With respect to totems, they eventually realized their descendants was growing in number. Now that they were multiplying, should they all carry on being related to each other? That is when totems were established.
Some people adopted totems based in people’s names, such as Mushavatu and Musiyamwa. Then there is Nyati. There is the Shonga Nyati totem, but Nyati was also a person. It was the name of someone called Nyati. So he simply adopted Nyati as his totem.
Some people kept the totem Soko. They never changed from Soko, which was their father’s name. They carried on being Soko.
Some people are Moyo, or “heart.” In Shona, when we call someone vamoyo we mean a child close to your heart. In other words, a daughter. Yes, a daughter is referred to as vamoyo, a child close to your heart. Because when you have borne a daughter, you have also borne a son. That is why they say, “Through my child, close to my heart, I have gained a son-in-law. He will come.”
There is a proverb that says, “He who has cultivated four anthills has gained nothing.” One who has borne daughters has gained nothing, because all of them will be married. You will end up without any child at home.
But revisiting this, if you bear daughters you have planted beans. Planting beans, meaning riches will come to you. Yes, wealth will come to you. So they are those of the heart. Children who are born are vamoyo, the child of my heart. She is the child who is born, so she is vamoyo.
So totems continued to spread. And people were told, “Identify those animals that you will hold as taboo,” because when you adopt a totem you identify an animal to taboo, which you do not eat. So those of the Moyo totem do not eat the heart of any animal. They do not eat heart.
We ended up with the monkey, which isn’t eaten. Yes, monkey isn’t eaten. We were lucky!
So the Shava taboo the eland, or mhofu. Then the Nyati taboo the buffalo, or nyati. They don’t eat buffalo. As it is meat, you might eat it without realizing. But if you recognize it, you shouldn’t eat that meat.
Then there are those who taboo the lion, or shumba, which is not eaten. Then there are the Tembo from the Mutasa area, who taboo the zebra. They don’t eat zebra. But there is also another Tembo called Tembo Kariumudeve, and they don’t eat goat. Yes, they are called Tembo Karimudeve.
Others taboo the leopard, or mbada. Those are the Tangwena, the Nhewa. Nhewa refers to the leopard. So if you go to the Gairezi area of Inyanga, that is where you mostly find the Nhewa. And the Saunyama, whose taboo is Mheta – the python, or shato. So that is what the Saunyama hold taboo.
Then there are the Musoni people. There is a tiny mouse with three dark stripes on its back. That is what they refrain from eating, they don’t eat that mouse. That is what they taboo. They are the Musoni, or the Mhizha, or the Chivambu, it is all the same. Or the Dimo, it is all the same, referring to that mouse. They taboo that mouse.
There are so many totems here. They are numerous. So that is that way things unfolded in Zimbabwe.