The Shona people are mainly concentrated in the country of
Southern Africa called Zimbabwe, but there are known pockets of these
people in Mozambique, as well other parts of South Africa, especially
the northern part of South Africa.
Before you understand the
mindset associated with the Shona people, one has to understand their
customs, their superstitions and everything that is connected with their
way of life. Although their life in the towns/cities might have
drastically changed from the time when Great Zimbabwe was a thriving
city and in most instances certain puberty ceremonies are no longer
carried out, their belief in spirit medium is just as strong as ever and
in the tribal areas and especially amongst the elders the tribal
customs of the tribesman have altered very little. In today's Zimbabwe
the payment of lobola, and payment of what is known as damages {defiling
a girl} is now in the form of cash payment, where formally it used to
in the form of cattle, goats or hoes but on the whole the actual customs
have not changed much at.
From the beginning of the formation of
the Shona tribe, agriculture has been the principal mode of subsistence.
Maize and millet have always been the staple crops but a fair amount of
sorghum, monkey nuts, beans, rice and some indigenous vegetables are
also grown. There a number of methods used for tilling the land. The
traditional methods of cultivation basically involved the breaking up
and scratching of the soil, there after the spreading seed over an
extensive acreage. The Shona agricultural lifestyle involved having a
considerable number of cattle as well as smaller livestock.
Shona
culture is is strongly intertwined with the way the village was
structured. In terms of the village set up, a Shona village (or musha as
the Shona call it) is controlled by a hereditary headman, who is the
head of the principal family unit which originally founded the village.
The Shona people are a patriarchal society in general. To become a
member of the village, one can only have done that through kinship. A
member who has been absent from the village for a considerable time does
not lose his membership by default unless there is evidence beyond
doubt that he will not return. Understanding this concepts builds a
framework that helps in understanding Shona culture.
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