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Shona, Zimbabwe
Shona, Zimbabwe
Population: 9 million
Religious Information: The Shona adhere to a traditional religion in which a deity, Mwari, is all powerful, and they pray to and praise him. They also believe in a spiritual hierarchy that includes vadzimu, or ancestral spirits, and mashavi, or spirits of people that died before they had children. Clan founders' souls are called mhondoro. They hold a ceremony, the kurova guva, that helps move a recently deceased person's soul from one spiritual status to another.
Christianity has also spread through Zimbabwe. Below you can watch some examples of Christian practices among this ethnic group, as well an example of a prayer to Mwari, the traditional Shona god.
Video: Zimbabwean Catholics - First Traditional Shona Mass in Edmonton, AB, Canada
Image: Rujeko Dumbutshena is of the Shona tribe and teaches Dance as well as about Zimbabwe culture. Picture
Hymn to Mwari
Hymn to Mwari
Great Spirit,
Piler up of rocks into towering mountains!
When thou stampest on the stone,
The dust rises and fills the land.
Hardness of the precipice;
Waters of the pool that turn
Into misty rain when stirred.
Vessel overflowing with oil! Father of Runji,
Who seweth the heavens like cloth:
Let him knit together that which is below.
Caller forth of the branching trees:
Thou bringest forth the shoots
That they stand erect:
Thou has filled the land with mankind,
The dust rises on high, oh Lord!
Wonderful One, thou livest
In.the midst of the sheltering rocks.
Thou givest of rain to mankind.
Hear us Lord!
Show mercy when we beseech thee, Lord.
Thou art on high with the spirits of the great.
Thou raisest the grass-covered hills
Above the earth, and createst the rivers,
Gracious One.
Video: Nguva Yekunamata:"Sweet Hour of Prayer," Christian Gospel hymn in Shona
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