Author: Zanele Nobuhle Nhlebela Page 5 of 1331

Gxashi
uMnguni
uQwabe kaYeyeye
ooPhakathwayo
oo Mpangazitha
ooDlula kubeyethwe…kanti badikida imbuzi
oo Sibeni
ooMtshawuli
ooGabisa ngento onayo!
oo Dunusa bethembe ukuthi kuhlatshiwe kanti babona izinqa zendoda

Mina ngingu Moyo,
Sayi,
Dewa,
Vuma balanda,
Ababhayidla ngondandale
Abafazi bezizela bodwa!

I am Shona (Kore-Kore) by Origin though Ndebele by tounge, Born bread in Luveve, KoBulawayo. My father was with the British Southern Africa Police, he moved to Bulawayo in 1942 after being deployed from maShonaland, Susbury to be precise and had his first house in Second Street eMakokoba. When Luveve, especially New Luveve was build in the early to mid 50s it was dedicated to the Government employees who then applied for 50 year bond. The system replicated a setup that was done in Mbare, Harare, and was also Known as National

By the way I am 52 years of age and l am the last of six children and my late first born sister was born in 1955. So over the years sikhula sasisizwa ngezibongo zakwaMoyo, lezitemo (lezithakazelo in isiZulu) So over the years, with my Africa countries travelling all of them to date including the small islands, have managed to interview elders in different African Colonial Demarcated Lands.

Locally l would like to highlight that in Nkayi, kunendawo ebizwa kwaSayi. Yibo oMoyo, Dewa, Sayi. So what l have also put together is … Okhokho bethu bebenamagana (a.k.a) (alias) wabo. This is important to note.

Those names if your great great grand father had any thing prominent about his creativity, may it be fight with sticks – ukuqwaqwazana or used to make clay pots, or was a coper smith (used to make Tomahawker Axes ( Mbazo) as you have heard before. We are creatives by nature no doubt.

Long back even in the documents, l remember seeing my father’s I.D. His names were Ben Cream Crispen Muchenje Chipangura and his totem was Moyo born in 1924. So they would write Ben A.K.A Cream A.K.A Crispen A.K.A. …. Those were the fundamentals of documentation since through the Lens of a white man we all look alike, may be until you sit with a white boy for 1 – 7 years at primary or 1 – 4 to 6 years at high school thus when he would remember a face, but besides that we are all the same to them.

My dad like his drinks and we was a very smart man, and had a saying “Changa” not even sure what it meant, by you could hear him say it in ful like. Angi khulumi labo Changa. So as l was growing up when his friends would come and ask for tools he will tell them in their face that you need to buy your own tool Changa, so the friends when ever they met us or any one is us they will say ah! Ngumntwana or ngabantwana bakaChanga. So as we grown older that was a nickname that would be later be incorporated into izitakazelo loba izitemo zigcine ziya zihlukana.

I have also notice that my 2 older brother got Naughty or who ever served the at Mr Taylor (Msitheli) Did not know what he was doing, due to so many names of my father’s, they got to use my father’s Native Alias Muchenje as a surname, and due to circumstances at work my older brother pimped up the his surname to Muchenje-Moyo and all his 10 kids have that as a surname. Same with izibongo you will find that the following as Moyo, regardless of their surnames.

Mthunzi, Mabhena, Mbambo, Dewa, Sayi and so many others are all Moyoz. Except in a few occations that their totem is some how different.

I lived in KZN for a long time and used to travel to the remote areas of Zululand and thus when l discovered that Mbambos where also.Moyos, This being eleborated on by. An elderly woman who l had given a lift from Pinetown ( pronounced Phayindawun). She had been on the hiking spot for 4 hours according to her, but when l finally stopped and gave her a lift and drove for 300km together there was a lot of talk, but then finally asked me who I was and told her my totem in a nut shell. Though since l was a foreigner l have to add a line that was never mine. “Umageza ngochago” this l had also heard from the Moyos who used to live in the neighbourhood. The were originally like me Ndebele speaking and all but when l come to the think of it, they all had mostly Shona names. They were from Midlands – Mvuma, Nya – Munyaradzi, Nhamo, Bongi – Sibongile, Mburawa and Chipo Moyo just to name a few.

So to get back to our journey with the old lady, she did ask.me what the work Chago meant and l quickly had to make a translation – uChago – uBisi. She rejoiced and asked me to pass by her homestead so that she could introduce me to the family.

I was scared at first because l was making a delivery to Zululand Anthracite Colliery and was carrying special cargo for the mine, I wrestled with the idea but eventually agreed. Wen she introduced me to the elderly man and women as their uncle from Rhodesia. I was there for about possibly 15mins and l was given a crisp R200 and.a Cock that measured approx 500mm from the ground. Easily weighing 6-7kgs. I was thank ful and promised to collect it ony way back from the mine since l was on company time and most of the Afrikaner fitters where my boss’s friend l would have been alleged to be doing something out of line and fired.

Getting back to uMageza ngoChago, when l told her what chago was, she rejoiced and explain what this mageza meant. Wait for it … The Mbambo women were so clean that because of the fishy like smell from their private part, they would use milk to wash their Ngcuzas (Vaginas). So that how their technologies was telling them at the time. This was strictly a Mbambo thing and not sure if other people or cultures adopted that but it was started by the Mbambo.

I then in my way back detoured to collect my gift and enjoyed. I would go to ZAC 3 times week 380km away. We grew find of each other with the family until they felt they had to introduce me to induna UMoyo, after about 4 months down the line. There are Moyoz in KZN not far from the river uThukela, in the direction of PieterMaritburg from Itshe ilimnyama using the dead roads not being in the National Roads Freeway -N3. I was welcomed as umshana walapha ekhaya from Rhodesia and yes. They mentioned they had come from up North in the 1800s.

So in a nutshell the Moyo clan is all over. Nearly forgot my visit to Solwezi Zambia boarding Zambia and and DRCongo. Thus an area for the Lozwi people and when the settlers came in they Solwezi instead of SoLozwi. The land of the Lozwi.

Quite lengthy but had to share so that we understand how the different Moyo totems came about and what was the influence.