![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
The gadzingo or ancestral headquarters of the Mapanzure/Hera people of Chishanga in southern Zimbabwe was strategically chosen. Its high altitude and picturesque terrain offered several advantages for healthy and secure pre-colonial settlement. Above all, it was a major watershed from which all the rivers of the territory flowed, so that it was possible, over time, for specific lineages to claim ownership of a river or stream of their own. This well-watered environment supported the establishment of a sacred forest or Rambotemwa, amongst the surrounding hills where Hera ancestors lay buried. It became a sanctified ritual zone which evoked notions of place for most people of Chishanga and legitimacy for its ruling Mapanzure lineage. These were usefully deployed in local images of the fertility of the land performed through periodic rain-making ceremonies conducted within the gadzingo. In this territory, the Hera and their agnates both found ‘home’ and ‘owned’ the resources within it. Colonial rule not only moved people out of the gadzingo and in between their ancestral ‘districts’, but in the period between 1936 and 1962, an ‘era of experimentation with African agriculture’, Mapanzure legitimacy was threatened in various ways. After the official abandonment of the experimentation programme in 1962 Mapanzure authority in Chishanga was challenged by ‘development’ projects that took away control over water from traditional authorities and placed it in the hands of government officials. In the 1970s, as the guerrilla war escalated, the Rhodesian government abdicated power to ‘tribal land authorities’. Most chiefs, such as those of Chishanga, felt that this was an acknowledgement that they needed to be consulted on all matters to do with their people. They often took advantage of this to re-assert their authority in various ways. This article argues that up to this day chiefs in Zimbabwe have always viewed government-initiated development programmes with scepticism. To them such government projects represent a long, drawn out contest between ‘traditionalism’ and ‘modernity’, and often, a justification for the compulsory implementation of experiments with their resources, for which their opinions are never sought. These often make them unpopular with their people and ultimately bring their legitimacy into question.
Notes
1 Chiefs Chivi, Nyajena, Maregere, Nemavuzhe, Gororo and Shindi attended and officiated at the ceremony. For a contextual description of this event see G. Mazarire, ‘Changing Landscape and Oral Memory in South-Central Zimbabwe: Towards a Historical Geography of Chishanga c.1850–1990’, Journal of Southern African Studies [JSAS], 29, 3 (2003).
*Funding for the production of this paper was provided by the Scottish Executive through a CAS Visiting Research Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh. I wish to pay tribute to the people of Chishanga, to Prof. Terence Ranger and Dr. Joost Fontein for their valuable input, as well as to the Director of CAS, Prof. Paul Nugent and his staff. All the maps were drawn by Dr. Seke Katsamudanga of the Archaeology University of Zimbabwe.
2 Interview with Vhuramayi Vushangwe (Chief Mapanzure IX), Raphael Manyoka Gwenhamo, Mapope Tavarera and VaNzembe, 22 July 2001.
3 Martin Frhr. v. Kap-herr, ‘Report on Vocational Training’ (Harare Zimbabwe, unpublished report, Hart Frost Consulting Engineers, 1999). The contractor Salini Impregilo, an Italian company, also participated in the funding.
4 Interview with Chief Mapanzure. The Musogwezi does have a spring near Makasi on the border with Chief Charumbira.
5 Communal Lands refer to what were once colonial Native Reserves, renamed Tribal Trust Lands in 1967 and Communal Lands in 1980. The main source of agitation to Chief Mapanzure has been the pipeline from the reservoir tank on top of Chipagwe hill, which he understood was ‘meant to supply his township (Mapanzure Business Centre), school and clinic’, but which was now going to supply the police camp and township at Muchakata Business Centre in what is traditionally Chief Shumba-Chekai's territory.
6 J.H. Seed, ‘A Glimpse of Native History: The Vashawasha’, Native Affairs Department Annual [hereafter NADA], 1936–37, pp. 8–9; J. Chidziwa, ‘A History of the Vashawasha’, NADA, IX, 1, (1964), p. 17.
7 Sr. M. Aquina, ‘The Tribes of Victoria Reserve’, NADA, X (1965), p. 12.
8 See D.N. Beach, War and Politics in Zimbabwe (Mambo Press, Gweru, 1986), Chapters Three and Four.
9 In this region, during this period, most ruling dynasties were shoko, for instance, Shawasha-Watinaye, Garanyanga-Muzukuru, Makovere-Shoko and Chivamba-mbereka.
10 Interview with Mukoma Wewe Kutadza, Mamvura River, 11 December 2005. The closest support for this assertion is ‘Cheshanga’ River (literally ‘river of reeds’) a tributary to the Musuka River situated near what is today Gwanha School in Mapanzure communal lands. See Surveyor General Map Zimbabwe, 2030 B4 (1983) 1:50 000, Grid Ref 8246.
11 For some of the related legends, see E. Mudau, ‘Ngoma-lungundu and the Early Invaders of Venda’, in N.J. van Warmelo (ed.), The Copper Mines of Musina and the Early History of Zoutpanzperg (Pretoria, Department of Native Affairs, 1940).
12 Interview with Poterai Gon'ora Mupota Mhizha, Marungudzi, 21 July 2005.
13 In February 1872, Carl Mauch was escorted by Charumbira-Bika's son to ‘Zibgoa’ and given the same explanation, and 17 years later in 1889, Willie Posselt's porters led him past ‘Zibgoa’ to show him this ‘wonder’ before he saw the Great Zimbabwe, see E.E. Burke (ed.), The Journals of Carl Mauch (National Archives of Rhodesia, Salisbury, 1969), p. 137, W. Posselt, ‘The Early Days of Mashonaland and a Visit to the Zimbabwe Ruins’, NADA (1924), p. 74.
14 Interview with Simbabrashe Mupeyiwa Chimwango, Chomukamba Farm no. 134, Mshawasha West, 22 July 2005.
17 Interview with Chief Mapanzure.
15 Interviews with Raphael Manyoka Gwenhamo, 15 June 2003; Munhumeso Manenji, 17 February 2006; and Chomunogwa Mazarire 3 October 2005. The biblical connotations of Mutunha as a Moses-like figure are quite frequent in most of the oral traditions collected here. The interviewee suggested that this fruit tree is the wild loquat – Uapaca kirkiana.
16 Most Shona chiefs practised the zunde concept, a system designed to mobilise labour to cultivate a common field whose harvest is held in trust by the chief to support his subjects in times of need.
18 D.T. Rwafa, ‘The Story of the Mapanzure People’, Masvingo Advertiser, 25 May 1984. Sr. M. Aquina, (‘The Tribes of Victoria Reserve’ p. 6) shows that Mutizira was the first spirit medium of Mutunha, followed by his son Muchenugwa and thereafter the latter's son Mhondera became a medium. However, four generations later, sitting chiefs from the Mutunha house began to violate this rule causing serious problems in the Mapanzure succession system. In 1948, Gwenhamo, a spirit medium, succeeded as chief, and on his death in 1969 his son Manyoka, another medium, took over in the capacity of acting chief until 1984. This gave the Muchenugwa house an excuse to contest his position, something that continues to be a source of in-fighting among the Hera, as is shown below. See National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ), File S2929/8/2, Delineation Report Victoria District: Mapanzure Chieftainship and Community, 1965.
19 I. Kopytoff, ‘The Internal African Frontier: The Making of African Political Culture’, in I. Kopytoff (ed.), The African Frontier: The Reproduction of Traditional African Societies (Bloomington, IN, Indiana University Press, 1987), p. 17.
20 G.C. Mazarire, ‘A Political and Social History of Chishanga 1750–2000’, Draft DPhil Thesis, University of Zimbabwe, Chapter Four.
21 Interview with Mapope Tavarera, 10 July 2001.
22 Interview with Chomunogwa Mazarire, 26 December 2004.
23 Kopytoff, ‘The African Frontier’, p. 17.
24 NAZ, S2929/1/1 MLG DDA, Delineation Report Sabi, Mbijo Community 1965 and Matauto Community, Subdivision of Mabvuregudo, Chief Nyashanu, 1967, p. 7; Aquina, ‘The Tribes in Victoria Reserve’.
25 B.B. Mukamuri, ‘Local Environmental Conservation Strategies: Karanga Religion, Politics and Environmental Control’, Environment and History, 1, 3 (1995), p. 308. It must be noted that mhondoro spirits are not generally as common in southern Zimbabwe as mbonga rain princesses or nyusa messengers associated with the cult of Mwari based at the Matopos shrines.
26 Interview with Chomunogwa Mazarire, 21 December 2004.
27 Mtetwa, pp. 22–7.
28 D.C. Chigiga, ‘A Preliminary Study of the Lemba in Rhodesia’ (unpublished seminar paper, University of Rhodesia, September 1972), p. 10.
29 D.C. Chigiga, ‘A Preliminary Study of the Lemba in Rhodesia’ (unpublished seminar paper, University of Rhodesia, September 1972), p. 11.
30 D. Mudhosi, ‘The Lemba People of Tadzembwa (Masvingo): An Investigation into Their Beliefs and Practices and their Areas of Conflict with the Non-Lemba’ (unpublished BA Honours Dissertation, Department of Religious Studies, University of Zimbabwe, June 2003), p. 18.
31 M.C.C. Musingafi, Rwizi Pakati Ko! (Gweru, Mambo Press, 1992).
32 A masterly treatment of the context and imagery in this and other Shona novels is E. Chiwome, A Social History of the Shona Novel (Eiffel Flats, Juta, 1996). For an analysis of this novel in particular, see p. 75.
33 Mudhosi, ‘The Lemba of Tadzembwa’, p. 17, Chigiga, ‘A Preliminary Study of the Lemba’, p. 11.
34 Contrary to E.A. Phaup's assertion that Mazorodze was living at Mashakazhara, oral tradition confirms that Mazorodze never moved out of Zhou and Mauch's account itself describes ‘Mapansule's kraal on the top of the highest peak of the region’, p. 135, which is Zhou at an altitude of 1,133.7 m.
35 Apparently these porters had been arranged by a one-legged man from Shumba who realised that Mauch had been robbed and went up to Mapanzure to secure help. The previous day Mauch had negotiated with some men from Shumba who demanded more than Mauch could give but agreed, in principle, to assist Mauch. They did not turn up as promised, and it is probably this group that executed the second robbery.
36 Burke, The Journals of Carl Mauch, p. 134.
37 Adam Render had settled in the area three years before (1868), although he and his Boer friends had frequently entered Mashonaland, and the Charumbira territory in particular, since 1848. He had established friendly relations with the Charumbira brothers as well as the Manwa, who promised to cede to him the country between Great Zimbabwe and the Limpopo on behalf of the Transvaal Republic. Eventually he married the daughter of Bika with whom he was living when Mauch arrived. He died in 1873, when he was shot by a poison arrow in a battle with the Mugabe people. See the testimony of his son H.J. Renders published by J.M. Boggie, First Steps in Civilising Rhodesia (Bulawayo, Philpot and Collins, 1940), pp. 196–7.
38 George Arthur ‘Elephant’ Philips was a hunter based in Matabeleland who Mauch had known since 1867, when both were companions of Henry Hartley. See editorial commentary by Burke in, Journals of Carl Mauch, p. 157.
39 George Arthur ‘Elephant’ Philips was a hunter based in Matabeleland who Mauch had known since 1867, when both were companions of Henry Hartley. See editorial commentary by Burke in, Journals of Carl Mauch, p. 135. Geologically this is also the beginning of the concentration of the ‘Zimbabwe Granite’ (named after its highest concentration near Great Zimbabwe) as it breaks with the metamorphic farcies boundary around the Neshuro range. See M.P. Stuart Irwin, ‘Geology Report’, in Rhodesian Schools Exploration Society, Chibi Expedition (1970).
41 Burke, Journals of Carl Mauch, p. 187.
40 This can still be found in the area occupied by the Muchenugwa people.
42 W. Posselt, ‘Finding the Soapstone Birds at Zimbabwe’, in Boggie, First Steps in Civilising Rhodesia, p. 202.
43 W. Posselt, ‘The Early Days of Mashonaland and a Visit to the Zimbabwe Ruins’, NADA (1924), p. 74.
44 Interview with Mapope Tavarera, 10 July 2001.
45 H. Marshall Hole, The Making of Rhodesia (London, Macmillan & Co, 1926), p. 266. For a detailed account of the political situation and the events unfolding in this period see Beach, War and Politics, Chapter Two. A recent revised account on the situation in Chivi is G.C. Mazarire, ‘Memories and Contestations of the Scramble for Zimbabwe: Chivi (Mashonaland), c.1870–1892’, in F. Kolapo and K. Akurang-Parry (eds), African Agency and European Colonialism: Latitudes of Negotiation and Containment (Lanham, MD, University Press of America, Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, 2007), pp. 59–70.
47 Selous, Travel and Adventure, p. 375.
46 F.C. Selous, Travel and Adventure in South East Africa (Piccadilly, Rowland Ward & Co., 1893), p. 375, see also A. Darter, The Pioneers of Mashonaland (Bulawayo, Books of Rhodesia, 1977, Facsimile Reproduction of 1914 Edition), p. 84–5.
49 Selous, Travel and Adventure, p. 375, p. 376.
48 Selous, Travel and Adventure, p. 375
50 J.T. Bent, The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland: Being A Record of Excavation and Exploration in 1891 (London, Longmans Green & Co., 1896), p. 50.
51 N3/24/34 Native Reserves Victoria, NC Drew to CNC Salisbury, March 4, 1901.
52 J. McGregor, ‘Conservation, Control and Ecological Change: The Politics and Ecology of Colonial Conservation in Shurugwi’, Environment and History, 1, 3 (1995), p. 263.
53 N9/1/4 NC Victoria to CNC Salisbury, Annual Report for 1898.
54 N9/1/7 NC Victoria to CNC Salisbury, Annual Report for 1901.
55 Based on G.C. Mazarire, ‘“A Little England” in Chishanga: The Fate of A British Empire Leprosarium at Ngomahuru, 1925–1946’, African Historical Review, 39, 2 (2007), pp. 1–24.
56 H. Aschwanden, Symbols of Death: An Analysis of the Consciousness of the Karanga (Gweru, Mambo Press, 1987), pp. 79–82.
57 McGregor, ‘Conservation, Control and Ecological Change’, p. 266.
58 E. Worby, ‘Discipline without Oppression: Sequence, Timing and Marginality in Southern Rhodesia's Post War Development Regime’, Journal of African History, 41 (2000), pp. 102, 105.
59 S1044/17 Provincial Agriculturist, Victoria to PNC Fort Victoria, 20 November 1947.
60 S1044/17 Provincial Agriculturist, Victoria to PNC Fort Victoria, 20 November 1947
61 A.K.H. Weinrich, African Farmers in Rhodesia: Old and New Peasant Communities in Karangaland (London, IAI, Oxford University Press, 1975), p. 25.
62 E. Kramer, ‘A Clash of Economies: Early Centralisation Efforts in Colonial Zimbabwe, 1929–1935’, Zambezia, 25, 1 (1998), p. 85.
63 J. Alexander, The Unsettled Land: Statemaking and the Politics of Land in Zimbabwe 1893–2003 (Oxford, James Currey, 2007), p. 45.
64 S2929/8/5 Delineation Reports for the Mapanzure and Charumbira Chieftainships, 1965.
65 S2929/8/5 Delineation Reports for the Mapanzure and Charumbira Chieftainships, 1965, Delineation Report of the Mapanzure Chieftainship and Community 1965.
66 S2808/2/4 Minutes of the Committee Meeting NLHA Victoria Province, 20 July 1957.
67 S1044/17 Native Agriculture 1943–1948 NC Victoria to LDO Southern Mashonaland, n.d.
68 S2808/2/4 Report of the Forestry Officer, Native Areas, C.L. Furness, February 1956.
69 Interview with Mapope Tavarera, 10 July 2001.
70 W. Munro, The Moral Economy of the State: Conservation, Community Development and State-Making in Zimbabwe (Athens, OH, Ohio University Press, 1998), p. 143.
71 W. Munro, The Moral Economy of the State: Conservation, Community Development and State-Making in Zimbabwe (Athens, OH, Ohio University Press, 1998), p. 165.
72 Alexander, The Unsettled Land, pp. 71–2.
73 MS/2/1 Ministry of Internal Affairs Circular no. 172, Addendum ‘A’ Tribal Trust Land, 22 March 1967.
74 S3700/49/20/1 Mapanzure (Shumbayaonda) Irrigation Scheme 1967–1972; T.W.F. Jordan, Provincial Agricultural Officer, ‘Cropping Programmes: Irrigation Projects: Tribal Trust Land: Victoria Province’, 26 January 1970.
75 Jordan, ‘Cropping Programmes’.
76 S3700/49/20/1 PC, Victoria to Secretary, Internal Affairs, 18 September 1968.
77 Based on ‘Project Report on the Mapanzure Irrigation Scheme: Victoria Tribal Trust Land, 26 January, 1970’.
78 S3700/49/20/1 Henson to Sumner, 14 October 1969.
79 S3700/49/20/1 Minutes of the Second Mapanzure Irrigation Scheme Cropping Programme, Fort Victoria, 6 October 1969.
80 S3700/49/20/1 Henson to Sumner, 18 October 1969.
81 S3700/49/20/1 Quarterly Irrigation Report on Mapanzure Scheme, 23 January 1971.
82 S3700/49/20/2 Mapanzure Shumbayaonda Irrigation Scheme Vol. 2, ‘Restricted Project Report on Mapanzure Irrigation Scheme Augmented to 150 acres All-Year-Round’, March 1972.
83 S3700/49/20/2 J.G. Becking Irrigation Officer to DC Victoria, 1 November 1974.
84 Interview with Raphael Manyoka Gwenhamo, Mapanzure Communal Lands, 12 April 2004.
85 S3700/49/20/2 Water Supplies Engineer to the Provincial Water Engineer, Victoria, 12 February 1975.
86 Interview with Machongwe Chihava, Ngomahuru Hospital, 31 December 2006.
87 Alexander, The Unsettled Land, p. 84.
88 Alexander, The Unsettled Land, p. 85.
89 MS/2/1 Ministry of Internal Affairs, Circular 172, Addendum ‘A’, Tribal Trust Land Act, 22 March 1967.
90 S3700/106/6/4 Zhou Transfer: Exchanges, Transfers of Land, Mshawasha Purchase Land Victoria District 1969–1976. Senior Inspector, Lands Inspectorate, (P.J. Lilliot) Fort Victoria to Chief Inspector, Causeway, 13 November 1969.
91 S3700/106/6/4 Lilliot to Chief Inspector, 24 November 1969.
92 Interviews with Manyoka Gwenhamo, Mapanzure Communal Lands, 12 April 2004, and Mapope Tavarera, 10 July 2001.
93 S3700/106/6/4 DC Victoria (WEJ Henson) to PC Victoria (HE Sumner), 18 November 1969.
94 S3700/106/6/4 Sumner to Secretary Internal Affairs, Salisbury, 27 November 1969.
95 S3700/106/6/4 Henson to Secretary Internal Affairs, 4 December 1969.
96 S3700/106/6/4 Secretary for Internal Affairs to Secretary for Lands, 26 October 1970.
97 S3700/106/6/4 Sumner to Secretary for Internal Affairs Salisbury, 4 December 1970.
98 S3700/106/6/4 Director of Conservation and Extension to Secretary Internal Affairs, 13 July 1973.
99 S3700/106/6/4 Assistant Secretary for Purchase Area Administration, L. Redman to Secretary for Internal Affairs, Salisbury, 14 March 1974.
100 S3700/106/6/4 Henson to PC Victoria, 22 July 1974.
101 S3700/106/6/4 Provincial Commissioner Victoria, R.L. Westcott to Secretary Internal Affairs, 8 August 1974.
102 S3700/106/6/4 Executive Council Minute, ‘Transfer of a Portion of Mshawasha African Purchase Area Land to Tribal Trust Land: Victoria District’, 15 April 1976.
103 Interview between Joost Fontein, Gerald Mazarire and Cde. ‘Nylon Masambaasiyana’, 8 August 2001.
104 Interview with Raphael Manyoka Gwenhamo (then Acting Chief), 2 August 2001.
105 B. Mukamuri, ‘Local Environmental Conservation Strategies: Karanga Religion, Politics and Environmental Control’, Environment and History, 1, 3, (October 1995), p. 308–9 (pp. 297–311); B. Mukamuri, ‘Ecological Religion: Local Politics and Conservation in South Central Zimbabwe’, in P. Virtanen (ed.), Management of Natural Resources in Zimbabwe (University of Tampere, Unit of Peace Research and Development Studies, 1991), p. 162.
106 Interview with Mapope Tavarera, 10 July 2001.
107 See K. Wilson and A. Mawere, ‘Socio-Religious Movements, The State and Community Change: Some Reflections on the Ambuya Juliana Cult of Southern Zimbabwe’, Journal of Religion in Africa, XXV, 3 (1995), p. 263. (This source claims Juliana came from Charumbira when in fact she is from Mapanzure).
108 But see J. Fontein, ‘“We want to belong to our roots & we want to be modern people”: New Farmers, Old Claims around Lake Mutirikwi, in Southern Zimbabwe’ (unpublished manuscript presented at Archaeology Unit Department seminar, University of Glasgow, November 2007).
109 Mazarire, ‘A Political and Social History of Chishanga’, Chapter Seven.
110 Interview with Poterai Gon'ora Mupota.
111 C. Chauke and E. Matenga, ‘Site Nomination Statement for Marungudzi Hill’, National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, Southern Region, April 2005. For the identity of Nehoreka and his role in the pre-colonial period see D.N. Beach, The Shona and Zimbabwe (Mambo Press, Gweru, 1980), pp. 164–5.