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Claude Maredza Correspondent
All individuals of the Moyo Chirandu totem are one and the same people and have one source of existence.

The major variants of Moyo Chirandu, which comprise the Moyo Chirandu Varozvi, Moyo Chirandu VaDuma, Moyo Chirandu Dhewa etc are mere descriptions that came about because of the various experiences of these various groupings of the totem.

The first three Bantu groups of people to come into Zimbabwe were as follows:

1. a) The very first Bantu group to cross the Zambezi River from the North East i.e., from Nubia and the Kingdom of Kemet, which comprises areas around present day Ethiopia/Sudan and Egypt were the Tonga, whose totemic symbol is the Lion of the Tau or Dau totem.

The Lion mutupo of the Tonga must not be confused with that of the people of Chirimuhanzu near Masvingo (referred to through their praise poem of Mhazi) or that of most people in Chivi near Masvingo, whose chidawo is Murambwi and other various Lion totem zvidawos, like Sipambi.

The Tonga Lion is completely different from the Mhazi Lion of Chirimuhanzu and or Murambwi Lion of Chivi and or Sipambi Lion, also of Chivi as the Lions of Chirimuhanzu, Chivi and other Lions as they depict totems have their own completely different historical origins, which are divorced from the origins of the Tonga Lion mutupo.

In fact, all these other different Lion zvidawos, like Mhazi, Murambwi, Sipambi etc are somehow related, but are not related to the Tonga Lion.

The Tonga crossed the Zambezi into Zimbabwe around 300 and 400 AD.

1. b) The next Bantu group to cross the Zambezi was the Dziva/Hungwe/Kalanga. They arrived around 800 AD also coming from the same North East where the Tonga originated.

This group’s mutupo comprised Fish and the fish eagle bird, the Hungwe, which is today’s national Zimbabwe bird found on various statutory documents and emblems in Zimbabwe. They are also associated with water (dziva) and the east where the sun comes from (kalanga).

1. c) The third and last Bantu group to cross the Zambezi into Zimbabwe also from North East was the Shoko Mbire group. Their Paramount Chief was called Mwene Mbire or simply Nembire.

This group arrived around 1000 AD. Their totem was Shoko Matarira Chirongo or Mukanya, which simply means baboon/monkey essentially meaning their totem/mutupo is the baboon/monkey.

This Shoko Mbire group and all its offshoots is the group responsible for the making of the vast Great Zimbabwe Empire, including the Great Zimbabwe City, which became the capital city of Zimbabwe and is in fact the de facto capital city of Zimbabwe even today, albeit the de jure capital city of Zimbabwe is Harare.

Again this anomaly is mired in unforgivable colonial carelessness and sheer racism and disregard of other people’s idiosyncrasies and divinity, which has resulted in our Zimbabwean-ness being tampered around with by colonisers to the extent of utterly annoying and criminal distortion.

It is from this third group, The Shoko Mbire group that the Moyo Chirandu people originate; all of them be they Moyo Chirandu Duma or Moyo Chirandu Rozvi because there was never Moyo Chirandu Duma and or Moyo Chirandu Rozvi until certain events, which shall be explained later happened to the Moyo Chirandu people ending up with these unnecessary differentiations.

These events show that the terms Duma, Rozvi, Dhewa etc. are mere descriptions of events, which resulted in the same Moyo Chirandu people being described as Rozvi and or Duma or Dhewa and or any other variants of the Moyo Chirandu out there, which is really meaningless as all of these variants are all one; Moyo Chirandu.

From the onset, therefore, it has to be clearly understood that all Moyos are Moyo Chirandu. The question of the variants such as Moyo Chirandu Duma, Moyo Chirandu Rozvi/Dhewa etc. are really unimportant and inconsequential, although it will be important to show how these variants came about.

In other words, as shall be clearly illustrated, it is correct for any Moyo Chirandu to refer to himself or herself as Murozvi or Muduma or Dhewa as these descriptions are exactly that. Mere descriptions that came about because of certain experiences that happened to the Moyo Chirandu people as a whole and are, therefore, inconsequential to the oneness of the Moyo Chirandu, thus, making any Moyo Chirandu a Muduma or a Murozvi or a Dhewa or any of the variants of Moyo Chirandu as every Moyo is a Moyo Chirandu, no matter what variant they have been erroneously taught to adhere to as that variant is a mere description, which is incapable of tearing itself away from the taproot and the origins; i.e., Moyo Chirandu.

It should also be noted that there is only one Moyo Chirandu the world over and no other Moyo anything and all other Moyo derivatives anywhere under the sun compulsorily rally back to the original Moyo Chirandu. This is because of the uniqueness with which the totem Moyo Chirandu came about as shall be explained in this discussion.

This clearly illustrates that there is no other Moyo anywhere except Moyo Chirandu whatever variants one wants to bring to this totem.The only other important thing to remember is that the Moyo Chirandu must never forget to add the term VapaMoyo when they refer to their female relatives (sisters, daughters, aunts) as they are, indeed, our VapaMoyo, our very loved ones who are very close to our hearts and it has been like that ab initio and will be like that ad infinitum.

And every Moyo Chirandu person is reminded that at any event, function or gathering, no protocol is complete until honour and recognition is accorded to the Moyo Chirandu female relatives i.e., the aunts, sisters and daughters; i.e., VapaMoyo.

Whether these female relatives are present or not, this honour and recognition must still be given even in abstentia in the event that no female relative is present.

Any function that does not honour and recognise VapaMoyo is considered to be incomplete and, therefore, not recognised by God through our Godly spiritual ancestors thus; nullifying such a function no matter how important the function may be.

So let it be known to all the Moyos that whether you want to call yourself Moyo Chirandu Duma or Moyo Chirandu Rozvi, you are wasting your time.

You are Moyo Chirandu first and foremost.

Duma, Rozvi or Dhewa etc. are mere descriptions of the same Moyo Chirandu people, so these are not differentiations at all, which make the Moyo Chirandu Duma any different from the Moyo Chirandu Rozvi or Moyo Chirandu Dhewa etc. because all these are the same Moyo Chirandu originating from the very same source.

The Duma, Rozvi, Dhewa are mere descriptions of segments of the same Moyo Chirandu people, who originated from one source.

To make it clearer; we can use the children of say Maredza as an example. One child of Maredza can become an accountant, the other one, an engineer, the other one a teacher and yet another one a medical doctor. The fact that these children have become varied professionals does not mean they have ceased to be Maredzas.

They are still Maredzas even if one is an accountant, a teacher, an engineer etc. It will really be foolhardy for any of them to then say they are no longer a Maredza because they have become an accountant. That would be nonsensical because their profession does not in any way change them from their being a Maredza.

Of course, the Maredza accountant cannot be the same person as the Maredza engineer. But what we are concerned about in this paper is not which Maredza is an accountant and which Maredza is an engineer.

What we want to straighten is Maredza the engineer and Maredza the accountant are from the same source, the same Maredza.

The accountant can, therefore, not say he/she is not a Maredza anymore because he/she is now an accountant. Neither can the Maredza engineer because the truth of the matter is that they are both Maredzas whether the one has become an engineer or an accountant.

We want in this discussion to clarify the point and the fact that the Maredza children remain Maredza children whatever professions they become in life, and none of them must be heard to try and tout his or her profession so much as to elevate that profession above the Maredza family name to make the profession become almost like a family name unto itself because it’s not.

It’s a mere profession.

He/she remains a Maredza whatever profession they have become as a result of life’s experiences. That is the point we are straightening out.

So that’s the same thing as the Moyo Chirandus.

The terms Duma, Rozvi, Dhewa etc as they pertain to the Moyo Chirandus are mere descriptions just like the Maredzas, who have become accountants, engineers, doctors etc.

It does not make them become something else other than Maredza.

Neither does being described as Duma or Rozvi make that Moyo Chirandu become something else other than a Moyo Chirandu whether described as Duma, Rozvi, Dhewa or whatever.

So what happened? How did Moyo Chirandu begin?