A book written by Modern Tavarwisa: A new invaluable text in the market
Gonan’ombe reTsika naMararamiro eChivanhu, a text which has 155 pages, was written by Modern Tavarwisa and published by Media Essentials in 2025.
As the title reflects, the book contains invaluable content on Shona pre-colonial civilisation and culture some of which persists today.
This traditional way of life of the Shona people is symbolised by ‘gonan’ombe’ (snuff container) an artifact which is part and parcel of traditional Shona religion.
Tavarwisa was nourished by Shona culture, particularly Karanga culture. Thus he is an insider writing from the deepest part of his heart. Writing the book from lived experience makes it convincing and lends it its originality.
The author writes the book in rich Karanga language. However, the book is partly a result of an enduring reading of key books by historians such as M.F.C Bourdillon, D.N Beach and G.T Ncube and the works of experts on Shona culture such as M.A Hamutyinei, J.M. Gombe, Z.W Sadomba and renowned novelist P. Chakaipa most known for his classics Pfumo Reropa (1956) and Karikoga Gumiremiseve (1958) which imagined the Shona Old World in very memorable ways.
The writer also benefitted from reading NM Mutasa’s Shona epics, Nhume yaMambo (1990) and Misodzi, Dikita neRopa (1991) and other relevant works on the Shona past.
Purpose of the book
- Gonan’ombe Retsika naMararamiro eChivanhu
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As reflected in the introduction of the book, (Nhanganyaya) Gonan’ombe ReTsika naMararamiro EChivanhu henceforth Gonan’ombe, provides the history and cuture of the Shona people in the pre-colonial times.
It dwells on the Shona’s economic, political, social, cultural, religious and other activities for survival and prosperity. According to the author, Tavarwisa, Gonan’ombe seeks to fulfil part of the requirements for the 2024 Heritage Based Curriculum for Secondary Schools in Zimbabwe.
The book is also useful for the Higher Education curriculum known as Education 5.0. Written in Karanga, Gonan’ombe, is easily accessible to the Shona especially Karanga people.
Use of Karanga helps a lot in uplifting and preserving the Karanga language. Tavarwisa, ‘a son of the soil’ literally revels in writing in Karanga and in the same stroke, fights linguistic and cultural imperialism perpetrated by whites and the English language.
As his name denotes, Tavarwisa has fought linguistic, cultural and ideological battles through this book. His book is useful for those learning Karanga and is an inspiration to the Shona and Zimbabweans in general.
Highlights of the book’s contents
Shona civilisation
Tavarwisa shows that the Shona had a long and enduring civilisation countering the myth that Africa was ‘the heart of darkness’.
Joseph Conrad in his novel, Heart of Darkness distorts the African past as filled with nothing else but barbarism and cannibalism and no history of worth at all.
This reminds one of Naipaul’s statement which mocks the Caribbeans and by extension Africans when he states that “History is made out of achievement and creation. Nothing was created in the Caribbean”.
Achebe refutes such claims when he asserted that the African past was not one long night of savagery from which whites redeemed it with God’s grace.
In the Zimbabwean context, Tavarwisa also writes back to the Empire by giving an account of a proud and mighty Shona past.
He refutes the claim by white scholars that Great Zimbabwe was built by Greeks or Arabs. He says: “Tsvakurudzo yahino uno yakazoitwa nenyanzvi dzokunyora nhorovondo (historians) inotaridza kuti Masvingo eZimbabwe akavakwa naVaShona vomunyika muno vachitungamirirwa norudzi rwaVaRozvi”p.18 ). (“Recent research by historians reveals that Great Zimbabwe was built by the Shona people of Zimbabwe led by the Rozvi clan”).
This kind of information not only puts the record straight as far as the Shona past is concerned but restores confidence, pride and dignity of the Shona people and African people in general who had been battered by centuries of racial segregation, slavery and brutal exploitation at the hands of white people.
Thus Tavarwisa joins Achebe, Asante, Cheikh Anta Diop and other Afrocentric scholars in restoring the dignity of the African past. He, in part, echoes Marcus Garvey who referred to Africans as “the mightiest and proudest people who have ever peopled the earth”.
Tavarwisa mentions a number of inventions and economic activities the Shona did in order to eke out a living echoing the age-old adage, “necessity is the mother of invention”.
He said the Shona could make fire for several needs using wood of particular trees. This required sharp intellect and creativity as “Kusika moto chaive chunhu chaishupa chaitoda vunyanzvi”(p.12). (‘Making fire was a difficult task requiring expertise”).
There was a lot of knowledge of the environment, science and innovation needed in creating fire in the past. Therefore, to label the Shona people as “uncivilised” as whites did does not hold water.
The author also shows that the Shona smelted iron and made steel tools such as axes, spears and hoes. Spears were used in fighting enemies and cutting down trees for building huts and other purposes.
Hoes were particularly important as they were used for farming which was the main economic basis of the Shona people’s life.
Because of the scarcity of hoes, they (hoes) were used as a form of lobola payment. Tavarwisa reiterates that the Shona were notable farmers, miners, ironsmiths, builders, hunters, traders, artists, sculptors, seers and healers.
Today traditional healers who inherited the gift of healing from their forefathers are said to cure complicated diseases such nose-bleeding and cancer.
Tavarwisa also takes note of the ingenuity of Shona women in particular old women who were also great story tellers.
He says that these women were experts in moulding clay pots,“Vunyanzvi hwekuwumba hari hwairatidza kuti VaShona vaigona chidzidzo chemasvomhu kunyanya pakuwumba denderedzwa” (p.15).
(“Expertise in moulding clay pots showed that the Shona were good at mathematics especially moulding a circular object”.)
The book also reveals that the Shona used resources at their disposal to refrigerate water, beer and other foodstuffs. The Shona could also brew different kinds of beer and they are still doing that today.
Hence the book is an important source of indigenous knowledge systems which are of use even today. Tavarwisa further says the Shona could read time through the position of the sun and the times when the cock crows and when particular birds sing.
They could also read new months through their own ways and means.
Religion
As opposed to the myth that the Shona in the past were atheists and immoral, Tavarwisa depicts the Shona as people who worshipped God through midzimu (ancestral spirits) and upheld moral values.
There were forms of punishment meted out to wrong doers. For example, Runyoka, charms to punish adultery with another man’s wife and ngozi punishment for murder, scolding or ill-treating one’s mother, were and are still in place as retributive justice and deterrents to such types of crime.
Hence Gonan’ombe is a very invaluable book I would recommend for secondary schools and also for universities as it has important information about the Shona past. Some of this past culture is still alive among the Shona today.
*Aaron Mupondi is a lecturer in the Department of Languages Literature and Culture at the University of Zimbabwe
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