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When we started Kingdom Nation of Hungwe (formerly Hungwe Tribe), the vision was to share the rich

oral history which my father had passed on to me and I was glad when I connected with Beatrice

Watungwa and Mufaro Majoni Hungwe who shared a similar passion for our history and the Kingdom

Nation of Hungwe was born. Both Beatrice and Mufaro had embarked on similar parallel projects and

once we put our brains together, every block started falling into place.

As we celebrate the first anniversary of Kingdom Nation of Hungwe and reaching yet another key

milestone of over 300 followers, we would like to thank the contributions of the Group Management

Team and notable active contributors who have also provided valuable information to fill in gaps and

expand the scope of what should have been a simple Clan History into the history of the Kingdom Nation

of Hungwe.

My name is Simon Mahla and my father, Jereman Simon Mahla (1918-2000), was an eloquent story-

teller and an avid historian. He was so passionate about our history which he freely shared with those

who had the time to listen. He was also well travelled and had met almost with every Hungwe clan

across Zimbabwe in his quest to piece together what today we have documented as our history.

As a 13-year old boy, I remember the now Chief Ndanga, my cousin brother Christmas Ndanga who had

just retired as a teacher, visiting my father in 1998 accompanied by a female expatriate teacher going by

the McGregor name from a local secondary school in Shurugwi. The teacher was doing a research on the

history of the local people and every inquiry among the elders of Shurugwi directed them to one person,

my father.

Curious as I was, I would sit close by to listen as my father narrated the history and the white lady

vigorously took down notes while trying to keep up with my fathers enthusiastic story-telling.

So began the story of one Nheva in the Zambezi valley and his three sons Mbeve, Vambe andChiendamaya. The story traces their migration from the Zambezi valley where they were hunters to

Gonaramutsinzi (Chishawasha), then Tete in Gazaland (Mozambique) where Chiendamawaya

presumably stayed or turned back, then Inhambane where Mbeve remained with his family, then

Maputo where Vambe died, and travelling back into Zimbabwe led by Sakunara via Chipinge where

Mutisi and Mutetwa remained behind. The story traces the movement into Gutu and the subsequent

poisoning of Sakunara by vaera Gumbo, the flight of the Hungwe to Chingorobwe led by Chasura and

subsequent establishment of the Chiefdom at Fizho. The story also traces the fall-out between Chasura

and his brother Ndanga and the subsequent movement to Bokai in Shurugwi. The story also traces the

numerous tribal wars against Dumbuseya, colonialism and the encounters against colonial forces during

the First Chimurenga, the gunning down of the first whiteman at Bokai, resistance to forced labour(Chibharo) and the construction of contours. The story has today proved to be the best documented

history of our tribe and is corroborated by a number of historians.

Using documented records from the National Archives in Zimbabwe, we have also managed to piece

together certain missing elements from our history. We have managed to link a sizeable number of

Hungwe clans to common ancestor(s). However, what is more important is the acknowledgement and

consensus among historians that the Hungwe people and their Dziva kinsman are the oldest and earliest

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Bantu speaking inhabitants of Southern Africa, only preceded by the San people. That positions us as the

founders of Mapungubwe (as corroborated by VaNgona oral tradition, a sub-group of the Venda tribe in

South Africa) and the significance of the Zimbabwe birds which historians have since agreed is the

Hungwe bird carved in honour of the founders.

A few years ago, I visited Hwange Colliery for a business meeting and happened to share the same

house with the local Paramount Chief Wankie courtesy of the mine. The Chief was only his was to the

inauguration of another local chief and we engaged in a conversation about our history and that is when

I discovered that his people are of the Nyoni totem. The migration and subsequent establishment of the

Hwange chieftainship and the evolution of Nambya language and culture is briefly covered in our history

tracing their origins to the Torwa State (Khami) and Mapungubwe before it.

We have also managed to establish the relationship with our Malunga/Marunga cousins scattered all

over Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia and in Kanyemba, Zimbabwe. George Shire has been researching

DNA-links with a lost Hungwe tribe in Portugal (Lagoa) whose ancestors were taken from Mozambique

(Tete and Gomba). More enlightening is a recent contribution by Moses Handirade of Marunga totem

originally from Tete, Mozambique whose DNA has been linked to the so-called Y-Aaron (CMH)

Chromosome associated with Biblical Jewish priesthood and which genetic historians have tended to

believe is only found among the Lemba (Varemba) people in Africa. In fact, it looks like the Hungwe have

this genetic trait too. Hungwe Denialism is a favourite subject for one of our eminent contributors, Dr

Edwin Muguti. Historians have tended to attribute early State formations to some white connected

tribes, to the Arabs, to the Nilotics (Queen of Shebba), and even the Rozvi and Lemba and denying credit

to the real founders, the Hungwe and their Dziva kinsman.

This opens the doors for further research especially in the field of genetics to establish who we really are

and contribute further to our understanding our role in State Formation and the evolution of politics in

Southern Africa from around 500AD and until the arrival of the Colonialists.

We call upon eminent historians, post-graduate History students and academic institutions who would

like to assist in developing the documented body of knowledge of our history.

The latest draft version of the our history The Making of the Hungwe Nation is now available, please

send a request to mavokomavi@yahoo.com