Shava Totem Origins

Shava is a totem name variant of Mhofu/Mpofu, which is the name of the Eland that is common in Southern Africa. The meanings attached to Shava include the fairness of the skin, resembling the colors of the Eland, or becoming self-sufficient such as by hunting or fishing.

Shava is associated with the Vahera tribe, descendants of Mbiru, who lived at Gombe Hill in present-day Buhera, East of Zimbabwe. The Vahera are Shona, a collective name of many tribes who lived in present-day Zimbabwe before Mzilikazi settled there with his Ndebele people. The Ndebele use the name Mpofu in Matabeleland. The Vahera people claim that they came from Guruuswa,[1] an area North of the Zambezi river, in Uganda and Sudan. Another claim is that they entered Zimbabwe via Mozambique, where some of their daughters had bred with the foreign traders along the coast, resulting in the light brown skin tone. That light brown is called shava in Shona.

Buhera is an English corruption of the word Vahera, which means the Hera people.

Clans
Mbiru was identified by his totem Shava (the Eland), also known as Nhuka. In their praise poetry they use terms such as Mhofuyemukono (the bull eland) and Mhukahuru (the large beast). All descendants of Mbiru share the same totem of Shava, but some changed to various Chidawos over time (praise name in parentheses) to hide from their enemies.

The Shava belt includes the following dynasties: Bocha, in the East, in the angle of the Odzi and Save; Marange (Shava Mukonde) in Buhera on the south bank of the upper Save River, the Nyashanu (Shava Museyamwa), the Mutekedza (Shava Masarirambi) South of Buhera and the Munyaradzi (Shava Wakanonoka).

Shava dynasties stretched west of the watershed from the upper Munyati to the Munyati-Mupfure confluence. These include the Mushava (Shava Musimuvi), the Nherera and Rwizi (Shava Mazarura) in the middle of Mupfure River, the Chivero (Shava Mwendamberi) to the far West of Chivero, the Neuso (Shava Mhukahuru Murehwa), the Muvirimirwa, the Chireya, or the Shava Murehwa, the Njerere (Shava Mvuramavi), the Nemangwe, the Nenyanga, the Negonde, the Nyavira, the Neharava, the Seke Mutema (Shava Mvuramavi), the Hwata dynasty (Shava Mufakose) and the Chiweshe (Shava Mutenhesenwa) in northern Zimbabwe and (Shava Nyakuviruka).


Contrary to accepted history, the governance of the area was organized.

History
Seke Mutema

The most compelling untold history is that of Seke Mutema, whose actions opened up the North, East and West of present-day Zimbabwe to the Vahera. Vahera culture was underpinned by inclusiveness and including marrying outside the totem. Seke was the first son of Nyashanu, and was disgruntled because he had been passed over in succession. His mother may have been from the Dziva people in the West, and then Northeast.

With his brothers Hwata, Chiweshe, Marange, and Gwenzi, he set up a vast kingdom that encouraged other members of their tribe to move south and west. The change in totems had more with these events than the need for intermarriage, which is still not widely accepted there.

It is said that Chiweshe's and Hwata's children’s battles over land and women were encouraged by Uncle Gwenzi, who himself never sired a child. In settling these disputes Hwata became Mufakose. He intervened in conflicts in the West with Mzilikazi, and was fighting within territories under his governance while Chiweshe assumed mutenhesanwa (those fighting among themselves).

Seke changed to Mvuramavi (hellstorm/waterstone-Mvuramahwe) after having agreed as per Rozvi tradition to change his people totem to Zuruvi in order to marry the Zuruvi Chief's daughter as a peace arrangement. Upon the death of the wife, the people agitated to return to their original totem. This was no longer possible given the intervening intermarriage.

Seke was the eldest followed by Aitewedzerwa na Chiweshe, Kouya Hwata, Marange and lastly Gwenzi. Their mother was a Rozvi princess. Seke, when he used the Chidawo, boasted of the fact that he was a Muzukuru of the Rozvi (Varidzi Wevu) through using the Chidawo Ivuramai Vangu, shortened to Vurami (the soil/land belongs to my mother, i.e., vana sekuru vake, or the Rozvi).

This served to remind all neighbouring clans of Seke's blue blood, e.g. the Matemai. Seke's new sons-in-law, the Matemai had gone crazy on seeing Vabvana Vatsvuku Weshava and immediately gave Seke the area where they now live.

His neighbors were the Matemai to the Northeast, the Tingini's Soko Murehwa of Washawasha in the North around the Harare suburbs of Glenlorne/Chisipiti and to the West Chiwero (around WarrenHills/Dziwaresekwa all to areas around Norton) and associated people such as the Gwanzura. To the Northwest were the Mapondera who occupied land stretching from the Harare suburbs of Marlborough/Mt Hamperden to the Mazowe valley (Kugomba). The South was the dominion of Seke's father Nyashanu (Churu Chine Masvesve). To the East were the Vatsunga of Nyandoro, the Vahota (Chihota) and the Vambire around Mount Hwedza.


War with the Gunguvo people ensued during Goreraza's rule. They pushed the invaders out and thus assumed the totem Mhofu Mvuramahwe, which over time came to be Mvuramavi (waterstone).