Biti does not understand his culture

Recently Minister of Finance was reported to have ranted and raved about 'maZezuru ekwaZvimba'.

This is a subject that I have touched on so often. There is nobody who calls themselves an ethnic Shona in Zimbabwe. Anybody who does that does not know their identity. Moreover anybody who needs to go through socially and culturally significant ceremonies  such as marriage or burial, will need to know their identity because that is when the nitygrities of a person's identity will be dissected.

There is also no such thing as an ethnic Zezuru, ethnic Karanga, ethnic Korekore, ethnic Ndau, ethnic Manyika in Zimbabwe. Those are language dialects only. When it comes to ethnicity we the people called Shona today have got our clan identities, that cut across dialects, geographic regions and even tribes.

I often watch with fascination while people go into frothy mouthed polemics about Munangagwa's Karanga faction, Mujuru's Zezuru faction and all the other so called ethnic based factions within Zanu-PF.

As long as the argument does not take into consideration the Mnangagwa is a Madyira and that his culture teaches him to consider all the Madyira and Gumbo people his relatives, then that argument is worthless. Whether they speak Zezuru, Korekore, Manyika, Ndau, Karanga or even Ndebele, Shona culture says Madyira and Gumbo people are all Mnangagwa's relatives.

Even Paul Matavire sang about it in one of his songs where he asks an unfaithful wife, 'Ini muyera Moyo, ndakazoita ukama nevayera Gumbo riini?' In the song Matavire was accusing his 'wife' of singing praise poetry for the Gumbo clan to 'his' child while he is of the Moyo clan, thereby implying the wife had been unfaithful.

I am a muBarwe of the Makombe (Nguruve) totem. In terms of my culture any Ngulube from Bulawayo, is a closer relative to me than James Chikonamombe born and bred a stone's throw away from me in Manyene communal areas near Chivhu.

If I die today any gathering of Shona people will, without any qualms whatsoever walk up to a Ngulube who may not even speak Shona, and ask him 'please can you show us where to bury your relative'. But they will never ever, not even if the sun rises from the west, walk up to Chikonan'ombe (a muyera Mhara) and ask him to show them where to bury me (a muyera Nguruve).

If they can't find a Ngulube they would still dig a grave and bury me, but afterwards they would say 'takangomurasawo nekuti tanga tashaya hama yake' (we just threw him away because we couldn't find his relative). In other words I would never be considered properly buried unless someone of my totem, no matter what language they speak, presided over the proceedings.

Chikonan'ombe mutorwa kwandiri, haana ukama neni (he is not my relative) but a Ngulube/Makombe/Humba from anywhere in the region is considered to share the same ancestors as me, and by Shona custom is a close relative (ihama yangu) come rain or come sunshine.

In terms of classical Shona culture, even before you propose to a woman, you are supposed to ask for their totem. "Nhai asikana mutupo wenyu chii?" (Young lady, what is your totem?) is considered a standard indication of the intention to propose love in Shona culture. The reason being you must eliminate the possibility of the woman being 'your sister' (of the same totem as you) before proposing love.

Conjugal relations with a woman of the same totem as you is considered incest and if it ever unknowingly happens then it should be followed by ceremonies of kuchenura (cleansing) or chekaukama (breaking the relationship).

The subject of Shona totems is not a simple one, because within the totems you can also get sub-clans. The Moyo sibongo can either be Moyo yeVaRozvi (Moyondizvo) or Moyo yeVaNjanja (Sinyoro). You get the same thing for other totem groups such as Mhofu (Museyamwa, Mufakose, Vhuramavi, Masarirambi, etc) or Soko (Murehwa, Vhudzijena, etc). However even those subgroups are considered related, though Shona culture allows them to inter-marry.

Any person who rants and raves about a mere language dialect and geographic region (like Tendai Biti recently did about maZezuru ekwaZvimba) is considered a fool by the typical wise Shona elders. He is the kind of people who would be asked to go and skin the goat at a village court.

Biti's attack is like attacking 'people speaking East Midlands English from Nottingham', something which any normal Briton will treat as hogwash. He can go ask at the British Embassy if he doubts that there are dialects in English similar to Shona dialects.

He doesn't even realise that himself having been born and bred in Harare at the centre of the Zezuru speaking areas, he is definitely a muZezuru wekuHarare. So him going about attacking maZezuru is a clever as cutting off the branch he is sitting on high up in a tree.

I am at a loss as to why people like Biti like to take foreigners' misunderstanding of their culture, and treat that as the gospel truth while ignoring the realities that they live everyday. One of the possible explanations is mental colonization.

Or maybe sleeping with the eyes wide open like a hare.