Shona people


The Shona people are an ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily Zimbabwe. 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 10.7 million:
Other members or close relatives:
When the term "Shona" was created during the early-19th-century Mfecane, 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. 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 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 identified five groups and subdivisions:
  1. The Korekore, 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, 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

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.
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.
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 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.

Culture

Subsistence agriculture and mining

The Shona have traditionally practiced subsistence agriculture. They grew sorghum, beans, African groundnuts, and pumpkins. Sorghum and maize are used to prepare the main dish, a thickened porridge called sadza, and the traditional beer known as hwahwa. The Shona also keep cattle and goats, since livestock are an important food reserve during droughts. Precolonial Shona states derived substantial revenue from the export of mining products, particularly gold and copper.

Housing

Traditional Shona housing, known as musha, are round huts arranged around a cleared yard. Each hut has a specific function, such as a kitchen or a lounging space.

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 birds or humans, some are made with harder stone such as serpentinite and the rarer verdite. 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, and some are abstract. Many Zimbabwean artists carve wood and stone for sale to tourists, and traditional pottery also exists.

Clothing

Traditional textile production was high-quality, but expensive; the Shona preferred wearing skins or imported fabrics.

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. The way in which 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. 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, hosho, leg rattles, wooden clappers and the chikorodzi, a notched stick played with another stick.

Religion

Although sixty to eighty percent of the Shona people are Christians, traditional beliefs remain. According to Shona tradition, the afterlife is not another world but another form of existence in this world. The Shona attitude towards dead ancestors is very similar to their attitude towards living parents and grandparents. The Bira ceremony, which often lasts all night, summons ancestral spirits for guidance and help.
In Zimbabwe, totems have been used by the Shona people since their culture developed. Totems identify clans, and up to 25 totems have been identified. Similar totems exist among the South African Tswana, Zulu, Northern Ndebele and Herero. The totem system is problematic for orphans, who may not have a totem.

Notable Shona