In my primary school days I went to school with a Tsveropile Tlou. One of my father's tenants was a Mr Mbedzi. At that time I had no clue there was a tribe called Venda and I thought they were just Shonas who grew up in Matabeleland.
Zimbabwe's history books, which were written from the point of view of European settlers, do not mention anyone other than the Shona and the Ndebele. Like nearly all of Zimbabwe's school children I first learnt about other tribes from anecdotal social discussions.
If the adults around you happen to discuss social traits you might pick up a thing or two about the existence of other tribes. However what you pick-up might not be accurate of even true because it may be heavily tainted by the speaker's biases.
The first tribe I learnt about were the Tonga because my father was always talking about how powerful Tonga muti from Binga was. Later when I was hanging around the workshop of a relative and talk centred around sexual activity, I picked up that Shangani women had beads that could drive a man crazy and they also pulled certain anatomical parts to make them longer.
That should not be the way we let our children learn about Zimbabwe's ethnic mix. Right now my first child is in high school, I do not know if she is even aware that Zimbabwe has other people apart from the Shona, Ndebele and Europeans.
President's Mugabe's comments are unfortunate but, ironically, it may mark the first time the Kalanga people were mentioned in international news services. Even though, most western media services like BBC and CNN did not report the story. It would have been difficult for them to explain to their audience who this Kalanga tribe were. They were suddenly being mentioned in a country that has always been reported as having Shona and Ndebele tribes only.
President Mugabe's comments are unfortunate on more than one front. The second being that it also shows that he takes the colonial version of history as gospel truth.
For the record there is no tribe called Shona. No group of people ever called themselves Shona people prior to colonialism.
The bulk of the people called Shona today were called maKaranga. The reason for that is that they practiced the chiKaranga religion. If you call yourself Shona and dispute what I am saying, tell me at every funeral you have attended from Mutoko to Zaka-Jerera, when they announce rituals do they not say 'Tava kuita chiKaranga'?
The Tswana call our culture iKalanga, not iShona. The Venda call all Shona people maKaranga. That is who we are.
What about the Kalanga people. Who are they? They are maKaranga with heavy Ndebele influence. That influence happened simply because colonial governments forced anyone from the Matabeleland provinces, and parts of Midlands, to learn Ndebele at school irrespective of what language they spoke at home.
The Herald recently had an article explaining how the name Lomagundi came about from Nemakonde. European settlers first mispronounced place or people's names, then they Nguninised the names. Thus Mutare became Umtali, Panyaronga became Penhalonga, Uhera became Buhera and the Karanga within Matabeleland became the Kalanga while the rest were simply called Shona.
The name Karanga was popularised again after independence. However that was accompanied by the misconception that it applied only to people from parts of Masvingo province. Those people are mostly vaDuma and the dialect they speak is Hwesa. The name Karanga should actually be used in relation to all dialects now collectively called Shona.
Shona is a subset of chiKaranga not the other way round. ChiKaranga includes Kalanga, Nambya and iKalanga spoken in parts of Botswana.
Therefore truly, truly peaking, President Mugabe himself is a Kalanga.
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