Chaminuka is held as the most powerful mhondoro, or royal ancestral lion spirit, among the Zezuru people of Shona tradition in present-day Zimbabwe, and is renowned for rainmaking. He is regarded as a son of Mwari, already recorded on this atlas, and the Zezuru trace their agricultural knowledge to him. Mhondoro spirits correspond to territorial domains and are regarded as guardians who mediate between Mwari and the people, and though the dynasties whose deceased members became mhondoro have collapsed or fallen to colonial conquest, the cults surrounding them remain widely attended in present-day Zimbabwe and were instrumental in organizing resistance during the First and Second Chimurenga uprisings.
Facts
Attestation
Veneration TodayActively venerated in a living tradition 2 Function
Domain / FunctionProphecy and divination 1 Belief
TheologyPolytheistic: many gods 1 Sources
1. The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend
Anthony S. Mercatante, revised and expanded by James R. Dow, Facts on File
2. Revolt in Southern Rhodesia, 1896-97: A Study in African Resistance
Terence O. Ranger, Heinemann
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