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An incident-free night with a beautiful maiden in a lion-infested jungle is supposed to be the ultimate test for suitability for chieftainship

Noah Pito
A NIGHT with a virgin in a lion-infested jungle, is supposed to be the ultimate test for a member of the Nematombo clan in line for the Hurungwe chieftainship.The rules of the game are clear: you eat the forbidden fruit, you are devoured by lions and fail the test — fatally, tragically. You are stronger than Adam, you survive the night, without falling into temptation, you are the rightful heir.

This has been the age-old tradition in the clan whose totem is the Lion, Shumba neChinanga.

However, the tradition is now under serious scrutiny and controversy. A few months ago, Lovemore Karengesha was installed without going through this initiation test. This has stoked debate and up to now opposition to his rule is palpable.

Disgruntled elements within the clan still argue that Mr Karengesha’s installation must have been preceded by a resilience and courage-testing apprenticeship that involves an overnight stint with a maiden in a jungle teeming with marauding lions.

A member of the Nematombo clan who boycotted the ceremony last year after a member of his family failed to clinch the post, opened up recently and elaborated on the perceived omission.

“Under the Nematombo chieftaincy, the tradition is that he (Mr Karengesha) must have gone through the Kupenda test. Kupenda is a practice that requires every aspiring chief to spend a night with a virgin in the midst of a jungle (Kauyu) that teems with lions. Kauyu is along the Zambezi Valley (Gova) and is the forest where those nominated to assume chieftancy in the Nematombo clan go for hardening.

“The girl must be a teenager who should also be a close relative of the aspiring chief — preferably a sister’s daughter. Both persons must be naked as they spend the whole night sitting around a bonfire.

“If the aspiring chief succumbs to the temptation and fondles the girl’s breasts or takes her for a wife, he is automatically devoured by the lions while another aspirant will be chosen. It is meant to instil courage and resilience in the new chief and only then can one be installed a chief,” he said.

Mr Ben Shiridzinodya who acted as Chief Nematombo for eight years after the death of his brother Watson Honye in 2004 until Mr Karengesha assumed office, said he fully supported the tradition.

The former acting chief said it was sad that nationally chiefs were being installed without the rightful tests required by respective spirits in the  chieftainship clans.

“Definitely in our tradition one should go to Kauyu and sleep there in the jungle to pass the trade test. It is after this test that one is conferred with a chikutukutu (a black hat), a gunje (maize stalk) and a black cloth by the spirits. Surviving the overnight stint without being harmed by the lions is a clear sign that one has been accepted by the spirits,” he said.

But contrary to claims that Kupenda must continue being used to confirm the nomination of chiefs under the Nematombo clan, a village head in the area Mr Dobiah Majinjiwa — also a member of the Nematombo clan — said Kupenda lost its usefulness long back as it was not consistent with modernity and the human rights discourse.

“Those who want us to revert to Kupenda in this era are talking of going back to Egypt when we are in Canaan. It is a retrogressive practice that must never be recognised today. Our Constitution outlaws abuse of children’s rights and kupenda blatantly violates these same rights of the girl child.

“It is as good as sending a girl to a place where you know she is going to be raped. Apart from the rape issue, imagine the issue of exposing the people to marauding lions? Kupenda must have no space in our vocabulary today. And why do they want it to work on this new chief while a host of his predecessors never went through such a test?” he asked.

Mr Majinjiwa said before the installation of every chief there were strange sights that came along to confirm that the nominee was the right one.

“Just a few days before the installation of Chief Nematombo last year, four lions were sighted in the area. In fact these appear as lions yet they are not lions but spirits coming to pay homage to the installation of a new chief. Remember the Nematombo people’s totem is the Lion, Shumba neChinanga. Zvinoreva kuti mambo anenge abvumwa nevepasi (It means he would have been accepted by the ancestors).This is more meaningful than Kupenda,” he explained.

Modernity, more controversy

Not that cultural or traditional practices are the only issues stoking chieftainship wrangles. Modern incentives and emoluments presented by Government have added controversy to chieftainships.

“Ever since the Zimbabwean Government introduced cars, electricity and boreholes as part of benefits to traditional chiefs, there has been a sudden increase in unnecessary disputes over who should be handed the baton when a substantive chief dies.”

This was what Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister, Dr Ignatius Chombo said while enthroning Karengesha as the 17th Chief Nematombo of Hurungwe in Magunje late last year.

Dr Chombo’s statement came in the wake of stiff resistance to Mr Karengesha’s nomination by some members of his clan who had tried to subvert his nomination by short-circuiting the chieftainship rotation cycle. The cabal against his nomination also unsuccessfully approached the courts then.

Said Dr Chombo: “Please don’t waste your time going to the courts when you fully know that it’s not yet your turn to assume the chieftaincy. Remember chieftaincy rotates around families. If you have any grievance over any nominations please channel your complaints through your district administrator who will forward the matter to higher offices. We can always come back to review such cases provided they have some merit.”

Dr Chombo added that the Nematombo chieftaincy rotated around families that descended from Dokotoko’s three sons: Gondongara, Karidza and Chinehasha.

Meanwhile, in a related case involving wrangling over chieftainship in Hurungwe, a Karoi magistrate recently cautioned and discharged former acting Chief Chundu, Picture Chundu, after convicting him of impersonating a chief. Picture was appointed acting Chief Chundu after the death of his father Wilson Kamhandu in 2004.

After Mr Abel Mbasera was appointed substantive chief in 2012, Picture refused to hand over the chieftainship attire insisting that he was the rightful chief. He defied several letters from the Hurungwe District administrator’s office directing him to hand over the regalia.

He was arrested in Karoi after police spotted him wearing a chieftainship badge and a necklace seven months after Mr Mbasera’s inauguration. During the same period he also continued running a parallel administration alongside that of the incumbent chief. Even his arrest, through his lawyers, the former acting chief went on to file an urgent chamber application at the High Court challenging Mr Mbasera’s appointment.

Mr Mbasera, Hurungwe District administrator Ms Tsana Chirau, Minister Chombo and President Mugabe were cited as the first, second, third and fourth respondents respectively.