Shona people

The Shona have traditionally practiced subsistence agriculture. They grew sorghum, beans, African groundnuts, and after the Columbian Exchange, pumpkins; sorghum was also largely replaced by maize after the crop's introduction. The Shona also keep cattle and goats, since livestock are an important food reserve during droughts.[11]

Precolonial Shona states derived substantial revenue from the export of mining products, particularly gold and copper.[11]

Traditional clothing were usually animal skins that covered the front and the back, and were called 'mhapa' and 'shashiko.' These later evolved when the Shona people started trading for cloth with other groups, such as the Tsonga, and native cloths began to be manufactured.

Mbiras

Shona traditional music's 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 also depends on drum size and music type. 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.[13] 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 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), shakers ('hosho'), leg rattles, wooden clappers ('makwa'), and the 'chikorodzi,' a notched stick played with another stick.

Both historically and in contemporary art, the Shona are known for their work in stone sculpture, which re-emerged 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. Most of the sculptures are made from sedimentary-stone (such as soapstone) and depict birds or humans; though some are made with harder stone such as serpentinite. During the 1950s, Zimbabwean artists began carving stone sculptures for sale to European art collectors; these sculptures quickly became popular and were bought and exhibited at art museums around the world. Many of the sculptures depict the transformation of spirits into animals or vice versa, and some are more abstract. Many Zimbabwean artists carve wood and stone to sell to tourists.

Pottery is also a traditionally practiced craft, with the storage and serving pots being the most decorative, contrasted with those used for cooking. In Shona clay earthenware pots are known as hari.

Traditional Shona housing ('musha') are round huts arranged around a cleared yard ('ruvanze'). Each hut has a specific function, such as acting as a kitchen or a lounge.[14]

Sorghum and maize are used to prepare the staple dish, a thickened porridge ('sadza'), and the traditional beer known as hwahwa.[15]

Shona Religion

A n'anga, close to Great Zimbabwe

The traditional 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. Deaths are not losses but a promotion to the stage where they can represent the living through the clan spirits. 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.

Historically, colonial white missionaries as well as anthropologists like Gelfand and political colonialists did not represent the religion in positively because they wanted to undermine it in favour of Christianity. Initially, they falsely stated that Shona did not have a God. They denigrated the way the Shona had communicated with their God Mwari, the Shona way of worship and chosen people among the Shona. The chosen people were treated as unholy and Shona prayer was labelled as pagan. When compared with Christianity, the Shona religious perspective of afterlife, holiness, worship and rules of life (unhu) have similar goals, though they are separated by cultures (African versus European) and values (unhu versus western). 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.[16] 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.

Religious affiliation of Shona Peoples

Although sixty to eighty percent of the Shona people converted to Christianity as a result of colonial missionaries, and at times by force, Shona religious beliefs are still very strong in the area. 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.

In Zimbabwe the Mutupo (plural Mitupo) (wrongly called totems by colonial missionaries and anthropologists) are a system of identifying clans and sub-clans, which are named after and signified by emblems, commonly indigenous animals. Mitupo have been used by the Shona people since their culture developed. They have provided a function in avoiding incest, and also build solidarity and identity. It could be compared to heraldry in European culture. 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 phenomenon has resulted in numerous challenges for communities but also for the children who lack part of their identity. It is, however, possible for a child to be adopted and receive mutupo.[17][18]