Shona people

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Shona

Total population
16.6 million (2019)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Zimbabwe	12 million (2019)[1]
Mozambique	153,000[2][3]
South Africa	~2 million (2019)
Zambia	30,200[4][5]
United Kingdom	500,000 (2011)[6]
Languages
Shona; English
Religion
Christianity, Shona traditional religion
Related ethnic groups
Lemba, Kalanga; Venda and other Bantu people

A Shona n'anga (witch doctor).

The Shona people (/ˈʃoʊnə/) are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily Zimbabwe (where they form the majority of the population). They have five major clans, and are adjacent to other groups with similar cultures and languages.

Regional classification[]

The Shona people are divided into tribes in eastern and northern Zimbabwe. Their estimated population is 16.6 million:^[8]

• Karanga or Southern Shona (about 8.5 million people)
• Zezuru or Central Shona (5.2 million people)
• Korekore or Northern Shona (1.7 million people)

Other members or close relatives:

• Manyika tribe or Eastern Shona (1.2 million)^[9] in Zimbabwe (861,000) and Mozambique (173,000). Desmond Dale's basic Shona dictionary includes the Manyika dialect.^[10]
• Ndau^[11] in Mozambique (1,580,000) and Zimbabwe (800,000). Their dialect, partially mutually intelligible with the main Shona dialects, has click sounds which do not occur in standard Shona. Ndau has a wealth of Nguni words as a result of the Gaza Nguni occupation of their ancestral land in the 19th century.

Language and identity[]

When the term "Shona" was created during the early-19th-century Mfecane (possibly by the Ndebele king Mzilikazi), it was used as a pejorative for non-Nguni people; there was no awareness of a common identity by the tribes and peoples which make up the present-day Shona. The Shona people of the Zimbabwe highlands, however, retained a vivid memory of the ancient kingdom often identified with the Kingdom of Mutapa. The terms "Karanga", "Kalanga" and "Kalaka", now the names of discrete groups, seem to have been used for all Shona before the Mfecane.^[12] Ethnologue notes that the language of the Bakalanga is mutually intelligible with the main dialects of Karanga and other Bantu languages in central and eastern Africa, but counts them separately. The Kalanga and Karanga are believed to be one clan who built the Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and Khami, and were assimilated by the Zezuru. Although many Karanga and Kalanga words are interchangeable, Kalanga is different from Zezuru.

Dialect groups have many similarities. Although "standard" Shona is spoken throughout Zimbabwe, the dialects help identify a speaker's town (or village) and ethnic group. Each Shona dialect is specific to a certain ethnic group.

In 1931, during his attempt to reconcile the dialects into a single standard Shona language, Clement Doke^[13] identified five groups and subdivisions:

1. The Korekore (or Northern Shona), including Taυara, Shangwe, Korekore, Goυa, Budya, the Korekore of Urungwe, the Korekore of Sipolilo, Tande, Nyongwe of "Darwin", and Pfungwe of Mrewa
2. The Zezuru group, including Shawasha, Haraυa, another Goυa, Nohwe, Hera, Njanja, Mbire, Nobvu, Vakwachikwakwa, Vakwazvimba, Tsunga
3. The Karanga group, including Duma, Jena, Mari, Goυera, Nogoυa, and Nyubi
4. The Manyika group, including Hungwe, Manyika themselves, Teυe, Unyama, Karombe, Nyamuka, Bunji, Domba, Nyatwe, Guta, Bvumba, Here, Jindwi, and Boca
5. The Ndau group (mostly in Mozambique), including Ndau, Garwe, Danda, and Shanga

Dialects developed during the dispersion of tribes across Zimbabwe over a long period, and the influx of immigrants into the country from bordering countries has contributed to the variety.

History[]

A Shona family, 1911.

During the 11th century, the Kalanga people formed kingdoms on the Zimbabwe plateau. Construction began on Great Zimbabwe, capital of the kingdom of Zimbabwe. The Torwa dynasty ruled the kingdom of Butua, and the kingdom of Mutapa preceded the Rozvi Empire (which lasted into the 19th century).

Brother succeeded brother in the dynasties, leading to civil wars which were exploited by the Portuguese during the 16th century. The kings ruled a number of chiefs, sub-chiefs and headmen.^[14]

The kingdoms were replaced by new groups who moved onto the plateau. The Ndebele destroyed the Rozvi Empire during the 1830s; the Portuguese slowly eroded the kingdom of Mutapa, which extended to the Mozambique coast after it provided valued exports (particularly gold) for Swahili, Arab and East Asian traders. The British destroyed traditional power in 1890 and colonized the plateau of Rhodesia in 1890, and the Portuguese colonial government in Mozambique fought the remnants of the kingdom of Mutapa until 1902. The Shona people were also a part of the Bantu migration where they are one of the largest Bantu ethnic groups in sub Saharan Africa.^[14]

Culture[]

Subsistence agriculture and mining[]

Shona farms near Murewa, Zimbabwe

The Shona have traditionally practiced subsistence agriculture. They grew sorghum (largely replaced by maize), beans (since the middle of the first millennium AD), African groundnuts, and (beginning in the 16th century) pumpkins. Sorghum and maize are used to prepare the main dish, a thickened porridge called sadza, and the traditional beer known as hwahwa.^[15] The Shona also keep cattle and goats, since livestock are an important food reserve during droughts.^[14] Precolonial Shona states derived substantial revenue from the export of mining products, particularly gold and copper.^[14]

Housing[]

Traditional Shona housing, known as musha, are round huts arranged around a cleared yard (ruvanze). Each hut has a specific function, such as a kitchen or a lounging space.^[16]

Arts[]

Sculpture[]

The Shona are known for their stone sculptures, which were discovered during the 1940s. Shona sculpture developed during the eleventh century and peaked in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries before beginning a slow decline until their mid-20th-century rediscovery. Although most of the sculptures are sedimentary-stone (such as soapstone) birds or humans, some are made with harder stone such as serpentinite and the rarer verdict. During the 1950s, Zimbabwean artists began carving stone sculptures for sale to European art lovers. The sculptures quickly became popular and were bought and exhibited by art museums worldwide. Many of the sculptures depict the transformation of spirits into animals (or vice versa), and some are abstract. Many Zimbabwean artists carve wood and stone for sale to tourists, and traditional pottery also exists.

Clothing[]

Traditional clothing were usually animal skins that covered the front and the back named mhapa and shashiko. These later evolved when traders introduced cloth.

Music[]

Mbiras

Shona traditional music, like other African traditional music, has constant melodies and variable rhythms. Its most important instruments are ngoma drums and the mbira. The drums vary in size and shape, depending on the type of music they are accompanying. How they are played depends on the size of a drum and the type of music. Although large drums are typically played with sticks and smaller drums with an open palm, the small drum used for the amabhiza dance is played with a hand and a stick; the stick rubs, or scratches, the drum to produce a screeching sound.

The mbira has become a national instrument of sorts in Zimbabwe.^[17] It has a number of variants, including the nhare, mbira dzavadzimu, the Mbira Nyunga Nyunga, njari mbira and matepe. The mbira is played at religious and secular gatherings, and the different mbiras have different purposes. The 22–24-key mbira dzavadzimu is used to summon spirits, and the 15-key Mbira Nyunga Nyunga is taught from primary school to university. Shona music also uses percussion instruments such as the marimba (similar to a xylophone), hosho (shakers), leg rattles, wooden clappers (makwa), and the chikorodzi, a notched stick played with another stick.

Religion/Rudaviro[]

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A n'anga, close to Great Zimbabwe

The religion of Shona people is centred on Mwari (God), also known as Musikavanhu (Creator of man/people) or Nyadenga (one who lives high up). God communicates with his people on earth directly or through chosen holy people. At times God uses natural phenomena and the environment to communicate with his people. Some of the chosen people have powers to prophecy, heal and bless. People can also communicate with God directly through prayer. When someone dies, according to Shona religion, they join the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, they can enjoy their afterlife or become bad spirits. No one wants to be a bad spirit, so during life, people are guided by a culture of unhu so that when they die, they enjoy their afterlife.Deaths are not losses but a promotion to the stage where they can represent the living through the clan spirits.Colonial white missionaries as well as anthropologists like Gelfand and political colonialists did not interpret this religion in good light because they wanted to undermine it in favour of Christianity. Initially, they said the Shona did not have a God, but this was a lie. They denigrated the way the Shona had communicated with their God, the Shona way of worship and chosen people among the Shona. They could not distinguish the living and the dead. The chosen people were regarded as unholy and Shona prayer was regarded as pagan. Of course, the agenda was to colonise. When compared with Christianity, the Shona religion perspective of afterlife, holiness, worship and rules of life (unhu) have similar goals, they are only separated by cultures (African versus European) and values (unhu versus western). Although sixty to eighty percent of the Shona people converted to Christians as a result of colonial missionaries, and at times by force, Shona religious beliefs are still very strong. Most of the Christian churches and beliefs have been blended with Shona religion. This was done to guard against European and western cultures that dominate Christianity. A small number of the population practice the Muslim faith, often brought about by immigrants from predominantly Malawi who practice Islam. There is also a small population of Jews. An example of a colonially constructed meaning of the Shona religion is found in the works of Gelfand, an anthropologist. Gelfand said the afterlife in Shona religion is not another world (like the Christian heaven and hell) but another form of existence in this world. This is not true. When people die, they join another world, and that world is not on earth, although like in Christianity, some of those people can interact with living beings in different ways. He further wrongly concluded that the Shona attitude towards dead ancestors is very similar to their attitude towards living parents and grandparents.^[18] The Bira ceremony, which often lasts all night, summons spirits for guidance and help in the same manner daily, weekly or all night Christian ceremonies summon spirits for guidance and help. In this analysis, Gelfand and Hannan, both whites, and part of the colonial establishment, forgot that the Christian doctrine treats dead prophets, biblical figures and living 'holy people' in much the same way. In fact in the Christian community, some of the prophets, figures and 'holy people' are revered more than biological parents. In fact, in colonial Zimbabwe, converts were taught to disrespect their families and tribes, because of a promise of a new family and tribe in Christianity. This is ironic.

In Zimbabwe, (mutupo) (plural mitupo) wrongly called totems by colonial missionaries and athropologists have been used by the Shona people since their culture developed. Mitupo are an elaborate was of identifying clans and sub-clans. They help to avoid incest, and they also build solidarity and identity. There are more than 25 mitupo in Zimbabwe. In marriage, mitupo help create a strong identity for children but it serves another function of ensuring that people marry someone they know. In shona this is explained by the proverb rooranai vematongo which means marry or have a relationship with someone that you know. However, as a result of colonisation, urban areas and migration resulted in people mixing and others having relationships of convenience with people they do not know. This results in unwanted pregnancies and also unwanted babies some of whom are dumped or abandoned. This may end up with children without mutupo. This phenomena has resulted in numerous challenges for communities but also for the children who lacks part of their identity. Though it is possible for a child to be adopted and receive "mutupo".^[19][20]

Notable Shona People[]

See also[]

•  Africa portal

Citations[]

Further reading[]

• "Arts and Culture in the 'Royal Residence'" (PDF). Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, Oct. 2018, pp. 141–149. EBSCOhost 133158724.(registration required)
• McEwen, Frank. "Shona Art Today". African Arts, vol. 5, no. 4, 1972, pp. 8–11. JSTOR 3334584.
• Van Wyk, Gary; Johnson, Robert (1997). Shona. New York: Rosen Pub Group. ISBN 9780823920112.
• Zilberg, Jonathan L. Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture: The Invention of a Shona Tradition, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ann Arbor, 1996. ProQuest 304300839.

^{[1] [2] [3]}

External links[]

Scholia has a topic profile for Shona people.

• Media related to Shona people at Wikimedia Commons
• Shona Translator
• Shona Dictionary
• "Shona" at the Encyclopædia Britannica