History of the Nyandoro Clan, Zimbabwe Early Settlers.

History of the Nyandoro Clan, Zimbabwe early settlers

According to oral traditions and some written records, our forefathers once lived in what is now Khartoum between the White Nile and the Blue Nile. Apparently they came to call themselves abaGova (Goba, Ngowa,Ngona, Ghoya, in some books).

From there they migrated to Bale region of Ethiopia and named their place Goba, which still exist today. It is here that words like Ishe and Shewe became popularly used. From Goba, the abaGova or AbaGoba or amaNgowa moved to present day Lake Victoria. It is from here that the Greatest known ancestor of the Dziva-Hungwe Nation, Dzivaguru led the nation to the south.

His symbol of power was the feathers of the fish eagle (Hungwe) which he wore as a crown and the conus shell. The migration took many years but eventually the Dziva-Hungwe Nation reached the Zambezi river. The Dziva-Hungwe migration was from the Great Lakes to the south of the mighty Zambezi and eventually to Vhembe(Limpopo).

When Dzivaguru reached the Zambezi he did what he had to do and according to tradition, he pointed to the south of the Zambezi and said “There is our home. There we shall live and prosper.”

At this time they still called themselves abaGoba.

Eventually they crossed the great Zambezi River. On the way south after the passing on of the Great One, his sons split.

Nyamukoko and Kaluba remained in the north to later become the Tavara people. One son Luvhimbi went south.

Later in history, this is captured in the Brian Rouftopolis edited book ‘Becoming Zimbabwe: A History from the Pre-colonial Period to 2008’: “After consolidating his position in the north, (Nyatsimba) Mutota successfully accommodated local Tonga/Tavara spirits Dzivaguru and Karuva of the Nhari Unendoro totem, to merge the superior of them all, thus adding a strong religious element to an already secular system that defined the Mutapa-Korekore identity” (pp16, 2008). The well-known ancestor of the Dziva-Hungwe was Dzvivaguru who lies in state in the Mavuradonha Mountains and his son Kaluba (aka Karuva) is the ancestor of the Nhari Unendoro people. The Nhari Unendoro are referred to as Maokomavi in their praise poetry, the same praise name is used by the Hungwe. The Hungwe are also referred to as Chivara which is also synonymous with Ndoro, in their case referring to the white plumage of the Hungwe bird.

As the first Bantu people in southern Africa, they needed to grow their populations and it is during this time that various families adopted different water-based totems after their ancestor Dzivaguru.

Luvhimbi became Shiriyedenga (Hungwe) and as the oldest of Dzivaguru’s sons and assumed leadership which saw the setting up the earliest kingdom in southern Africa with its capital city at Mapungubwe, just south of the Limpopo River (Vhembe). They lived side-by-side the Khoi-khoi and the San people who had lived in southern Africa for centuries. It is believed that the first group to settle in Northern South Africa settled at Zwaluvhimbi, Ha-Makuya. From there he group settled at Ha-Luvhimbi, all named after the founder Luvhimbi. Luvhimbi was a great rainmaker who was also known as Tshirumbula-Mikovha (one whose rain turns gorges into rivulets).

Dziva-Hungwe influence extended southwards and they had reached the area south of Vhembe (Limpopo) River by 500 AD where they founded a kingdom, the legendary Mapungubwe which dates back to the 6th Century. Mapungubwe predates the settlements at Great Zimbabwe, Thulamela, Dzata and Khami.

Hungwe ancestors have strong roots in the Dzivhani Ngona Tribe found in the Venda area of South Africa.

According to one version of vaNgona oral history, they settled in present day Venda area as early as the 6th Century and their capital was Mapungubwe. This tradition states that one of the vaNgona Kings was Ishe Shiriyadenga (loosely translated, Bird of the Sky) whose royal kraal was at Mapungubwe. He would also later be referred to as Ishe Hungwe (and so were all his successors), after the African fish eagle representing the totem of his forefathers, and by extension the totem of his people.

Not much is documented about the brothers Nyamukoko and Karuva but there is strong evidence that the Kaluba (Karuva) descendants were key political and religious advisers to the Mutapa kings and the Dzivaguru and Karuva spirit mediums are revered among the Tonga, Tavara and Korekore to this day. Oliver Zvabva was cited by Ranger as saying the voice of Dzivaguru speaks in the Nyachiranga Mountains on the frontier between north-eastern Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The Dzivaguru cult, which was famous as a rainmaker, was based at the shrine in the foothills of the Mavhuradonha Mountains (Ranger, 1967). Dzivaguru was the father of Karuva who had the powers to bring mist (mhute) in which he and his people and possessions could hide whenever under attack by Nyabapa (Bourdillon, 1979). Dzivaguru and Karuva cults were the original owners of the land and they maintained ritual power over it and the political power of governing the people was given to the invading conquerors (Bourdillon, 1979). Messengers of Mutota went with gifts of snuff tobacco to Dzivaguru and Karuva in order to receive rain.

It would be safe to conclude that Biri and Ganyire are descendants of Kaluba (Kaluba) who assumed a different totem after committing incest and descendants of Nyamukoko assumed the Savara (Gunguwo) totem to differentiate themselves from the Hungwe cousins. This was obviously unavoidable considering the only other tribes they could have married into were the Khoikhoi and the San until 10th Century when the invading Mbire tribes also crossed the Zambezi into what is now Zimbabwe.