Origins of the name Mazvimbakupa.

A bit of history as to the origins of the name Mazvimbakupa.

Mazvimbakupa is a name that refers to generosity and being charitable . The name carries the message that the bearer is one who has a strong urge to give. While in other dialects of Shona kuzvimba means to swell, in the Korekore dialect and other forms of old Shona, the word kuzvimba means to have a strong yearning or desire. This name is a clan praise name of those of the Tembo-Samaita totem. Their totemic animal is mbizi (the zebra). The other variant name of this is Zvimbakugova (Swelling with the desire to share/distribute). It really means having a strong yearning or urge to distribute. While the name may at the beginning of the clan have been used to refer to a progenitor of the Tembo-Samaita who had a lot of wealth, it is not surprising that today, some of the people who have this same praise name may have names like Mautsahuku (fowl herder), Mushayabhachi (One without a coat), or any other such name that may reflect extreme poverty. Those who use the name Mazvimbakupa today largely use it with full knowledge that they do not lack materially and financially. Some of them may also use it in reference to the abundance of love that they claim to have for their women, so they declare that they yearn to share that love with them.

Although names like Mazvimbakupa and Nyamupangedengu are boasts of what the name bearers claim that they can do, there are other names among the Shona that put emphasis on the importance of working hard. Even though among the Shona there are trade different specialists, almost every family is involved in subsistence agriculture.

There are however, some people who are lazy and are not interested in cultivating their pieces of land. Such people have not been spared in the naming culture of the Shona but have had nicknames, which are additional names that the society has bestowed on them for purposes precisely identifying their shortcomings. Some of the names that are given include the following: Karadzandima, Kasiyandima, Karimanzira, Kagurabadza and Mutyamaenza.