Shona Sentential Names: A Brief Overview

Chapter V - Chimurenga names

111 Chapter V C Chimurenga names Introduction Pfukwa (2008: 240) decries the fact that there is a dearth in the study of war names in Zimbabwe. He unfortunately does not state whether names of guerrillas have also been studied in countries that waged liberation wars such as Angola and Mozambique as well as Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau. This chapter seeks to add on to the literature that relates to that area in Zimbabwe, and unfortunately it is only limited to sentential names and therefore does not make a claim to be filling that huge void. It is a little but major contribution to an area that still has a lot that has to be unravelled especially as relates to the names that guerrillas who were operating under ZIPRA are concerned. These war names are in Zimbabwe referred to as Chimurenga names. The term Chimurenga is derived from Murenga Soro Renzou. Murenga is derived from the verb –renga a term which means to cause to act in a harmful way. Murenga Soro Renzou, is a name that was derived from the name of a Zimbabwean chief of the Munhumutapa Dynasty, Murenga Soro Renzou (Pfukwa and Barnes 2010: 210). According to Mutswairo (researchers’ memory of his lectures in the late 1980s) Murenga Soro Renzou and Nyamhangambiri (One who used and had two swords as well as Chihweshure (One who sliced them with swords) were fighters of repute in the pre-colonial Shona period. From this name, it is clear that he was a fighter of repute and so those who embarked in the first Chimurenga against white rule (1893-96/7) had the story 112 of this gallant fight at the back of their minds. The fighters of the 1970s liberation war also christened their fight against the Smith regime Chimurenga, but they added II to it, indicating that it was a continuation of the war that was left as unfinished business in 1896. According to Pfukwa and Barnes (2010: 210, also citing Lan 1985, Bhebe 1999, Bhebe and Ranger 1995): Amongst the guerrillas the conflict became known as Chimurenga, harkening back to the earlier wars of resistance to British rule (1893–1896). This local name reflected the passion and intensity of feeling towards the conflict described, as it carried a long history. To the blacks, they were continuing with unfinished business. This understanding that the blacks had about their war is further confirmed by Lohman and MacPherson (1983: 7) who opine with reference to the Zimbabwe war of liberation that “throughout the course of history, the final defeat of one party to a conflict usually sows the seeds of the next conflagration.” Even though the two are referring to the 1893 Anglo-Ndebele War, and the 1896-7 War that followed, their words are still relevant to Chimurenga II because it was again as the Nationalists saw it, a carryover from the war that their ancestors had lost. The Ndebele used the term Imfazo to refer to the same war. In this war, the fighters assumed new names for different reasons, but prominent among them was the need to hide their identity because they feared that their relatives and parents back home in Zimbabwe would be victimised by the Rhodesian government if the Rhodesian security forces learnt that they had a child or relative who was a guerrilla. 113 The guerrillas also assumed new names as an attempt to realign themselves to the new political reality that they were now faced with as they re-entered the country that they had left when they went for military training. Most of these names were assumed at training camps in Mozambique, although those who got trained at the front also got these names. The other people who got these names or gave themselves these Chimurenga names were the mujibhas and chimbwidos (male and female collaborators) who assisted the guerrillas logistically and in reconnaissance activities as well as transport troops that carried weapons from one area to another as the guerrillas penetrated further into the country as their front expanded. The Second Chimurenga/Imfazo was waged against the white colonial and settler government by both the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) through its army the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), through the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) under the auspices of the Patriotic Front (PF). This study however, focuses only on...