Mwari Is the word for God in Shona (Mwali) also known as Musikavanhu / Musikavhathu, Musiki, Tenzi and Ishe, is the supreme

creator deity A creator deity or creator god is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatristic traditions separate a ...

according to Shona and

Venda Venda ( ), officially the Republic of Venda (; ), was a Bantustan in northern South Africa. It was fairly close to the South African border with Zimbabwe to the north, while, to the south and east, it shared a long border with another black hom ...

traditional religion In religious studies, an ethnic religion or ethnoreligion is a religion or belief associated with notions of heredity and a particular ethnicity. Ethnic religions are often distinguished from universal religions, such as Christianity or Islam ...

. It is believed that Mwari is the author of all things and all life and all is in him. The majority of this deity's followers are concentrated in

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, and

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. Mwari (Mwali) is an omnipotent being, who rules over spirits and is the Supreme God of the religion. The same deity is applied and also referred to as Inkhosi in Northern and Southern Ndebele traditional religion. Mwari's reverence dates back to the age of the ancient king ''Monomotapa'', of the Mutapa Kingdom on the

Zambezi River The Zambezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than half of t ...

Etymology

The name "''Mwari''" in Shona means the force behind Creation. The word itself signifies, resembles and is interpreted as "God", but only in the religious context. The furthering of this term's acceptance is when the

Christian missionaries A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and ...

interpreted the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

for the locals, in which they used the term "Mwari" instead of "God".

History

The first official recognition of Mwari was by the

Kingdom of Zimbabwe The Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe was a Shona kingdom located in modern-day Zimbabwe. Its capital was Great Zimbabwe, the largest stone structure in precolonial Southern Africa, which had a population of 10,000. Around 1300, Great Zimbabwe repl ...

, whose most notable ruler was Monomotapa of the

Kingdom of Mutapa The Mutapa Empire – sometimes referred to as Mwenemutapa or Munhumutapa, (, ) – was an African empire in Zimbabwe, which expanded to what is now modern-day Mozambique, Botswana, Malawi, and Zambia. It was ruled by the Nembire or Mbire dyn ...

. It is believed that this new addition to Shona religion was incorporated into

Great Zimbabwe Great Zimbabwe was a city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Masvingo. It was settled from 1000 AD, and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe from the 13th century. It is the largest stone struc ...

. Mwari was frequently approached via mediums at shrines at Matonjeni in the Matopo Hills of Zimbabwe. In 1890, Christian missionaries began to translate the Bible into Shona. They translated the name for the biblical God as Mwari. Dora Rudo Mbuwayesango calls this 'in reality a religious usurpation of the Shona. ... The depictions of God in Shona oral traditions were designated as primitive and uncivilized, and so the biblical depiction of God was elevated as the civilized and authentic way of talking about the Shona deity, Mwari'.

Characteristics

Mwari is seen as a kind and loving God. Mwari is not only the God of creation, but also of land fertility and blessing rains. Mwari is the one who controls the forces of Earth, from the fortune of journeys to social and political events. Though the Shona and the Ndebele often pray to Mwari alone, it is also very common for the use of spirit mediums to be employed. Although missionary Bible translations transcribed Mwari as male, the Shona understood Mwari as not having a gender (or neither male and female).

Oral history concerning Mwari

It was a belief amongst the Shona people that no one had the right or authority to call unto Mwari directly without observing the protocol of airing out grievances or thanksgiving supplications to the deity through spirit mediums (who were possessed by ancestral and other spirits). In northern Zimbabwe, Mwari was contacted through spirit mediums or spirits; in other parts of Zimbabwe, he spoke to the people via an

oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

.Mickias Musiyiwa, 'Shona Religion and Women's Justice in Modern Zimbabwe', in ''(Re)Interpretations: The Shapes of Justice in Women’s Experience'', ed. L. Dresdner and L. S. Peterson (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009), p. 174. It was also believed that anyone who defied this spiritual law would develop leprosy as the name of the ineffable and unknowable God was believed to be holy and beyond everything.

References

{{Bantu African deities African gods African mythology Bantu deities Bantu religion Creator deities Creator gods Names of God in African traditional religions