From Nyakuimba to Thiyeni: An Onomastic Survey of the Musikavanhu Dynasty in Dondo

Abstract

This article explores the evolution of the Musikavanhu dynasty, a clan within the Ndau-speaking people in the southern part of the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. It first discusses the literature that influences the paper, and then it examines some theoretical perspectives in Afrocentricity and onomastics, which guide the rest of the discussion. The article traces how one Ndau patriarch, called Nyakuimba, set up his polity in present-day Chipinge and the middle Save area. The article then unravels the genealogy of the Musikavanhu chiefs from Nyakuimba to the current chief. The paper also explores colonial implications that have far-reaching effects on current succession issues within the Musikavanhu dynasty. We argue that such documentation and analysis of communities (that have previously been kept at the margins by choice or by circumstance) should be seen as part of the wider effort to re-centre African epistemologies and the perceptions of its historical and cultural spaces.