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Claude Maredza Correspondent
Some of these private armies of the prazeros were even reported to be more powerful than the army of the Portuguese’s ruler back where they came from.

So, clearly the Portuguese had really colonised this part of Zimbabwe and they were really getting rich and comfortable and in all this they caused chaos and lawlessness as these prazeros were really warlords with private armies to protect their ill-gotten wealth, and all this on land, Zimbabwe, ruled by the Mutapa.

That was a clear affront on the Mutapa by the Portuguese.

Meanwhile, what had happened at the headquarters of the Zimbabweans at Great Zimbabwe near present-day Masvingo was that there was a power struggle which resulted in a civil war.

The Mutapa who was ruling at the time died. This clearly created a Mutapa vacancy right at the apex.

The Moyo Chirandus led by one Mutota, Dlembeu’s son, thought it was their turn to rule also as all along the Shoko Mbires were ruling.

But there was contestation of the rulership from one Mukwati, a Shoko Mbire who also wanted to take over the rulership.

Mukwati refused to give in to the demands of Mutota, a Moyo Chirandu, clearly a Crown Prince, therefore also eligible for the throne.

Mukwati is said to have said in that case, “Togwa”, meaning that we might as well fight to settle this rulership contestation.

This is where the Torwa/Togwa Empire referred to in parts of the history of Zimbabwe originates.

So a civil war erupted at Great Zimbabwe as the two opposing sides waged war against each other causing untold destruction and loss of life.

The civil war at Great Zimbabwe resulted in the disintegration of the Great Zimbabwe city.

Murenga, the spirit medium, could not stand this blood-letting and he is said to have said Great Zimbabwe had been desecrated by this blood-letting.

So Murenga moved to the west and settled at Njelele near Matopo Hills close to today’s Bulawayo.

But Mukwati, who won this civil war and became the new emperor, knew that he needed to be close to the spirit medium Murenga.

This is because the Godly spirit medium Murenga was the bigger power from whom any ruler would get the divine blessings to rule, therefore it was not correct for any national paramount ruler to locate himself physically far away from the overall national spiritual power.

So Mukwati moved the Zimbabwean headquarters from the now desecrated and destroyed headquarters Great Zimbabwe to the new Guruuswa near Njelele so that he could be close to the spiritual power Murenga as it was impossible for a paramount ruler to live far away from the divine and higher authority of the Godly spirit medium.

Note here that the original Guruuswa is the area in north- east Africa where everybody originated from hence this place near Njelele being referred to as the new Guruuswa.

In the meantime, Murenga’s son Chaminuka had remained in the part of Zimbabwe where the other Zimbabweans were, the area in the present-day Marondera/Seke region and their environs.

This is the original Mbire area.

Chaminuka was the son of and the junior spirit medium to Murenga and he always consulted his father on any national issue as the two made the highest spiritual power of Zimbabwe with Murenga as the leading spiritual guide.

This is the way it should be even in today’s Zimbabwe but this very important aspect is now palpably ignored by today’s Zimbabweans which is a fatal error on the part of today’s Zimbabwean.

Chaminuka then heard about this Portuguese intransigence and invasion, so he sent envoys to his father Murenga at Njelele so that he could be given guidance on what to do with this clearly untenable and undesirable situation where the Portuguese had literally invaded and colonised the northeastern part of the country mainly comprising the Zambezi Valley inclusive of areas under Chief Negomo and even far inland enough to include today’s Mazowe area.

Murenga put a war council together and the war against the Portuguese was planned and execution of it started.

This is the first Chimurenga or Murenga’s war as Murenga had okayed this war.

National sovereignty was indeed at stake because of this Portuguese invasion which was clearly external, so indeed this was a Chimurenga, Murenga’s war.

This was in the year 1675.

By this time, the Moyos had grown in number, too, no wonder they were now demanding their turn to rule.

Remember Dlembeu was born around 1350 and all this time the Moyo Chirandus were breeding and multiplying and had become a force by themselves.

While a large number of the Moyos had gone with Mutota to Great Zimbabwe and its environs, when the capital of Zimbabwe was established at Great Zimbabwe, a significant number of the Moyos had stayed behind in the Mbire area which is the same Marondera/Seke area of today under Chaminuka’s spiritual guidance, of course with the overall spiritual supervision of Murenga.

Amongst the Moyo Chirandus who remained with Chaminuka was General Dombodzvuku, a gifted general, son of Dhewa.

General Dombodzvuku’s real name was Mutinhima Dhewa, the son of Dhewa.

Dombodzvuku was a nickname he had earned through his demonstrated military prowess.

Dhewa was a Moyo Chirandu obviously naturally making his son Mutinhima or General Dombodzvuku a Moyo Chirandu too.

When the war against the Portuguese started, Chaminuka had reported that there were some Zimbabwean chiefs who had allowed themselves to be infiltrated by the Portuguese to the extent that they were accommodating the Portuguese and had virtually become the vassals of the Portuguese. In fact, it is even reported and recorded that the Portuguese had really become so powerful in this area of Zimbabwe that they could even install their own preferred puppets as chiefs whether such people were indeed royal or not!

This was lawlessness of a grand scale. Murenga is said to have ordered that the troops who would fight against the Portuguese to drive the raiding Portuguese out of Zimbabwe would depend on these sellout chiefs for their food and other military supplies as they carried out their military campaign against the Portuguese.

This meant that they would put these sellout chiefs under subjugation and, in fact, install new chiefs who had better and credible legitimacy in the process of executing the war against the Portuguese.

They would also expropriate anything they required to successfully prosecute the war against the Portuguese from these sellout chiefs as a reprisal for these chiefs having sold out to the Portuguese.

When these sellout chiefs suddenly found themselves being roughed up by their own soldiers, they are said to have said, “tava kurozvwa navanhu vedu”, meaning our own people are destroying us. “Kurozva” means to destroy and deprive.

These soldiers would not kill the chiefs but they made sure they took all their means of survival and, in fact, dethroned them installing new loyal and patriotic chiefs in the positions of those who had sold out by accommodating the raiding Portuguese or accepting to be defeated by the Portuguese without fighting back.

So these soldiers were then given the nickname Varozvi, meaning those who destroy and deprive others.

This is when the term Varozvi came into existence.

These Varozvi soldiers were commanded by general Dombodzvuku, a Moyo Chirandu.

Prior to this, there were no Varozvi. And these new Varozvi were not any new people but the soldiers under the Moyo Chirandu General Dombodzvuku who had gone on a spree ensuring destruction of sellout chiefs as General Dombodzvuku and his men were carrying out their main mission of ousting the Portuguese as had been divinely instructed by Murenga .

At the same time, around 1690, there was yet another internal power struggle this time at Njelele at the new Guruuswa where Mukwati had based close to Murenga at the time of the first rebellion at Great Zimbabwe when Murenga decided to move to the new Guruuswa as Great Zimbabwe had become desecrated by the blood which had been shed during this first power struggle.

The ruling Mutapa of this time, now based at Njelele, had died and a Mutapaship vacancy at the top had been created by the death of the erstwhile reigning Mutapa.

When he heard about the internal revolt caused by this power struggle, General Dombodzvuku temporarily halted his onslaught against the Portuguese and went to deal with this new internal revolt that had erupted at the new Guruuswa near Njelele.

General Dombodzvuku was able to successfully deal with the internal rebellion and power struggle.

Not only did he put it down but he took advantage of the situation and installed himself as the new ruler in Guruuswa near Njelele and became the new ruler of Zimbabwe thus Zimbabwe had its first Moyo Chirandu national paramount ruler in the form of General Dombodzvuku.

This is the period referred to in history books as the Rozvi Empire.

Claude Maredza is a Crown Prince of the Norumedzo Moyo Chirandu (Duma) Kingdom Royalty of Norumedzo Village (KuHarurwa), Bikita, Masvingo, Zimbabwe. Email: [email protected].