“Mwari” has been presented in various Christian-influenced theological texts that it is the Shona name of the cosmic power or a deity assumed to be beyond nature and humanity, which is the source and sustainer of life.
The word “Mwari/Musikavanhu” is not found in the primitive or early language, customs and traditions of the Shonas.
These are the proverbs (“tsumo”), allegory (“madimikira”), riddles (“zvirahwe”), folk tales (“ngano”), ritual (“kuteura/kupira” and totemic (“mitupo”) language.
The purported Shona word, Nyadenga, for a deity is very Christian as it is assumed that the deity lives in the sky. Midzimu of the Shona live in unspoiled or in disturbed nature: caves, mountains, bushes, deep waters of rivers, etc.
Another purported word for a deity in Shona is “Mabweadziva.” This is a composite word for “mabwe emudziva” (rocks of the river). This was normally a mountainous area with caves by a deep river.
There is an all night ceremony of singing, dancing and clapping to summon the ancestors for guidance and protection through what is called bira from the verb kupira (supplicate, inform). It is done through a paternal lineage.
Back to the word and concept. According to Oxford Islamic Studies, the word “Mawali” (sing. Mauda/Maula) refers to non-Arab Muslims and other client allies of the Muslim community - Persians, Africans, Azeris, Turks, Indians and Kurds.
When the non-Arabs converted to Islam, initially they did not fit into the Arabic tribal society and this led to the creation of a contract of patronage (wala/wali) of an Arabic principal (mawla).
The Mawali were “initially referred to those captured during the expansion of Islam throughout the Near East and parts of the Byzantine Empire who ultimately converted to Islam…Under the Umayyad dynasty (661 – 750 CE) mawali were not entitled to equal treatment with Arab Muslims, particularly with respect to taxes. Preferential treatment of Arab Muslims came to be a source of contention since it violated the Quranic declaration of equality of all believers. Under the subsequent Abbasid dynasty (750 – 1258 CE), distinctions between Arab and non-Arab Muslims were not stressed.”
In both the Quran and Hadith, the word is in reference to lord, guardian, trustee, helper or friend. During the early Islamic era, it gained currency as a term to refer to non-Arab Muslims. (A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874).
Allah calls a human owner of a slave the 'mawla' - See 16:76. So 'mawla' is simply an attribute describing a charge, one who is a protector or master. Even the fire of hell is called 'mawla' of the disbelievers (57:15) i.e. their protector/refuge/master/
Therefore, different shades of meaning are clearly apparent in the Quran and the word is not used exclusively for Allah.
4:33 “To (benefit) everyone, we have appointed sharers and heirs [Mawla] to property left by parents and relatives. To those also to whom your right hand was pledged give their due portion: for truly Allah is Witness to all things.”
"To everyone, We have appointed heirs." (4.33) 'Mawali' means heirs. And regarding: "And those to whom your right hands have pledged," When the Emigrants came to Medina, an Emigrant used to be the heir of an Ansari with the exclusion of the latter's relatives, and that was because of the bond of brotherhood which the Prophet had established between them (i.e. the Emigrants and the Ansar). So when the Verse: "To everyone We have appointed heirs," was revealed, (the inheritance through bond of brotherhood) was cancelled.
Ibn Abbas then said: "And those to whom your right hands have pledged," is concerned with the covenant of helping and advising each other. So allies are no longer to be the heir of each other, but they can bequeath each other some of their property by means of a will. - Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith Hadith 6.104 Narrated by Ibn Abbas.
According to an Arabic scholar, if you read Quran’s 22:13, 'mawla' is used with 'bisa' (to be evil) to say 'lab'isa mawla' which means 'surely an evil protector/friend'. So here the word 'mawla' simply means 'protector / friend' and is not used as an attribute of Allah. The meaning of 'mawla' does not only mean 'master' in the Quran. It admits different shades of meaning depending on context. When used as an attribute of Allah, it can also mean Protector as well as Master/Lord.
According to Daniel Pipes in an article, "Mawala: Freed slaves and converts in early Islam," (Slavery & Abolition Journal Vol. 1, Iss. 2, 1980) most Arabic words have four meanings - a basic one, its opposite, one related to sex and one referring to camels. This applies to the word, "mawla" which means lord, possessor, chief, benefactor, protector, lover, follower, charge, cousin, ally, contractor, slave, freedman, client."
Since a friend of Allah is called “wali/mawali” in Arabic and this gave birth to the Shona word for a friend, “shamwari” as influenced by the contact with Muslim Arabs.
In Swahili, a girl is "msichana" ("musikana" in Shona, derived from “musika vana” – the creator of children). Once she becomes a young woman of marriable age, she is called "mwari." On her marriage day, she is called "bibi harusi."
“Mwari” is also a first name in areas where Swahili is a predominant language like Tanzania and Kenya. In Swahili, it means a “bride, daughter, girl, maiden, virgin, young woman” of marriable age. The equivalent in Shona is “mhandara.”
In Kenya, “mwari” is a reference to a girl, while in Chewa, "mwali" is a young woman reaching childbearing age. This can be noticed that its to do with young age of maternity, the life bearing ability and fertility. Deductively, this can be connected with “Mwari” in Shona because it’s a word you can’t find in primitive or early Shona.
In Malawi (Mang'anja, Chewa, Lomwe and Yao of Malawi) and Zambia (Chokwe, Ila, Luchazi, Mbunda, Luvale and Chewa), there is a initiation rite called “chinamwali” (‘domba’ in Venda). The girl or maiden is called ‘mwali’ (plural 'anamwali').
The initiation rite is for the coming of age for girls and a ceremony held in a secret place. This is where girls are helped to get through their transition to mature womanhood and the sexual and maternal responsibilities that come with it.
The pre-marital initiation of girls is more than just a sexual role. It is about them in future to be the actualisation of the Feminine Principle - conceiving, nurturing and caring through their motherhood. Sexual education of the young women is given by means of symbols, riddles, songs and simulated action. They are also taught about responsibilities of marriage, observances associated with pregnancy and childbirth and parenthood.
From this narrative, it can be deduced that the word “Mwari” is used to be representative of the female life bearing ability and fertility. In Shona, it is "Mwari ndiMusiki" or "Mwari Musiki." "Kusika" is a Shona term for the procreative role and the organs of creation are "nhengo dzesika rudzi."
We are all creatures of our parentage procreative role. Without our parental union, we won't have come into existence!
The Swahili word for teacher is ‘mwalimu’ (‘mwali-mu’), a role ordinarily associated with motherhood as the mother and a teacher.
In the Venda cultural people of Zimbabwe and South Africa, the assumed cosmic power that is the source of life is called 'Nwali,’ while the Shonas of Zimbabwe say ‘Mwari.’
This shows “Mwari” has to be defined in the context of the life bearing ability and fertility in human beings. That creative power is the conjunction of the masculine and feminine energies and bodies.
Why is there a relationship between the creative agency and the fertility, conceiving, nurturing and caring role of women? The attributes often associated with femininity and even motherhood are affection, conceiving, nurturing and caring. This feminine and motherly aspect of the life was and is still suppressed in organised religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam whose deity the Abrahamic God is aggressive, capricious, vile, monstrous and of toxic masculinity. This deity is narcissistic and craves for human validation, attention, supplication and submission.
The human agency that is sexually balanced with a harmony and complementarity of opposites (Severity/Strength and Mercy/Kindness) was destroyed by the misogynistic Christian missionaries and in its place the masculine disposition of harshness, war, hatred, ego, vengeance, death and destruction was advanced.
The masculine Hebraic deity (El) was “strictly conformist, legalistic, tightly structured and exclusionist.”
Katharine M. Rogers in ‘The Troublesome Helpmate’ advances an argument that Pauline Christianity (based on Saul/Paul’s teachings) is misogynistic just like the conservative and literalist versions of Judaism and Islam. She listed what she says as specific examples from the Greek Scriptures letters of Saul/Paul of Tarsus.
She argues that the legacy of Christian misogyny was consolidated by the so-called "Fathers" of the Church, like Augustine and Tertullian, who thought a woman was not only "the gateway of the devil" but also "a temple built over a sewer."
Rogers also said, "The foundations of early Christian misogyny - its guilt about sex, its insistence on female subjection, its dread of female seduction - are all in St. Paul's epistles."
Passages from Hegel's ‘Elements of the Philosophy of Right’ are frequently used to illustrate Hegel's supposed misogyny: "Women are capable of education, but they are not made for activities which demand a universal faculty such as the more advanced sciences, philosophy and certain forms of artistic production... Women regulate their actions not by the demands universality, but by arbitrary inclinations and opinions." - G.W.F Hegel, ‘Elements of the Philosophy of Right,’ quoted in Lilli Alanen and Charlotte Witt, ‘Feminist reflections on the history of philosophy.’
From the observations made above, one can conclude that “Mwari” is a “new” word in Shona.
It can thus be considered a Shona figurative term for the human sexual energy in the creation of a new life and collective power of four human aspects:
1) metaphysical (sub-consciousness and consciousness),
2) psychological (masculine and feminine energies),
3) physiological (male and female), and
4) social (the functioning of human society).
A balanced relationship of these four aspects allows for healthy creative, innovative and causative actions.
These four aspects are respectively related to the academic disciplines of:
1. Mind (Psychological and Behavioural Sciences),
2. Life (Evolutionary and Biological Sciences),
3. Matter (Physical Sciences) and
4. human collaboration and cooperation (Social Sciences).
A human being is a bearer of sovereign agency and causative power. These are found within and around every human being.
It has been established that:
- the word and of concept of Mwari can be traced back to Islamic Arab.
- the word Mwari is related to Mwali in Swahili, Chewa and Nyanja, and
- in the absence of literal records, we are able to get into folklore, rituals, traditions, rites of passage customs, proverbs, idioms and poetry to determine the cosmology of a Shona. Christian missionaries and anthropologists wrote many books to fit Shona customs and traditions into a Christian framing.
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