Debate on Which Present Day African Tribe Built Great Zimbabwe is a Pointless and ill Informed Exercise

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-6095-No+pure+truth+on+Great+Zim+historian/news.aspx

Clearly Professor Sabelo Gatsheni-Ndlovu is ignorant about the subject he is talking about. How can he talk about Karanga vs Rozvi or Venda vs Kalanga as if these are separate and clearly defined entities. Talking about Karanga vs Rozvi is like talking about Coloureds in terms of Black vs White. Can the Professor tell us  who are the true ancestors of Coloureds, Whites or Blacks?

Today's Karanga have among them the descendants of the Rozvi. It is also clear that the Venda have strong and clear ethnic links to the people now called Shona. There is no doubt that they have among them large numbers of descendants of the VaRozvi. The same applies to the Kalanga and definitely to the Ndebele as well given the prevalence of the surname Moyo among the Ndebele.

About four years ago in Naboom I was served by a bank teller with the surname Chikanya. She was a Venda and had never been to Zimbabwe. While doing a project for Tansnet in Pretoria my contact person was named Tendamudzimu Matshatshi (or is it Machachi). She was a Venda.

The Professor is guilty of the assumption that the Shona have a very narrow and easily identifiable ethnic source much like the Ndebele. The truth is that the Shona are a conglomeration of many different ethnicities with a history going back a millennia not a mere century.

During that millennia some people have moved into the region and been assimilated into the Shona culture such as the vaNjanja who are descendants of Portuguese traders. Others have moved out of the region and became assimilated into other cultures. In Malawi I met a man with the surname Shumba whose clan had been in Northern Malawi for so many generations that they didn't recall exactly where they came from but he claimed they had links to Zimbabwe.

Such movement happened frequently in Bantu history and a recent example is the Mfecane which resulted in the scattering of various Nguni clans. The Ngoni are now in Malawi and have become Chewa speakers. The Shangaani are now in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and the Ndebele are now in South Africa and Zimbabwe very far away from Zulu territory.

The Mfecane happened at the same time as the infiltration of Africa by European settlers who had writing and record keeping skills which is why it is relatively well recorded. Other movements have not been so well recorded. Though versions have survived through folklore, these are not accurate and detailed.

Therefore the truth is that some of the descendants of the builders of Great Zimbabwe are to be found among the people called Shona today while some have moved and are to be found among surrounding cultures. The VaRozvi go by the totem Moyondizvo. These people largely went by the isbongo Moyo when they were assimilated into Ndebele culture.

It is therefore quite possible that Jonathan Moyo today called a Ndebele may have the same ancestors as my great-grand-uncles the Mupfururirwas of Chivhu who are Moyondizvo and are today called Shonas, or even the Mushores found in Hurungwe who are also Moyondizvo.

The questions then becomes whether Jonathan Moyo should claim that the Ndebele built Great Zimbabwe because he is now a Ndebele or the Mupfururirwas should now claim that only the Shona built Great Zimbabwe since they are now called Shonas.

On the other hand my own clan, the vaBarwe are also now called Shonas like the Mupfururirwas, but Barwe folklore clearly states that we originated from around Sena in Mozambique and does not lay claim to construction of Great Zimbabwe. My village or origin Punungwe village at Wazvaremhaka in Chivhu now lies next to the Mupfururirwa village, while Jonathan Moyo's village of origin in Tsholotsho is a journey of many days away from Mupfururirwa village. He does not even natively speak the same language as the Mupfururirwa's anymore.

It is wrong to deny either the Mupfururirwa's their heritage and credit it to the Khumalos because they are now considered closer to Jonathan Moyo, or to deny Jonathan Moyo his heritage and credit it to us Punungwes because we now live next door to the Mupfururirwas.

Therefore the notion of 'contestation' of 'ownership' of the Great Zimbabwe monument among the various ethnicities now found in the region is entirely pointless and those who are partaking in it will keep going around in circles, and have as much chance of success as a dog has of catching its tail.

That notion is propagated by mentally colonised people who seek to write history in exclusionist terms the same way colonialists did for reasons of racism and discrimination. Colonial historians sought to exclude blacks from the Great Zimbabwe heritage for reasons of their own bigotry and racism. I therefore fail to understand why blacks would partake in the same exercise.

It is like trying to find out who are the true Romans, the Italians or the Spanish. Italians have among them people who were not Romans and Spanish have among them people who were Romans.

The descendants of the people who built Great Zimbabwe are to be found among the Shona, the Ndebele, the Venda, the Kalanga the Nambya and the many other ethnicities in the region. At the same time among those ethnicities are to be found millions of people whose ancestors had nothing to do with the construction of the monument.

Yes it is true the people who live around the monument are today called Shona and indeed the name Zimbabwe itself comes from the Shona language. That means the monument is always going to be identified with the Shona more than anyone else. Let us not forget that even the name Shona itself is a very recent creation.

Classical Shona tradition readily recognises the ethnic diversity of the people. If one mentions the name Ncube at a Shona gathering several voices will quickly say 'ndiSoko Murehwa ivavo' clearly implying and accepting that the Ncubes who are Ndebeles are closely related to Murehwa people.

When I introduced a friend and business colleague, Steve Mpofu, to my mother a muHera of the Mhofu totem she quickly told me 'ndiSekuru vako ivavo'. (He is your uncle.) This is in line with the Shona practice of identifying close relations by totem even across tribal lines, rather than by ethnic name as most people tend to do. This is a clearly acknowledgement that blood relations, people with common ancestors to oneself, may be found in other tribes and not only among the people of the same tribe as oneself.

In short people who say the Shona claim the Great Zimbabwe monument for themselves do not understand this aspect of Shona culture which clearly is inclusionist. The Shona acknowledge that vaRozvi built great Zimbabwe and at the same time will readily call Jonathan Moyo a muRozvi because of his totem although ethnically he is now called a Ndebele. At the same time Shona people like myself who are not vaRozvi will never claim to be such, or claim association with the builders of Great Zimbabwe.

People like Professor Sabelo Gatsheni-Ndlovu have exclusionist outlook, that seeks to exclude certain groups first from among themselves and then from some aspects of Bantu heritage. They may also be suffering from tribal malaise which does not like to see anything good credited to the Shona.

In short the Great Zimbabwe monument belongs to all of us in the region. After all we are all Bantu people, and the evidence is clear that the ruins were built by the Bantu. Whether those Bantu are now Ndebele, Shona, Venda, Kalanga or whatever you like to call them they are still Bantu.