern part of Bulawayo. This area means many things to many people, including the people now called Shonas and Ndebeles.

Today, the area receives both white and black tourists. Many are driven by a desire to see where the grave of the founder of Rhodesia is. Some take it as part of a package of attractions in the Matopos National Park. Still others visit the area purely for sentimental and religious reasons.

In a school tour, I found myself at this site. I never cared to take a look at the welcome shed where information about the attractions is pinned. We trooped up the hill. I couldn’t help it but think of how Rhodes was portrayed as a very brave man who caused the Ndebele soldiers (amabutho) to drop their spears and rise to the arena for an indaba or meeting that led to a ceasefire in 1897. In our primary school books, obviously written by the white historians, Rhodes was the main character. In secondary school books which were written after 1980 and “decolonized”, I don’t remember this line to the cessation of the war being glorified. All the same, I could imagine, the hesitant warriors/indunas, one by one persuading each other to come out and sit down before Rhodes and a handful of white men. It is here, I hear, where the Ndebeles were pacified. At Malindidzimu or the View of the World.

Again, I couldn’t help it but model in my mind how, after the demise of Rhodes, and following his will, his remains were paraded in both Kimberly and Cape Town in South Africa before being carried by carts and railway through provinces to Mafikeng (at the rocks) in South Africa. The train proceeded through Botswana (Bechuanaland Protectorate) up to Bulawayo. On the day of burial in the Matobo  hills, in 1902, at a site Rhodes had dubbed “The View of the World” and the locals knew as Malindidzimu, it is said the Ndebele warriors, who had had some half dozen years without their King Lobengula, gathered in the valley, and gave Rhodes a tribute, the Royal Salute, a preserve of deceased Amakhosi or Kings. “Bayethe!”. I could have heard an army of Ndebeles shouting, with a solemn but respectful intonation. In my mind I could not help it but think of how this could be followed by polished poets churning our words of praise to this “white Induna”.

Yes, that is me as I reflect on the life and death of Cecil Rhodes. A colleague, with a voice of a sozzled man retold of how Rhodes, one night, woke up in the night and nudged Leander Starr Jameson  to wake up and only to be told about how lucky they were to be of the British race, “the finest flower of civilisation”. Suddenly, I thought of how Apollon Davidson quotes an account of how one dark night a friend visited Rhodes. He found him in a disturbed state having pushed a wooden piece of furniture against his door saying he had seen a ghost. Such was the man Rhodes, at least according to these sources. A deeply religious individual. An ambitious man who wanted to conquer Africa from Cape to Cairo. A strategist who quickly won over the diamond fields of Kimberly and was persistent in anything that he set his mind on. A person who struck strategic partnerships with the likes of the Beit brothers. A man who was an enigma as his sexual orientation was concerned. A man who had an eye for value. A man who was at “loss for words” in Britain in the inquest into Nehanda’s death. I could go on and on to summarize many of the views on this significant man in Africa’s recent history.

As I looked around from the vehicle we were in, I found myself questioning why of all places Rhodes chose to be buried in Matobo hills. Did he have an appreciation of beautiful landscapes? How did he discover this landscape far away from Bulawayo, by the standards of the day? Wasn’t there any decent cemetery in Bulawayo? I went on for minutes with these questions. Suddenly, I seemed to have got the answer. Read on.

The area of Matobo had been a place of interest from the times way before the Shonas, Ndebeles and the whites set foot in the land some described as Guruhuswa, between the Zambezi and the Limpopo. The area is home to rock art sites that are a testimony to it’s inhabitation by the San who were predominantly hunters and gatherers, and the Khoikhoi who were farmers. Pottery of the Bambata tradition, attributed to the the Khoisan, has also been collected from here. With the arrival of the “Shona” groups, over time, this area was then associated with the worship of Mwari. A shrine with the names Mathonjeni, Zame or Njelele and so on came into focus. When the Ndebele overthrew the Karanga/Kalanga tribes in the area around 1868, they took the worship system aboard. Thus the area became of spiritual importance to both major (in terms of population) groups of Africans on the Zimbabwe plateau.

As I was growing up, I remember hearing that there were people moving from door to door sourcing for rapoko, rukweza or zviyo for Mukwerera or doro remvura or beer for rainmaking. Without these, you were free to chip in with coins. The people would congregate in Mapanzure’s hill to ask for rain. The surviving varovora vaMapanzure (the women married into Mapanzure’s clan) would talk of how they went to Mapanzure’ s grave to sweep around it, supposedly appeasing the very important departed person just before the rain season. It is also said that rain-making ceremonies could also be done in a grove known as Rambatemwa. (Rambatemwa. A place where cutting of trees was/is prohibited; a triangular sacred place between two streams with a pool at the confluence where mermaids abode). The elders would then send one of their own to Mathonjeni in the Matobo hills with their request. In the early 80s, they would send one elderly man, slightly built and dark in complexion, in the person of VaDzviti. Such was the importance attached to Matobo hills.

Rhodes could have come to be convinced of the spiritual importance of the area to the people whose land he wanted to possess. Moreover, he was briefed as to how the “Molimo cult was responsible for the rebellion” of the Ndebeles and Shonas in the liberation wars. So why Rhodes of all places came to know of this area was through the stories of the worship of Mwari. Indeed, the place is beautiful, with a cooler climate and vegetation so far removed from the rest of Bulawayo and its environs. And he wanted to be associated with this place, aesthetically speaking. Another view is that that he wanted association with this place for religious reasons. Thus he wrote in his Last Testament and Will that he be buried at Malindidzimu. Not only him but the Allan Wilson-led group who died tragically at the hands of the Ndebele warriors, and other key figures. We noted how one of the graves had fresh stains, and my colleague said it was wine poured over there by fellow white pilgrims as part of religion.

That does it for today. Feel free to air your views in the comments section below.

My Reflections on AI-Powered Chat Bots: Inspired by Indigenous Knowledge

Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay

I have not been spared a deluge of news about IA, Chat-GPT, GPT 4, GPT4.5, Bard, Baidu and so on. The unveiling of Chat-GPT in late 2022 saw the shaking of the corridors of knowledge with University students being cautioned against the use of the chat bot; shaking of the workplace issues as some jobs have been said to be replaceable by AI. What is AI by the way? It is an abbreviation for Artificial Intelligence. This is mainly driven or made possible by advances in technical gadgets and the Internet of Things.
I have watched demos of how AI can be used in life. It has been shown how one can be helped to plan an evening menu by simply capturing the picture of food stuffs in a refrigerator. That is the power of Chat-GPT, an AI-powered chat bot, so far. Visual artists are being rivalled by AI in broad day light. Those into travelling can have an itinerary planned for them given a few prompts. A student can find it easy to have an in-depth essay written for them. It’s been claimed, and rightly so, that Chat-GPT aced the renowned universities’ tests. Professors are reportedly in panic mode as they are no longer the sole reservoirs of “knowledge”. There are debates as to whether students have to be allowed to use AI. While some colleges have since allowed students to refer and acknowledge the use of chat bots in their papers, others have banned their use. I could go on and on citing the uses of AI in various sectors of life. What needs to be noted is that the creators of chat bots show that the technology is way past major search engines like Google and Bing and other minor ones like DuckDuckGo by way of popularity. The chat bots have a conversational approach with humans on being prompted. The answers are synthesised, though, from various websites. It is said that they are trained on information that is already on the internet.
At one time after installing an Android App that claimed to be Chat-GPT (if my memory serves me right), I was given 5 free trials (For now Chat-GPT is not available in Zimbabwe). One glaring glitch was its failure to write an essay on pottery among the Shona people, even though in my prompts I had a strong indication for it to get information from Mapanzure, which is optimised on Google Search. On another one, it made a fair trial; it could not give the conditions necessary for the formation of deep weathered layers, a topic in high school tropical geomorphology.
In my blog today, I want to look at the downsides of AI chat bots in knowledge creation and acquisition. As usual I write from traditional African perspectives and personal experiences.
I have written elsewhere on the appreciation of knowledge from abroad by the Shona societies. I have also looked at experiential knowledge. In this blog, I argue that the extensive use of chat bots will result in stagnation of knowledge creation and development. By the term “extensive use”, I mean use by many people and overdependence on it for a long time.
I remember growing up as a young man, herding cattle out in the veld. I had many friends and acquaintances out there. We shared experiences about what fruits were edible and which were poisonous. I learnt how to fish and bait and trap small insects, birds and edible rodents. I want to believe my friends learnt something from me as well. Such was the fusion of ideas as we went about in our environment. This is one of the parts of the heart of indigenous knowledge system – the sharing of experiences as people interact with their environments.
Out there again, I got to meet other boys’ bulls and cows. To digress a bit, I remember how my father’s beasts went by certain names. We had that big ox which was called Bhusvumani. Now I understand its name was derived from Bosman, a character in the Afrikaanse history of South Africa. These names were common in the herds of the trekkers from down south. Another gigantic brown ox with a few white spots was Koromani derived from the London Missionary Society mission of Kurumani in the Republic of South Africa. We had a polled (nzuma) brown beast, lighter than Koroman called Africa. What about Vherifiti (Verwoerd) and Stimboku (Steenbok)? I will not continue to the names of our big cows like Mhofu, Manzungu, Beleviny, Svinu and Horenhema. I recall the names of quite many bulls and oxen herded by other boys in our pastures. Talk of Bata, that dark brown bull with rather short horns which formed a wide crescent off its head. So was the complexion of British, though hornless and endowed with a big hump on the back. I will not forget Dhangamani, with thick horns that made a wide imperfect semi-circle. That ox rivalled many bulls in the pastures when it came to fighting. Skuneri, Bhitofu, Kaflanti, Bloemfontein and so on. I repeat, these were big.
The story is that as the years went by, the beasts of our area continued to get smaller and smaller. Later, I got to understand that the cattle of the area were affected by in-breeding, a case where mothers breed with sons, brothers breed with sisters, grandparents breed with grandchildren and so on. There was no stock from out of our area. As a result weaker and smaller animals were and are now the order of our day.
Back to my bone of contention with AI. With many people depending on chat bots even to write a blog like this one, there won’t be creation of new knowledge as the chat bots simply get what has been availed on the internet. Though indexing of websites with credible information is possible, it is not always that mediocre or even fake ones are left out in results of search engines. Thus chat bots may also harvest from such sites spurning products that are themselves mediocre. They synthesise the information in accordance with the prompts made by human researchers. The endless recycling and reusing of what is already on the internet will mean stagnation of development and knowledge creation. (It appears the chat bots have brought with them some sense of satisfaction, that sense that says, “We’ve finally got it or arrived”). Over-dependence will mean promotion of laziness in researches and uploading of such on the internet. This is much like the problem of in-breeding I have highlighted above. No new genes in our beasts but the same old ones have actually led to weaker and poorer breeds over time. Had this been known to the farmers or should I say, had they capacity to buy other breeds from beyond their areas, they would have avoided this calamity.
Another analogy is of hunting by hunters in olden days. They would develop skills by getting into the real forest. Such, known as vana hombarume in Shona, were men of feats. But nowadays, you find people who want to hunt in small game parks where they already know there are animals. They want to catch fish from ponds instead of natural rivers. Much as we appreciate the easiness of doing things, these people may not develop the skills which vana homarume developed, and these skills were also useful in other aspects of life. Having it “all” on chat bots will cause shrinking of our thinking capacities.
With the advent of the search engines and their popularity in recent years, many have grown to loathe industriousness in thinking out problems and solutions. They want to google on almost everything. They forget to ask and challenge themselves as to who uploads what they are looking for. To them, the internet has answers. It is one big man or woman or super child who has answers to everything. This is relatively true of some of my brothers and sisters in this part of the world who, despite their wealth of indigenous knowledge, have not cultivated a culture of writing, let alone uploading that information on the World Wide Web. You find them searching for tsumo or Shona proverbs and tsika or customs, for example. The question is: who has written about these if they are not taking part? This parasitic behaviour, so to speak, is friends with the dependence syndrome or over-dependence on the internet.
You find teachers giving young learners homework. They have no books. The children are in doubt. The teachers order them to google out the solutions. With this breed of students, I shudder to say that an academically lazy lot is being created. They will google this and that. Life goes on. But who is supplying new data; information; knowledge on the other technology side of the world? With chat bots, being so comprehensive as to make more meaningful answers and products (intellectual) than the search engines, one (who is already addicted to googling) will see no reasons of thinking further, stretching their minds. They will naively resort to chat bots. A generation of half-baked graduates (weak in academic thinking or research and experimentation) will be created. What will be the effect on the broader aspects of life? Sociologists can take that up.
I also remember how my father back then in the late 80s bought a sorghum seed which we recycled year after year. We used to get good harvests until one year when the seed could no longer germinate despite all conditions being good. This was the problem of self-pollination as nobody in the surrounding fields was growing sorghum. Thus will be the effect of over-dependence on chat bots and recycling facts and knowledge without the creation of the new.
With the chat bots being used to make websites, write code, and create content, it seems we won’t go anywhere should we allow them to be our masters. This is because they simply resort to the internet to create one’s content which is rather not new but recycled and resynthesized. On this aforesaid content, the next researcher will have a chat bot chewing it and have it given him or her. The cycle continues.
It is also argued that learning involves a lot including the social aspects. Chat bots are regarded as impersonal though the inventors have tried to include the warm human conversational approach. Cheating, in cases where the chat bots are prohibited, constitutes academic dishonesty. That temptation is so big leading to problems of poor ethics in society.
I have often said to some children that if they cannot write correct spellings or make sentences, they will fail to use the smartphones they so love. This is especially true for searches on the internet. The problem will be worse with the chat bots which require prompts for them to yield meaningful answers. The prompts are carefully worded instructions which are given to a chat bot. So naturally, one who is poor in a language will find it difficult to use chat bots effectively. What will happen to us with the languages that are not fully integrated with the bots? Shona? Ndebele? At least Ndebele in the form of IsiZulu is relatively recognised in Google.
I submit that chat bots, and AI in general must enhance critical thinking and other high-order skills. University professors and teachers have been given an opportunity of teaching 20st century skills like critical thinking, collaboration, project based/problem solving skills more easily as they won’t have to spend a lot of time providing basics as these can be proffered by this new technology. Industrious thinkers marry quite well with chat bots to create new knowledge. Instead of humans being tools in the kits of AI-powered chat bots, the chat bots themselves have to be tools in the hands of human beings. That way, we overcome many supposed drawbacks of this new techy that has dawned on us. A cross-pollination of new ideas and the old ones already on the internet will render bots as powerful tools. Humans have no need to stop thinking independently.
This is just my reflection. You are invited to make contributions and reactions in the comments section below.

Fire (Moto)

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Fire has been of importance among peoples of the earth including the Karanga of Zimbabwe. As I write, the weather is chilly and warmth is obviously needed, and one source of warmth is fire. I am going to look at how fire was made and some of its uses in rural Karanga societies. Of concern again is the figurative roles of fire as the real fire made an important mark in the life fabric of this people.

Traditionally fire was made in several ways. There were no matches with which to make one.  And if you happened to get fire you would make sure it continued to burn for a long time. Fire could occur naturally through lightning and people would take some from there. Another way was through rubbing sticks together until the heat produced fire. This was called kusika moto or literally creating fire. A vertically held shaft would be rotated and its lower tip rubbing a hole of a bigger log. The rubbing was done in the way mealie-meal lumps are broken by a cooking tool known as musika. It appears that the name of this cooking utensil took its name from the movements during fire creation (kusika), and kusika sadza using musika could actually be creating or making sadza.

If a family or person didn’t have fire, they would ask from those with it. They would use a potsherd (chaenga) to carry live coals to their fire place or to wherever they wanted fire to be made. Some would take a piece of burning wood and make fire on their end. Another way was to use a piece of dry cow dung. A live coal was put on the dung and smolder slowly until the person getting the fire arrived at his or her fireplace. This act of getting fire from somewhere else is known as kugoka/kugota moto. These media were good. The elders would say, “Wazvigokera moto muziso”, to describe how someone landed himself/herself into trouble just like getting fire using one’s eye instead of the said methods like using cow dung.

In order to preserve fire, they used certain trees for firewood. These trees could burn effectively but slowly ensuring live coals throughout the day until the next time fire would be needed for cooking or warmth. A hole was usually dug at the fireplace so that as the wood got burnt, some live pieces would fall in there and get covered with ash. Because of less ventilation, fire would be preserved.

The obvious uses of fire were to heat water in clay pots, cooking sadza and other foods like nhopi, rupiza, mananga, maputi, mazhazhari and meats. Fire was used to dry and roast meat. In chilly evenings and winter times, if provided warmth. The heat in the house would keep dampness in check. It has also been shown how, even to this day, mosquitoes may be absent in a room with fire. Thus it was used as a mosquito repellent. Maize cobs, groundnuts and round nuts could also be roasted. Women could roast millet before grinding it into meal (vupfu). It was customary for every kitchen or bedroom hut to have a fireplace (choto/chiveso). Warmth was also needed in the male’s court (padare).  Fire was used to clear fields for cultivation. The ash was used as fertilizer. At night during camp, the campers made fire to keep some wild animals away. Fire provided lighting. I have written somewhere on how man would smelt iron ore in a furnace of fire. I have also talked elsewhere on purpose-designed pottery. Women needed the fires to bake and strengthen pots.

The by-product of fire, being soot on the grassy roof, was taken and mixed with water and cows would be dosed and get treated of some diseases. The smoke was used to preserve seed for the next growing season. Choice seeds would be strapped to hang a distance above the fire. Smoke kept the weevils away.

Sociologically, fire was important in this society. In a round kitchen hut, a family was brought together as each sought a vantage point from which to get warmth from the fire. It was some sort of round table which after dinner or during dinner, people could discuss some issues of importance. Lessons could be conveyed to the youngsters by the elderly through ngano/ traditional stories. At men’s court, outside, fire was a rallying point for the older boys and men of the clan or other male visitors. Issues to do with men could be discussed here.

Fire got weaved into the religious life of this people. Fire assumed a certain role in the reproductive issues. It is said that a couple in a bedroom hut needed fire to provide lighting during mating. Fire was believed to chase evil spirits away during procreation. If a couple went for a long time with no children, people would say, “Mumba hamuna moto/ There is no fire in the house”.

It would happen that death would rob a man of his wife. This would be met with grief from close friends and relatives. The in-laws would discuss how their son-in-law (mukwasha) was a good man and how he was left with no children or how his young children were now motherless. They would suggest to give him one of the young sisters of the deceased. This one could also be a cousin, but in Shona culture, she was a sister (munun’una). When the mukwasha was given to her in marriage, this was known as kumutsa mapfihwa and the woman was known as chimutsamapfihwa. Mapfihwa were often three stones at the fireplace on which pots balanced during food preparation. Kumutsa means to revive or restore. Thus this act of marriage meant revival of the former relationship. Fire is used to personify marriage life or a female spouse.

Fire was used in brewing beer. Beer was used in traditional religion. Fire was very important in burning certain herbs believed to keep evil spirits away (kupfungaidzira). These days there is talk of steaming (kufukira) to deal with Covid-19. Then fire was needed to heat stones which would be put in cold water and produce steam. A patient would be made be to in this cloud under a blanket for them to be healed usually of respiratory disturbances. It was also believed that licking at the ash of musasa or mutondo wood treat a dry or sore throat.

Such was the importance of fire that the elders had proverbs (tsumo) and idioms (madimikira) on fire. One tsumo goes: Kugocha kunoda kwamai, komwana kunodzima moto. This meant that a child presumably unskilled could douse the fire through roasting something. A mother presumed to have more skill by reason of use could take better care of the fire. Should the fire be blown out, this could be through a mistake. Whatever the meaning of this tsumo, one thing is clear, that is, keeping the fire burning was important. And some taboos were built around fire. On that comes to mind that we grew up hearing was how it was not good for a boy to sit on a piece of firewood at the fireplace. In doing so, it was said, his wife would die prematurely. Some, in interpreting, say that this was meant to avoid accidents whereby the firewood’s end in the fire would be lifted to toggle the pot with water spilling onto the fire. Others have also said this was meant to avoid accidents which would result in burns. Still another thought is that higher temperatures in between the legs went against spermatogenesis and that would work against fertility. Nobody wanted all these and so nobody would sit on the burning logs.

Fire seems also to symbolize potential, whether positive or negative. Kamoto kamberevere kanopisa matanda mberi (a small fire spreading slowly into a veld will burn big logs/trees). This proverb meant that small beginnings ended up accomplishing big things. On the negative side, for example, if a behaviour was let unchecked early in life, it could end up a bad lifestyle of crime.

Fire was also used to show influence. A tsumo: Wadziya moto wembavha naiye wava mbavha loosely translated meant that one who basked in the fire of a thief was become a thief also. Fire, in this case, sort of created a meeting point, a common ground for fellowship. And on there, the two people would discuss. The thief would spread evil influence to the “innocent”. With this proverb in mind, a young man/ woman would be wary of his/her associations for him/her to carry a good name in the community.

Fire is a good servant but a bad master. In some cases, it would go out of control when the intention was actually to clear a field for cultivation or hunting for mice. It would spill over to make a veld fire. Wild animals would run away or be killed. Domestic animals would be left with no grazing land. I remember one veld fire that spilled out of control when my grandfather was clearing the boundaries of his fields. The fire was so fierce as to threaten the whole pasture. He called for support through his tenor voice and people came from the villages around the area to blow it out.

That does it for today. Please feel free to make comments below.

Flashback

I wrote the below article as a valediction. 31 December is my anniversary of transference from the school which was my second home. I officially left this school today in 2019.

I retrace my steps in my mind through the rich memories I have with Ellis Robins School since the morning of October 1 2001. Then I joined this great institution and was subsequently introduced at assembly by the late Mr K. K. Msora. Mrs O. B. Chigumete had done a thorough job of inducting me after an interview panel had deemed me successful to replace Miss Jane Mavindidze in the Geography department.

My mind hovers on the staff I met and worked with and who have since left the school. Mr Makoni Munyaradzi who was the duty teacher at assembly that morning. Teachers like Messrs Vhenge, Munyuku, Zondwayo, Dembezeko, Munyurwa, Mutasa, Chayendera, Nyahangare, Mashavakure, Kichini, Mkaka, Mutukwa, Mafunga, Manuel, Zigiwa, Mareverwa, Chipamaunga, Chinamasa , Chinokwetu, Mudau, Chitsamatanga, Chikowore and Sakupwanya and Mmes like Machakaire, Mhangara, Shamuyarira, Mari, Madziyire, Mutuke, Mafirowanda, Chikurunhe-Chirwa, Janda, Tichareva-Chimombe and many others. The office staff included Mrs Coid (so passionate about anything Ellis Robins), Musoko, Mupamhanga, Sakuhuni and many others, again.

My mind thinks on the times the school hymn (Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah) was sung with Mrs Coid on the piano and later Mr Chinokwetu before he retired. Many other songs like Stand up for Jesus, Give me oil in my Lamp, Jewels etc were sung.

Deep in thought, I note how I used to be involved in Rugby with Mr Mudau, Mr sakupwanya and Mr Matongo while Mrs Coid was the patron. Names like Makweche, Bakasa, Kabila, Simango and Manhivi among many come back into my mind. I think of many Saturdays in winter when I would be in the Trauma Centre (with which the school had a medical plan) accompanying boys who would have been injured at Rugby matches. I think of the Rugby Sevens Tourney at Marlborough and Eaglesvale (2005). I think of athletics especially the Peterhouse invitations where runners like Dos Santos shone. The boys only schools athletics at National Sports Stadium for many years, last hosted by Fush in 2004 before they were discontinued. My involvement in Basket ball, having worked with Mr T. S. Mudavanhu. Having left the school, one spring I found myself being in charge of the team. Names like Vincent Chuma and Rufaro Phiri (Bar) stand out. I had a short stint in Cricket going to one of the matches with Madzibaba Kasinganete.

I run over how I had a short stint in Scripture Union. Then Miss Mhangara was running the club. I got involved in adjudicating debate having been sponsored (not funded) by the late Mr Mareverwa to train in the procedures. I remember leading a team of adjudicators to Peterhouse to adjudicate in the Nationals Pools C. I have had a privilege of co-adjudicating in the junior and senior national finals with Mr Zvongouya as the Co-ordinator. Quiz comes to mind, having taken over from Mr Matongo following his retirement. Kumbirai Kuchena is arguably the best in quiz over the years according to me, having been part of a team from Fush that represented Harare Province at The  Book of Africa Records. I think of the first “ellimination” model of quiz that was first shot by ZBC at Ellis Robins. The pieces of masking tape left around the windows which held the makeshift black plastic curtains to darken the hall always remind me about that. Talking of Zbc, I had my second experience when I led the boys to the ministry of Information Studios to record a show  titled “This is Life” funded by the PSI in February 2004. I remember how I co-led the Junior Achievement Company Program with Stephen Makombe.

I cannot forget my duties at Malcolm Hotel as the boys used too call it owing to the food that used to be served by chefs like Christopher Nyakadumba and Mutsvunguma. I cannot forget how Malcolm house was my first “home” in Harare after college days…the noises which naughty boys made in the corridors at night….and how Mr Mudau was prompt in sending word to me that I make rounds maintaining order…..the various student and temporary teachers we had as duty personel. We also had one Zambian by the name of Akebu Saheli who was under volunteer service from Fredskopset and how he amused us with his stories of western Solwezi, Mongu and Trevor, his colleague posted at Zezane High School.

Of note in the Malcolm house is the story of Manchez which every form 1 or new comer had to hear about. The so-called sprogs would fear the ghost of Manchez and feared passing corridors late at night. The dorm 1 boys would wake up with stories of how they heard Manchez bathing at the Laundry room showers. It is rumoured that Manchez had died while being nursed in the sickbay after a serious injury during a rugby match at the school. True or false; it’s now up to you to verify.

My mind carefully surfs through and reaches the library where librarians like Mr Nhakura and Mr Harrison worked. It was here where the magazines about the yesteryears of the school were kept. They helped me to connect with the goings-on at the school then with the time I was here. I will not forget Mkoma Stephen who was one of the moving repositories of institutional memories. He kept many of the Dolphins and Robins Monitors. He would tell of how he related with the-then heads and teachers. He grew so useful to the school until his retirement in 2009. I, myself worked with headmasters Messrs Msora (affectionately known as KK but as Buju by the boys), Munongi, Nyambuya, Chuma and until recently Mazonde.

I will not leave the space of the so-called vanaSekuru in my history. I remember caretakers like Sibiya and Chabata who have since left the school. Mr Bimha comes to mind as he knows many corners of the school. Mr Majoni is is the current caretaker. I developed a friendship with Mr Katsande who was at the hostel among many others. We worked well with Mr Shamba and Mahara among many others I cannot mention because of space and time.

I go round the reception area. I meet Misses Matare, Daisy Chingoriwo, Chekenyere and Kalumba and Mr Kachuwaire. I worked well with all of them.

The school assemblies, many of them. The Headmaster’s assembly, the Senior Master’s, the Prefects’ and so on. How the teachers in charge of various sports used to be zealous, keen to having results announced at assembly, usually ending their notes with the “proverbial” “New Members are welcome”. New members were welcome to sports like Hockey, Cricket, Table tennis, Badminton etc. All this cannot escape my mind.

Flashing through are the ups and downs of passrates in Geography especially at A’ Level in the 2^nd decade of the new millenium. The school awards obtained at O’ Level. The various graduates whose names seem to be fading by the day until we meet elsewhere and they say out their names again.

Deep in thought, I note how I “grew” at this school through the various workshops, on and off-site, through personal reading and through interactions with staff and students alike. I think on how I launched my softwares on Textbook and asset management, how I developed the Quiz Scorer and Biblio Library program, electronic O’ and A levels results analyses, Get-It-Right Multiple Choice for self-grading tests and revision and  learner database (I can remember these for the time being). It is here where I toyed with ICT integration in the classroom as and when facilities allowed.

I have memories of where I could have done better, of issues I feel could be avoided and of missed opportunities while I was here. However, the paucity or limitations gave me some opportunities for learning.

I will miss the geographic environment where this all happened; the great stage, as it were, with variously coloured backdrops. I will miss the daily interactions with the current faces at the school; the relationships born by long years of social and professional intercourse. Because of the attachment I have had with the school for the past 18 years, it is very difficult to bid farewell. I, however, had to move on and be close to where I now live, and leave others to continue making the history of this great institution that others apart from us founded in 1953. I will continue, for a while, working, not in the faculty but in the background, particularly in website and accessories administration. Trainings will be going on in preparation for final handover to new hands. Volunteers are welcome.

Why Zimbabweans Take a Back Seat in Enhanced Entrepreneurship

Great Zimbabwe Motif

I most of the time write about the past of the Shona people. Today, I want us to look at the modern issues of interest to the African Zimbabweans. Our lot has been deplorable for a long time now, economically speaking. We have to be mindful that a simple African in times past was one proud and almost self- sufficient with his or her own cows and a piece of land. Resources like edible game were in abundance. The rivers were teeming with fish. The forests were full of fruit scents and birds chirping in the trees. Unity at family or clan level was the order of the day. Chara chimwe hachihwanyi inda (one finger cannot crush a louse) and rume rimwe harikombi churu (one man cannot encircle an anthill) were some of the tsumos or proverbs that can afford us a peek into the thinking and way of life of those days. Nhimbe or humwe was a sort of temporary co-operation by the community members to work in the fields at planting, weeding or harvesting times. Though the incentive could be beer, maheu and goat meat, people were practically happy to help their fellowman orfellowwoman. This can be contrasted with our Zimbabwe today, when the earth has been hard-hit by a hammer. In the past, pasi risati rarobga nenyundo, in the good old days, when everyone knew everybody, things were different to the now life of poverty, anguish and crime. In the following paragraphs, I pour my heart out on some of the solutions that can be taken aboard in order to alleviate the problems bedeviling us and our people. Read more

Fondly Remembered: A sequel to Chikomo Choruvanda

A photo showing Mapazuli Primary School

He was one person whom you couldn’t help but notice if you passed through Mapazuli (Mapanzure) Primary School in the 80s and the 90s. Mr Ncube was a lank slightly tall man who walked with a slight stoop. He skin was of medium hue of brown and as far as I remember, slightly and I mean slightly, not very, wizened owing to his advanced age. He seemed quiet but sociable and well-meaning. He had traits of a hard worker in his blood.

Mr Ncube holds different memories for different people who passed through that esteemed school on the side of Ruvanda Hill. I remember faintly how I would see him when I was in grade 1 or 2 in 1983/84. He was teaching in the eastern classrooms. Him and teacher Mnangagwa at times wore safari suits. Ones that I remember were the shirts and shorts and long stockings and “farmer shoes”. Yes, that was allowed as formal attire! A safari suit was worn with no neck tie. There was no need of tucking of the shirt. From my gathering, he taught grade 5 for many years.

I remember he was the deputy headmaster for years serving under the late Mr Nsingo. They seemed to us like a trousers and a belt in their work. When a house was built for the headmaster, it was rumoured that Mr Nsingo refused to take residence in it. It is said, he fingered teacher Ncube to occupy it. Thus many of us remember him associated with that modestly spacious house, the last in line towards Nganunu village. He was staying with his wife and son known as Zakeo. Zakeo was known for being a highflier in classwork. He would ride his bicycle to  Ngonidzashe Store to buy bread. His riding team back then included Shepherd Gedhe and Gerald Nganunu Sibanda.

He was a pillar in the physical development of the school as much as he helped in facilitating learning by the boys and girls from the villages. There was what was known as general cleaning, usually on Fridays. We would thoroughly sweep classrooms and polish the floors (in the summer season) with leaves of some herbs. The floors would remain greenish and scented. Thorough toilet cleaning was also an issue of the Fridays. Classes would rotate cleaning them. One time that was  gruesome and yet the boys and girls of Mapanzure school took with laughter and supposed interest was the pounding of night soil from the original pit to the overspill one that the parents had dug when the toilet in use then was overfilling. The learners would go to fetch water from a nearby pool affectionately known as Jorodhani because it was used as the baptismal by the likes of VaMabetha who were preachers at the local congregation of the Church of Christ. They would pour it in the pits and the “pounders” with thick logs would pound and push the slurry to slide into the makeshift soak-away.

Who doesn’t remember the orchard? The mango and guava trees mostly. Teacher Ncube was at the centre of it. The boys would bring grass cutters and slash the orchard grass. In the dry season, we would water the trees using water we would collect from nearby streams and wells. It was a happy time when the senior boys and girls carrying metal buckets of mangos would follow teachers to different classes. The learners would take turns to pick a mango. These seemed sweeter than the general mangos we got at home or elsewhere because they were from the school, supposedly from our sweat. I remember, in grade 3 in a classroom that was close to the head’s office, I was spoilt for choice. I picked a small but yellow mango but when my colleagues picked, they did pick green yellowish ones but fully ripe and big. I envied them but my turn was gone.

During the holidays, classes would take turns to water the orchards according to the roster. On opening schools, Mr Nsingo would be waiting with the names of those who had not turned up. His right-hand man would be tasked to supervise the punishment that involved physical but productive work. In the group of the errant boys, one back-to-school season, Manson Sibanda (my babamunini) and I were found. The task was to collect hwakwani (humus) from Ruvanda hill and put it in heaps on the school field. We faithfully made trips back and forth between the hill and the field on the first day. I will not mention the names of those who increased the size of their heaps by adding soil from the field. On the second day, we just did one trip to the field. Came the second trip, we felt tired and hungry and, all of a sudden, we decided to go home. In the subsequent days, we would sneak away as the names of the culprits were called to remain behind while others were dismissed at the grand assembly under a Muvonde tree. Came one day near the end of the term, after we had written end-of-year tests. Teacher Ncube was moving form class to class with a list of names. My name together with Manson’s were called out. We followed him to the “office”. The Head, Mr Nsingo, whom some nicknamed Chimbumu, made us to lie down and we received the hardest strokes of his rod. I remember the pain to this day.

In grade 5, I also found our class taking shifts with the A group to use the only room for grade 5. On some days, we would go to the side of the hill beyond the ridge that was in the line of a contour ridge and the Mutohwe tree from which the metal piece used as a gong hung. The board was placed against a big rock. The board was a make-shift one taken from a floor slab of a demolished building. The chairs were heaps of rock. Teacher Ncube would tear off the khakhi covers of used-up exercise books which learners left in exchange of new ones. Then, education was cheap as parents were not burdened with buying exercise books for their children. Everything, from the pencils, crayons and pens to writing exercise books and at times covers were supplied by the school. Teacher Ncube would give us to work Maths on those pieces of paper until we mastered the concepts. After the 10 o’ clock  break, we would answer the problems in the Maths exercise books, back in the classroom, when our turn to use the classroom came. Having aced the exercises, he would give me a star, not like the one our grades one and two teachers drew, that is numerous flat sticks crossing each other. His was a flat 5 point star of David. I also remember his style of teaching English. He would make us ask each other, at times, like, “What did you have for supper last night?” and the other would answer. We would rehearse and rehearse until it was time for presenting in front of the class.

He was so strict with your handwriting and corrections. He would detain learners until they finished their work. One late afternoon, when we were in detention, I got very hungry. The teacher had a new manila chart on the wall showing types of crops. He pasted samples of crops on the chart with glue. Millet. Sorghum. Maize. And guess the next. Groundnuts (Nzungu). A temptation arose in me. The one I couldn’t resist but the one I gave in to partially.   I decided to help myself on one. I plucked it off and it left a mark of where it had been. So there was ample evidence of what I had done. Word spread and finally reached my Father Asias Chipunza. I thought hell was going to break loose. To the contrary, my father chided the act of detaining children so late yet they were hungry. So I was off the hook.

He was also a disciplinarian of note in the classroom. It was common for us to check our calves for the dark whip marks. The Mutehwa whip was his favourite. Unforgettable is the day Precious lost a pen and she reported that someone had stolen it. The man took no chances. He bit us straight away so that the culprit would release the pen. We were all suspects in the first place. It was a cold, cloudy and drizzly day. We all squirmed in pain but the pen was not let out. Because it was rainy, the 2 grade 5 classes were both in the room with some sitting on the floor. I remember Ocean crying with a slightly bassy voice having received two strong ones from his lean but strong hand.

He fell in love with the Mapanzure community. He was well-known and he knew the people very well by families and individuals. He finally bought a home in the Chikondo village. He retired there. A very respectful man, he became a good village man.  He was an ardent farmer. He also looked after the underprivileged people. His home speaks volumes of an organised man who had a passion for fruit farming. He continued the orchard aspect even after retirement.

Born Moses Svesve Ncube, affectionaly called Umdalawethu, born in 1927, today he is no more, deceased 22 November 2020, worked as educator from 1977 to 1997, having lived a full life, having contributed positively to his community and country at large. He is fondly remembered.

A Comment on Traditional Shona Table Etiquettes

Children eating sadza and vegetables. Credits: World Food Program/Aaron Ufumeli

Night had fallen. In our dimly lit dinning/kitchen hut, we were sitting in clusters of threes or so around our sadza and chicken. It was customary for us to be quiet as we, children, ate. A grumble and a struggle were heard. It was my younger sisters “fighting” for a piece of meat. What caused the struggle? The answer can be found in none other than our culture of eating in groups from the same plates.

Let me dive into this interesting issue of dietary practices or table etiquettes in the traditional Shona societies.

It was very common for people to be scooping food from communal dishes. A group of threes or fours would seat round a plate of food and partake. Before eating, at times, it was needful to wash hands. Seniors would wash first. The bowl of that same water would go round to the most junior. And maybe, by then, the water would be grey-brown with dirty. All the same, juniors were not supposed to resent. This was meant to engender respect of seniors though health-wise, it could be a danger.

From the common dishes (in the past they used to be of wood), the senior again would start to get a lump of sadza (musuva), for example and dip it in relish first. All the others followed according to their seniority. Seniority was determined by age. In this way, peace and order were maintained in this important aspect of life. Again respect was called for from the juniors. The seniors, on the other hand, were supposed to stop eating first. This was at a point when the food level was low in the plate or when they felt full. The youngest was expected to continue with eating, as presumably, his rate of eating was the slowest all through. He/she would make up then. Far from being domineering, the elders were expected to feel for the younger ones. It was considered disrespect to leave the “table” (not a literal table, of course. Food plates could be placed on the ground). So even if they felt full, they were supposed to fool around with food, eating slowly and small amounts, until the elders were done eating.

Meat could be one of the forms of relish accompanying sadza. The elders were expected to pick a piece first while the younger ones could do so lastly. At other times, the elder would pick pieces and distribute to the younger ones. Usually, the elder would pick the piece preferred by the younger ones. This would not go down well with them. It is this practice that the younger of my sisters protested to by holding the hand of her elder sister, trying to force her to drop the piece until my mother intervened. So it can be shown that the practice could be viewed as oppressive to the young ones.

Eating from the same plate fostered a spirit of sharing and community. There was limited room for individualism in many respects in the traditional societies. You had to belong. You had to do something but with the full knowledge of the consequences on others, be they members of your family or village mates. Apart from the soft skills aforesaid, the situation was obviously necessitated by lack of resources like plates to use.

Eating in groups was proof against witchcraft. It was difficult to stomach putting poison in a plate which would be shared by many people, if you were into witchcraft. A sense of security could be gained by eating what others were eating. Fathers (vana baba) in a family could have their wives setting aside a plate solely for their food. That plate is known as gunere in Shona. Thus it could be only him who would eat alone from his plate. Mothers would eat with their grown up daughters. Thus it was very easy to believe stories of husbands having been bewitched by their wives (kudyiswa). Older boys who would come home late often had to put up with no food as their mothers would scold them to the effect that they could not have a special dish for themselves alone and that they needed to eat with others at dinner. Gunere was a form of giving respect to the father and husband. Usually at dare (Shona) or men’s forum, gunere would be shared between the father and grown up boys; but the father would eat first.

Visitors into a home (vakwati) would be invited to partake food. It was customary to invite someone to eat when they arrived at your place during eating times. You would not just keep quiet and eat alone as that would be construed as greediness (kukara/kuruta). You were supposed to invite the visitor whether you meant it or not. When the visitor conceded when in fact you were pretending, that was it. You will have to put up with that. Whatever, the host was expected to eat first, a practice known as kubvisa vuroyi (removing witchcraft-not literal). It was meant as proof that there was no poison in the food. Much like, “Look I have eaten it this my food myself. So eat also with no fear”.

Children were discouraged from eating at other homes as they could be bewitched. Eating at other people’s places (kukwata) was bad. The host could isolate you and give you a plate of food to eat alone.

Eating as groups also stimulated competition. One would not doze off at the same time eating. By the time they would wake up, they would find plates done with (Kuwana dzamira nemhuru). So they kept alert. The competitive spirit would be useful in other ventures. In this regard, the children were expected to remain quiet while eating. This caused them to focus on this alone while preventing cases of choking by food.

Coming to food economics; in view of scarcity or shortage, relish was always served in smaller quantities than sadza. So it was needful to appropriately allocate each musuva with relish so that you would finish them at the same time. This case of taking a very small portion of relish to a lump or lumps of sadza is known as kurumira or kusevera kure. This trained dinners resourcefulness.

Before eating, children, visitors and other members of the family were expected to acknowledge the cooks who were usually mothers or providers of the food by saying, “pamusoroi”. After getting done with eating, they were expected to thank them by their totems. This showed gratitude.

It could be that the big girls or varovora (daughters-in-law) cooked the food. It was usually the prerogative of the mother or mother-in-law to share it out. All this was wrapped in respect.
The subject of food is very broad. I will not go into other issues like who was supposed to eat what in terms of parts of beasts or birds slaughtered for relish and the food presumed to be for women only or women in a particular states like pregnancy. As usual I would be pleased if you write your comments below and spark a lively discussion.

The Uses of Cow Dung in Shona Societies

Cattle in pen. Credits: Sony Disc

One of the much-cherished resources in the traditional societies of what is now called Zimbabwe is cow dung/ndove. Cows are generally grazers and to a small extent browsers. Thus the excreta is not repugnant, or shunned by human beings. The resource has been useful in many ways. I am going to attempt an outline of its usefulness among the Shona societies. I will tap from personal experience and observations. I take note of the dearth of information on this subject in published literature that looks at this people. I have made reference to other African tribes as ethnographic sources that could add to the available information on Shona life (and justifiably so as they belong to one big family named the Bantu by historians).

Cow dung has been of use as manure/mufudze. Generally, the Shonas kept cattle in pens (danga/ matanga). This made it possible for dung to gather in large quantities in one place. The dung would be kept for a year or so and be dug out of the pen. It would be piled outside the pen and lie there for about a month. This ensured the “maturity” of mufudze as the particles further decomposed under heat. The digging out was usually done in the dry season when the pens were relatively dry. Just before the October/ November rains, the manure would be carried into the fields. This was part of soil management as bumper harvests of crops was insured, all other factors being equal.

In the African huts, cow dung was also useful. The ladies used a thin paste of fresh dung (mixture of water and dung) to smear the floors (kudzudzura/kudzurura). This was meant to freshen up hut scents! The floors were made of anthill clay. So smearing was to keep the soil particles together and reduce the hovering of dust inside huts. Nowadays, floors in huts can be of cement. However, choto or the fireplace in the middle of the floor is made of anthill soil. If it is made of cement material, it will be much like a rock and may be blasted by much heat. So it is this fireplace that continues to receive this coat or smear of cow dung.Open ground could also be smeared to reduce generation of dusts. This open ground could be meeting ground for small gatherings or the area close to the hut.

Talk of kudzudzura; this was not limited to houses only. Utensils like baskets/tswanda/hwanda (sotho pronunciation) and winnowing basket or tray (musero) were smeared with dung to clog holes between straw to prevent the slipping away of grain like rapoko/rukweza, mhunga/millet and mapfunde/sorghum.

It is also said that cow dung was used as mosquito repellent. People would burn dry cow dung on the fireplace. The repelled mosquitos. Ever wondered how the Shona societies dealt with the problem of mosquitoes and malaria in this tropical environment. Ordinary firewood fire acted equally well. As we were growing up, we had bedrooms separate from the dining/kitchen hut. Because of the fire in the kitchen, mosquitoes were not a problem. As one retired to bed in another house, that is when they would face the danger. But as youngsters, this never dawned on our minds.

In the Masai Mandari tribe of South Sudan, cow dungs is used to repell other creatures like scorpions and centepedes (Becky Pemberton- Daily Mail). The herdboys go to extents of washing faces with cattle urine. In Kenya (www.farmbizafrica.com/pests) there is talk of how cow dung is used to repel snakes. As I was growing up, my mother told of how pouring thin paste of dung into a hole with a snake would cause it to turn blind. I now want to think that, true or false this assertion could be, dung generally repels snakes. I have asked around as to whether snakes can be seen in the cattle pen. Many people have said that they have not seen snakes around cattle pens. This is probably because of the repulsive smell.

Dung is also touted to be anti-macrobial in many papers on the internet. This caused me to think how my father would smear dung on cattle wounds usually after dressing. Being a layman, I would not be able find out what type of bacteria can be fought against by dung. What was obvious to me was the protection of the wound from flies as the layer got drier.

Cow dung was (and could still be in use) used to “diffuse” the smell of decomposing corpse. It was customary to keep dead human bodies in the kitchen hut in preparation for burial. It could be that the corpse would be giving off a bad smell. No matter the smell, the women mourners were supposed to stay put in the hut watching over the dead body behind the open door. The elders would burn dung to neutralise the smell of the corpse.

It was also useful on living beings. We used to hear how certain old people were advanced in years such that their bodies was chapped and they were no longer “bathing”. It was said their carers used cow dung smear to cover those chaps.

Beer brewing was the heart beat of Shona societies as it was important in dietary and religious life. Economically speaking, beer was an important beverage at co-operative works/humwe/nhimbe. Beer was fermented by beer pots/magate/gate placed on a mound of old manure. Cattle manure generates heat due to decomposition and this heat is needed for fermentation.

Pottery was a thriving industry in the Shona communities. The potters fired their pots in a pit. This thermal treatment of clay is very important as it hardens it and makes it useable even with liquids. They set fire in the pit using dry cow dung as fuel; the reason being that cow dung burns for a long time, and thus an economic fuel. Dung is not as hard as wood and accidents shattering pots in the firing process were reduced. Coupled with this use, dung was used in getting fire from others (kugoka moto). A live coal would be put on a piece of dry dung. Dung would begin to smoulder. A person would walk to his own home while the coal was still afire and moreso, a piece of dung would be burning. He/She will be able to make their own fire at their home or location. In order to keep the fire 24/7, he/she usually dug a small hole at the fireplace where coals would drop and be covered with ash. Due to limited air circulation, they would be preserved for a long time. Even if the flames died down, the person would scrap around in the ash to detect live coals and then light up the fire. This would prevent perpetual begging for fire.

I have read of how girls can use dry dung as sanitary object to absorb the menses. The celluloid material is the same material that is also used on contemporary sanitary wear. Those with much information can elaborate on this.

For today, I end here. I invite discussion on this subject. Feel free to like and comment in the spaces below.

The Significance of Birds to the Shona’s VaKaranga: An Indigenous Knowledge System Perspective

Birds…..birds….birds. Today I want us to reflect on the subject of birds from a rural boy’s perspective. I grew up in a society where birds were treated as a source of meat, hated as prey animals, venerated as some people’s totems, feared as associated with witchcraft, regarded as conveyors of messages, and so forth.

Totems are an important identifier among the Shona societies. Some peoples regard birds as their totems. The vaera nyoni (/Hungwe/Shiri). They do not eat wild birds as they venerate them. More specifically they venerate hungwe (the fish eagle).

In my area, I grew up knowing doves (njiva). My small uncle (babamunini) used to catch them live with traps he called zvisekete. We would cook them, and the taste would surprise our taste buds which would have grown accustomed to vegetables. Apart from being delicacies, doves were regarded as good birds, heralding joy and peace should they alight at your homestead or should you spot them. Many birds like zazo (quelea birds) though small were also meat delicacies.

Chidhi-i dhi-i is a small bird like zazo. It frequents rock pavements (ruware, maware) where farmers would be threshing their crops. It rakes through the chaff but with the ultimate aim of getting the grain remains. Chidhi-i dhi-i kutsvara hundi moyo urikumakoto.

Jesa (village weaver) is another common bird in Southern Africa. They like to make their nests on trees and reeds near rivers. Should they be found weaving away from the stream, that could be taken as a sign of the coming of floods in the wet season. They would have prepared a home and shelter away from the valley. In my Karanga society, some people could be scolded or simply be referred to as jesa for being talkative. Jesa is known for chirping considerably out in the valley.

Chapungu (bateleur eagle), of the eagle family is one of the rare birds in the Zimbabwean forests. Chapungu is rarely seen walking on the ground or perched on a tree. When it is spotted, it will be up in the air flying and making a shriek. They can be flying around in twos or threes or even singly when it can be making an awful roaring sound in the air with its wings. There are various beliefs associated with sighting a chapungu. Good luck is one of them as it is rarely seen where people frequent. In Shona societies, chapungu personifies a person who is stingy, who does not share life’s goodies with others as chapungu does not allow its feather to drop to the ground and therefore to be picked by people or other birds.

Owls (mazizi) are common in villages at night especially where there is high foliage. In Zimbabwe, owls are associated with bad omen or witchcraft. This is unlike how they are taken in Europe as wise birds. They move at night and there is a general belief that they are associated with witches and wizards who are generally believed to operate nocturnally. Fear would grip us young ones when owls sounded. The birds like hurekure were also associated with witchcraft because they sounded at night. Zizi also embodies one who seems invincible but later is discovered to be a coward. This is shown in a story (ngano) in which nhengure (a bird) discovers that the owl does not have horns with which it was threatening other birds (Zizi harina nyanga).

Another nocturnal bird is dabga (dahwa). It moves and feeds at night. During the day, it is mostly asleep. Out on the mountainside, herding cattle, we would awaken them. They would dart for another cover. On landing to the ground, it will quickly go to sleep. This bird symbolizes one who often sleeps in public during the day.

Husvu is a shiny, silky, dark-greenish bird with reddish eyes. When using catapult (rekeni) out in the bush no boy would hit its kind. I happened to find one who caught it using vurimbo (urimbo) or bird glue; and that was not an everyday occurrence. Husvu is very alert and clean. If one is described as husvu, the same characteristics refer.

Eagles/hawks were many in our home area. I grew up spotting robins (ruvangu), njerere and gwamuramakwande. All were known to snatch our chickens away. Thus they were prey birds. An eagle would swoop down on a hen with its brood of chicks. An alert mother hen would make noise and scamper here and there scaring away the predator while urging the chicks to hide for cover. In the confusion, the daring eagle will scoop whatever its claws laid hold of. At times it will find that it has missed the targeted chicks but got rubbish or straw. The saying “gondo harishayi (the eagle does not go empty-handed)” was coined following incidents like these. This saying is often uttered in reference to thieves who will take anything even if they fail to get their targeted goods.

Eagles are known to be producing one offspring at a time. They make a nest where hunter animals and people will find it difficult to reach. They are always on the lookout for their enemies from a vantage point. Snakes which escape live to tell the wrath of such eagles. They bring food to the young ones. They train them to fly. In short, these birds have strong parenting skills. In Shona societies, “zai rimwe zai regondo (the only egg of the eagle’s)” describes the one and only child of a couple or single.

Gunguvo (crow) is known for forgetfulness (hangamwa). After stealing a string of meat from the line where it is left to dry up, it feeds and hides the leftovers. But soon, it forgets the location of the cache after a few rounds in the veld. “Ane hangamwa sedzegunguvo (he/she has forgetfulness like that of a raven)” refers to a person who is forgetful.

A negative quality like being stiff-necked or stubbornness is exemplified by the actions of a wood pecker (chigogodza). A wood pecker is so strong as to make holes on dry wood like Mushavhi or Muvonde (fig tree). It has very strong muscles to do this. A person who does not easily follow instructions, but is stubborn in bad ways is compared to a chigogodza.

Dimba/timba is a small bird but wise. In real life and folk tales, it lines its nest with the soft feathers of others. It is regarded as wise and cunning. In Shona similes it refers to someone who exploits others but with a degree of cunningness. It also symbolizes poverty as it does not offer a lot of flesh to the bird hunters.

Nzembe is a small bird of the dove family. It is known to change places for nesting often. Changing of places of settlement by people is known in Shona as kutama. A person who changes places often is describes as nzembe.

Vultures are among the plumage of the wildlife of Africa. In Shona they are known as magora ( gora-singular). These animals lead a private life except where a corpse of a wild animal lies. It is believed that they have a way of guessing or dreaming about where they can find dead animals from which to scavenge meat. So in some Shona beliefs, they are regarded as magic pieces for luck or getting bets right. However, in my reading in the RIFA Camp library, the vultures have a keen sight which cause them to spot dead animals from afar. This is a scientific view, European view.

Nhengure is regarded as one of the wise birds. If one is described as nhengure, it means she/he is wise.

The sounds of birds like gwenhure were associated with time gauging. As young boys on a chilly rainy summer day, their chirps signified sundown. With no watches for time, we would know that that was the day’s end and we were going to rest from the toiling with cows. Most birds show the coming of dawn.

Talking of the sounds, our elders would trick us telling us that a particular bird was saying a certain message to us. So our minds would sort of follow the rhymes of the bird’s songs and it was as if the birds would be saying those words exactly like we had been told by the elders. So instead of reading meaning out of the sounds, we were reading meaning into the sounds and work our minds to believe what the birds were saying. At one time in the war (hondo) (Rhodesian war) era, my uncle dismissed our family which was working in the fields saying the sounds of certain birds were actually giving a warning to vacate the place.

I have just but touched on a few of the birds I grew seeing and knowing. There are many like vhukutiwa, mukuwe, gonji, mahindi, dhadha, chikwari, hanga, kondo and so forth. You may identify with many of these birds. Good for memories. You may have a few beliefs. These may be embodiments of many human characteristics. Observing them in the field shaped, and still do, concepts and ideas in Shona societies. How are these and other birds viewed or regarded in your societies?

Genderisation of Space Within Shona Homesteads

I have talked somewhere on the Shona concept of musha. Today I want to zero in on the traditional Shona homestead and how space was organized based on gender, and more specifically, on biological sex. In Shona communities, male and female persons were expected to differ in roles they played in life. Once one was born male biologically, there was expectation of fulfilling male roles like hunting, iron working, herding cattle, paying roora or bride price, siring children and act as fathers, among other issues. Women were expected to fill feminine roles as defined by society like cooking, gathering fruits, bearing children and taking care of them, just to mention but a few. There was no fluidity of roles between the sexes generally. This aspect of assigning roles and generally ascribing things based on sexual types (in this case male and female) can be called genderisation. I will use the definition that says that to genderise means “to divide, categorise, or deal with on the basis of gender distinctions”. And I emphasise that the gender distinctions were made by society and not individually determined; the issue that has given rise to LGBTQs.

Space within the homesteads was organised according to gender. I start with the proverbial African round hut. In the Shona societies, the kitchen hut was a common meeting place. The nucleus and extended family members and visitors alike could meet in this space. It is here where family fellowship could be enhanced especially at night when they would be warming themselves around the fireplace at the centre of this round hut. As much as the round hut had structural advantages in terms of resisting earth’s forces, it was also important in enhancing the said communion and fellowship as the occupants could easily form the much-hyped “round table.”

The hut had a fire place (choto) where all the cooking could be done especially by women. Choto had 3 or so stones known as mapfihwa meant to be pot stands during food preparation on fire. Thus it could be regarded as the female domain. There is yet another perspective to this small but important area. One side of the fireplace was for women and girls where they would sit on grass mats and goat skins. The other side was for men and boys where they sat on wooden stools. Males’ side of the fireplace was always the one where there was an earth bench (chigaravakwati).

Chigaravakwati was another name for this bench. It generally means “where visitors sit”; especially males and they would be given food in there. The bench could be behind a door (gonhi) so that the vakwati (food poachers- slang), the visitors would be behind cover while they enjoyed the food. Kukwata or eating at other people’s homes was usually not encouraged. The men and boys of the household usually sat on the bench if they were not near the fireplace where they sat on stools. Women were not encouraged to seat on the bench in the presence of men.

Still within this kitchen hut, we find a place known as chikuva, which is a small raised platform or stoep-like feature. This is way into the hut by the round wall directly facing the door. This was regarded as the family altar. The family man would pray to Mwari and the ancestors while kneeling by this platform. Here could be found different types of clay pots which could be used for various purposes. This area was for the male when doing family rituals. It was also for the females as they would be involved in the arranging of pots and cooking utensils. The place was also associated with drummers in ceremonies associated with ancestral worship.

The doorway to the hut was a common space. Both genders could go in and out. It was taboo to stand in the doorway. It was said a child would not come out during labour or childbirth if that was done.

Thus the kitchen hut was used as a lounge, kitchen, family shrine, dining room, and guest house in general. The area could be used for housing human corpses during funerals. The space behind the door was used for this purposes.

We had dare (or mens’s court) where men would socialize around a fire. The women and girls would bring sadza and relish or other food stuffs here. Kneeling down, they would indicate that food is served. Men could also roast meat around here. Meanwhile women and girls would be socializing at the kitchens.

Bedrooms were also divided according to gender. Girls had a separate hut called nhanga. Boys would sleep in a hut called gota. Staying long before getting married would mean continued use of gota. The elders coined a tsumo (proverb) that goes, “ Chembere mukadzi hazvienzani neanovata mugota”. It tried to mean that whoever the man was married to was good for that relocated him from the gota to another house. Women would be very proud saying, “Ndakamubvisa mugota” (“I removed him from his long stay in the boys’ quarters’).

Parents’ bedroom hut was called sikiro (creation chamber). It denotes the sexual engagements between a husband and wife whereupon she will fall pregnant and bear children. It appears that various Shona groups called this house different names. This was generally a private room much like the bedrooms of today. At times other women could get into this room to help the housewife during child birth.

The courtyard (chivanze, ruvazhe or munhanga) was a common area. Anybody could roam freely.

Danga (cattle pen) was generally dominated by boys and men as they were involved in herding, milking and slaughtering cattle.

Outside the courtyard, craftsmen would use a secluded area away from women where they smelted iron. A sociological analysis of the fossil clay furnaces states that they were regarded as procreative features in their lives as they produced iron which was important in farming (hoes), and, war and defense (spears) among other issues. The furnaces were regarded as women’s bodies, with some imitations of breasts attached to them. Iron smelting was regarded as men engaged in sex with women. Thus the area where they worked was regarded as private space.

I could go on to cite places like the dishes rake (chitanangare) which was mostly a girls’ and women’s place as they were involved in washing dishes. Dura or grain bin was a common area. You could be having a lot of points on the issue at hand. Let’s discuss further.