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February 22, 2026
MARANGE DYNASTY OF BOCHA
Newcomers to the world of Shona politics could hardly find a better point at which to start than the Marange dynasty of Bocha: it offers a neat little case history of struggle for political power and land, with the enforced peace of colonial rule only just suppressing the older methods of conducting politics in the last century. At a first glance at the map, Bocha appears to be cut off from the surrounding country by natural features: on its northern border lies the Mutanda range, while on the east and west, joining in the south, run the Odzi and Save rivers, both of them major streams that are difficult or impossible to cross at the height of the summer rains.
Newcomers to the world of Shona politics could hardly find a better point at which to start than the Marange dynasty of Bocha: it offers a neat little case history of struggle for political power and land, with the enforced peace of colonial rule only just suppressing the older methods of conducting politics in the last century. At a first glance at the map, Bocha appears to be cut off from the surrounding country by natural features: on its northern border lies the Mutanda range, while on the east and west, joining in the south, run the Odzi and Save rivers, both of them major streams that are difficult or impossible to cross at the height of the summer rains. Actually, neither of the rivers have proved to be serious barriers to contact, while the Mutanda range is cut by many passes. In colonial times, however, Bocha was the most remote part of the Umtali district, and this is one of the reasons why there are so few sources on its history. A more significant environmental feature is the triangle of land above the 923-metre contour that occupies most of the northern part of the territory: to a certain extent Bocha history has been the history of the struggles within the dominant shava/mukonde lineage, headed by the holders of the Marange title, to control this higher land, with the losers tending to be pushed to the edges into the lower and drier plains of the Odzi and Save. The highland triangle is dominated by the 1700-metre flat-topped mountain Nyaruhwe but, perhaps because it is so huge and steep, Nyaruhwe does not seem to have figured much in Bocha history. Instead, the main sites mentioned in Bocha traditions tend to be the smaller hills and mountains such as Makomwe to the south-west of Nyaruhwe and a large number of others between Nyaruhwe and the Mutanda range. Another feature of the uplands was the small gold belt along the Mutanda range: although it had largely been worked out (by pre-colonial standards) by the late nineteenth century, it had still been worth noting in the 1850s and must have been a valuable asset in earlier centuries. Indeed, a small Zimbabwe had been reported at the eastern end of the Mutanda range, though there is no way of linking it to the Marange dynasty, which can only he dated to the eighteenth century with any certainty. In the southern lowlands, settlement has tended to concentrate on outlying hills such as Dema. Generally, the south was comparatively unattractive lowveld, but elephants bearing ivory, and salt springs on the Save, provided a certain amount of compensation, though hardly enough to outweigh the poor farming environment. There does not seem to have been any pre-Marange population that was remembered in traditions, though presumably there must have been one. Even the NeChipindirwe nzou house that was settled early in the lowlands has a tradition of coming from the Mutapa area, while the Chiwadza moyo and Mushunje shumba lineages are comparatively recent immigrants. All the other major lineages are offshoots of the Marange shava/mukonde dynasty. The Marange dynasty does not seem to have any clear traditions of origins from elsewhere. In 1900 there was a report that the Bocha people were refugees from the far west, who had been so harassed by the Ndebele that they remembered nothing except that they had come from the west, but this report is so sketchy that it seems likely that the official who made it had not bothered to make serious enquiries.' This may lie behind a note of 1954 to the effect that the Marange dynasty had `Hera affiliations' but this note may equally rely on no more than the common totem of Marange and Nyashanu and the fact that the two dynasties have a few personal names in common. In fact, intermarriage between the two has taken place, which argues against any very close links. Another theory was used by the Mutsago and Mukwada houses in their claims against the dominant Manage dynasty. The Mutsago house did travel to Bocha through Mbire 111, and both it and its neighbour the Mukwada house claimed that their ancestors were the elder brothers of the founder of the Marange line. They therefore claimed that the Marange dynasty came from Mbire 111, but there is no support at all for this among the Bocha of the highlands and, as will be seen, the Mutsago claim that the senior house (by their reckoning) chose the lowlands around Dema is most improbable. On the face of it, therefore, it seems that the Marange dynasty has been established so long in Bocha that for all practical purposes it can be regarded as having originated there. This is certainly the impression given by the few surviving traditions of the Marange founding ancestor, Mutekwatekwa. Mutekwatekwa is said to have lived in the far north of Bocha, depending on which variant of the genealogy is used, his death date is 1728 or 1756+32, which would put his career at the peak of Changamire Rozvi power. He is indeed stated to have been installed by the Rozvi. Although it has often been stated or implied that the Rozvi appointed, confirmed or installed all Marange rulers, the next occasion on which they are specifically recalled as having done so was at the beginning of the reign of Nzvenga in the mid-nineteenth century, when the Rozvi who had fled from the Ndebele to the upper Save were apparently taking an active part in regional politics! Consequently, although the Rozvi appear in Bocha traditions at the beginning of their history and from the 1850s onwards, Bocha may have been totally independent during the period in between. That seems to be all that is known of Mutekwatekwa, and indeed even less is known of his elder son, Shirichena, who succeeded him. With Shirichena's younger brother, Chirukamaswe, who succeeded him as Marange, we begin to get more detail. He is stated to have allocated a great deal of land to his followers: Senda to Chikuni, Chinyaruuyu to his son Dambamuromo, land south of the Mutanda range to Chipamba, Cherenga to Zvirumwedza, Chinemapembe to Muwoko and to Dongorere, Mapembe itself to Chimhiti and Nengomasha to Mukomborwe. Other people went to Chibvurenyi, Rukandanwa and Nhengwe near Makomwe. Most of these areas seem to have been in the uplands, between Nyaruhwe and the Mutanda range.
Marange Chirukamaswe died in the late eighteenth century, and it is said to have been in his reign that the long rivalry between the main Marange dynasty and the Mutsago house began. To explain the origins of this, we must go back a little. At some time in the early eighteenth century a shava group left Bocha and travelled to the north-west, eventually to settle in the land of Harava on the Mhanyame river and to found the Seke dynasty. At some time not too long after the Seke conquest a civil war drove some of the emigrants back to Bocha. Led by Ushanga, they did not go to the more favourable uplands, probably because the Marange dynasty had taken the best land, but instead went to Dema mountain in the lowlands to the south. Dema was owned by the nzou leader Nechipindirwe of nearby Chipindirwe hill, probably a sub-ruler under Marange. Ushanga's people, who became known as the Mutsago house, took Dema and inter-married with the Nechipindirwe line. Dema was a long way from the heartland of Bocha, and the Mutsago house was left very much to itself. At some time in the eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries two other groups entered the Bocha lowlands. From Muwushu across the Odzi came moyo-totem people who settled in lower Buhera under Chamutsa. A branch of these people under Chiwadzwa moved into the Rombe section of lower Bocha, refining and marketing salt. They appear to have been tributary to Marange. In addition, in the course of the Marange civil wars the Mukwada house was ejected from the uplands and forced to settle near Nechipindirwe, who supplied Mukwada with land and wives. Although Chirukamaswe lived at Chekamaswa hill, he also had a base at Makomwe. This may reflect growing land pressures in the old settlement area north of Nyaruhwe, or a desire for a more secure base. In any case, although future Marange rulers were to live in other places, Makomwe became more and more the 'capital' of Bocha and assumed a special importance as a rulers burial place. Chirukamaswe was succeeded by his son Dambamuromo, of whom little is known except that he lived at a place called `Mwandiyambira's.' He probably died in 1808+24, and in the rest of the nineteenth century the history of Bocha was dominated by the struggles of his sons and grandsons to dominate Bocha in the face of growing pressures from outside. The century also seems to have seen an economic decline, with the working out of the Bocha goldfield and the reduction of the numbers of cattle to a very low level. The Ndebele rarely seem to have reached Bocha but, by driving the Changamire Rozvi to the upper Save, they indirectly affected Bocha politics as the Rozvi began to take an active part in affairs. Bocha was, however, well within the range of the Gaza Nguni when they settled in the south-eastern highlands beyond the middle Save in 1862, and apart from their great raid to the central plateau in c.1867 they also passed through it in 1880, 1888 and doubtless on other occasions. Traditions suggest that although there was some resistance it was more usual for the Bocha to pay tribute. Dambamuromo was succeeded by his son Museyamwa, who is said to have died without children. In view of the fact that this was also incorrectly said of his brother Chimhiti's son, Dongorere, it is possible that he did have sons but that they were pushed out of the line of succession and into obscurity. Museyamwa was succeeded by Chimhiti, and Chimhiti by Dongorere.
As Chimhiti also had a younger brother Nzvenga, and there was obviously no clear-cut succession system, Dongorere’s succession probably faced opposition. We are not certain how or when Dongorere died, but it is significant that for a long time he was said to have died without children. Actually, he did have descendants who formed the Wendumba house. This house was given a ward in the north-east of Bocha, possibly as compensation for the loss of its right to succeed to the Marange title. Nzvenga succeeded Dongorere, but not by any easy process. The leader of the Mukwada house attempted to gain the Marange title, and actually succeeded for a short while with the support of some elders. We do not know the exact relationship of Mukwada to the house of Nzvenga, and what followed partly explains why. Nzvenga, who claimed the title of Chapuradima the title of a Marange heir who had not yet been installed lived under Mukwada's rule for a while, being in some danger from poison. In the end he forged an alliance with Mutsago and the Mukwada leader was killed. After this the Mukwada house remained in exile in the southern lowlands. The price of Mutsago's support for Nzvenga was virtual autonomy at Dema, including the prized right to keep the tusks of elephants killed on his land. Mutsago was known as Marange's head councillor. However, either Nzvenga or his son Gandidzanwa was faced with a threat from Mutsago's ambitions: Mutsago wished to become the official installer of Marange rulers. Nzvenga's response was to claim that it was the 'custom' for the Rozvi to crown Marange rulers, and so the Rozvi, now settled in strength on the upper Save, came and installed him. Mutsago was forced to let his daughter marry Nzvenga, in spite of the closeness at their relationship. This effectively debarred Mutsago from claims to the Marange title, and in retrospect it looks as though Nzvenga used the Rozvi as a counterweight in the balance of power. Nzvenga's success over the Chimhiti-Dongorere, Mukwada and Mutsago houses was short lived, however, and in 1931 he was not counted as having been a ruling Marange. He is said either to have been killed by the Chimhiti house or to have been forced into exile, first to Sadza, then to Garahwa and finally to Mapembenja. Nevertheless, his descendants managed to overwrite this set-back, and continued to dominate Marange politics from then on. This process was begun by Nzvenga's son Gandidzanwa, also known as Chahuruva, perhaps because his descendants were as many as the dust, as he had at least thirty-two sons. He managed not only to become recognized as Marange by all the rival groups but also to cut the Mafararikwa house out of the succession. This house took up what became a semi-autonomous ward around Senda mountain, presumably first as a place of exile from the centre of Bocha politics and later as compensation for exclusion from the title. Gandidzanwa lived at Mapembe in his youth, but by 1880 the Marange capital was at Makomwe. One of the factors that aided Gandidzanwa was the arrival of the Mushunje house. The father of Mushunje left Manyika during the reign of Dongorere in order to escape the civil wars in that territory. He married Dongorere's daughter, but his son was to align himself with Gandidzanwa. According to one account he helped to rule Bocha during Gandidzanwa's minority and helped him during a famine. The Mushunje line acquired land east of Nyaruhwe, and became the hereditary semukadzi, a senior councillor. When Gandidzanwa died --- possibly in 1884, certainly by 1895 ---- his third and eldest living son, Nyachitu or Nyakupeni, succeeded as Marange. He apparently had to fight off an attempt by the Mafararikwa house to take the title, and during his long reign he appears to have had to grant wards to the houses of two of his brothers, of Chipfatsura who died before Gandidzanwa and of Chikuku who died before Nyachitu himself. This and the recognition of Mutsago as a sub-ruler over Mukwada and Chiwadzwa, seems to have given Nyachitu a relatively secure power base. He needed it, because whereas Bocha had been divided by civil wars almost since the death of Dambamuromo it was not isolated from foreign affairs. As noted above, Bocha paid tribute to the Gaza Nguni after 1862, but paying tribute to the Gaza did not bring the degree of stability that resulted from Ndebele rule: when the Jesuits reached Mapembe in 1880 they were met by an envoy of Mutasa who had apparently invaded Bocha without reference to Marange, and indeed it seems that relations between the two were cool. Bocha also got involved in the politics of the Mutambara dynasty of Garwe, and seems to have got the worst of it, as it had to cede an enclave of land in the uplands, at Chikwiriro, to Garwe. The sudden transfer of the centre of the Gaza state to the south in 1889 seems to have upset the whole balance of power in the east of the Zimbabwean plateau, and it is not surprising that Marange signed treaties with the British South Africa Company shortly afterwards. Actual colonial rule arrived gradually: the Native Department was collecting forced labour by 1895, and although Nyachitu was ‘inclined to give trouble’ at first he seemed to have been persuaded to 'subjection and compliance with the rules of the government' . But not for long: in April 1896 two of NC Nesbitt's men demanded labourers from Nyachitu, but he sent them on to Mutsago who supplied 60 men. On the way back they found that Nyachitu had fled from his village, so they seized his herds. An attack followed in which Nyachitu recovered his stock, and the police finally reached Umtali with only 30 labourers. Nesbitt's death and the 1896 Chimurenga prevented further action, and Marange was neutral during the rising, though like Zimunya he probably considered joining in against the colonial state. In August 1896 a patrol of Volunteers looking for carriers penetrated as far as Mutsago at Dema, and collected some hundreds after a demonstration of artillery. In the decades after 1896 the Marange lost a strip of the uplands along the Mutanda range to European farmers, but the core of settlement around Nyaruhwe remained, though it had to absorb people from the farms. After Nyachitu's death in 1929 the Marange succession continued without, for the first time in almost a century, civil war, although in 1955 war very nearly broke out. As the brothers of Nyachitu took the title in turn, real power began to accumulate in the hands of his son Hama Isia, who as a 'progressive' was appointed as acting Chief in between reigns. In 1955 he and his supporters were evidently tired of waiting for Nyachitu's generation to die out, and he opposed Makarara for the Marange title. Spears, axes and sticks were in evidence, and after the state had played for safety by appointing Makarara as Marange the latter took his revenge by fining his opponents, threatening to exile them to the lowlands of Rombe and appointing his own semukadzi. 'I made them pay', he said; 'if the Europeans had not been in the country I would have killed them' Hama Isia finally became Marange in 1961." To put the foregoing saga in perspective, we have been looking at the history of no more than the ruling minority of the 5 000-odd people who lived in Botha in pre-colonial days: when the Mushunje, Mukunguma, Gombe, Dambiko, Mutsago, Mukwada and Chiwadzwa leaders met to discuss the succession in 1931, fourteen other non-shava leaders aided them.
Marange Chirukamaswe died in the late eighteenth century, and it is said to have been in his reign that the long rivalry between the main Marange dynasty and the Mutsago house began. To explain the origins of this, we must go back a little. At some time in the early eighteenth century a shava group left Bocha and travelled to the north-west, eventually to settle in the land of Harava on the Mhanyame river and to found the Seke dynasty. At some time not too long after the Seke conquest a civil war drove some of the emigrants back to Bocha. Led by Ushanga, they did not go to the more favourable uplands, probably because the Marange dynasty had taken the best land, but instead went to Dema mountain in the lowlands to the south. Dema was owned by the nzou leader Nechipindirwe of nearby Chipindirwe hill, probably a sub-ruler under Marange. Ushanga's people, who became known as the Mutsago house, took Dema and inter-married with the Nechipindirwe line. Dema was a long way from the heartland of Bocha, and the Mutsago house was left very much to itself. At some time in the eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries two other groups entered the Bocha lowlands. From Muwushu across the Odzi came moyo-totem people who settled in lower Buhera under Chamutsa. A branch of these people under Chiwadzwa moved into the Rombe section of lower Bocha, refining and marketing salt. They appear to have been tributary to Marange. In addition, in the course of the Marange civil wars the Mukwada house was ejected from the uplands and forced to settle near Nechipindirwe, who supplied Mukwada with land and wives. Although Chirukamaswe lived at Chekamaswa hill, he also had a base at Makomwe. This may reflect growing land pressures in the old settlement area north of Nyaruhwe, or a desire for a more secure base. In any case, although future Marange rulers were to live in other places, Makomwe became more and more the 'capital' of Bocha and assumed a special importance as a rulers burial place. Chirukamaswe was succeeded by his son Dambamuromo, of whom little is known except that he lived at a place called `Mwandiyambira's.' He probably died in 1808+24, and in the rest of the nineteenth century the history of Bocha was dominated by the struggles of his sons and grandsons to dominate Bocha in the face of growing pressures from outside. The century also seems to have seen an economic decline, with the working out of the Bocha goldfield and the reduction of the numbers of cattle to a very low level. The Ndebele rarely seem to have reached Bocha but, by driving the Changamire Rozvi to the upper Save, they indirectly affected Bocha politics as the Rozvi began to take an active part in affairs. Bocha was, however, well within the range of the Gaza Nguni when they settled in the south-eastern highlands beyond the middle Save in 1862, and apart from their great raid to the central plateau in c.1867 they also passed through it in 1880, 1888 and doubtless on other occasions. Traditions suggest that although there was some resistance it was more usual for the Bocha to pay tribute. Dambamuromo was succeeded by his son Museyamwa, who is said to have died without children. In view of the fact that this was also incorrectly said of his brother Chimhiti's son, Dongorere, it is possible that he did have sons but that they were pushed out of the line of succession and into obscurity. Museyamwa was succeeded by Chimhiti, and Chimhiti by Dongorere.
As Chimhiti also had a younger brother Nzvenga, and there was obviously no clear-cut succession system, Dongorere’s succession probably faced opposition. We are not certain how or when Dongorere died, but it is significant that for a long time he was said to have died without children. Actually, he did have descendants who formed the Wendumba house. This house was given a ward in the north-east of Bocha, possibly as compensation for the loss of its right to succeed to the Marange title. Nzvenga succeeded Dongorere, but not by any easy process. The leader of the Mukwada house attempted to gain the Marange title, and actually succeeded for a short while with the support of some elders. We do not know the exact relationship of Mukwada to the house of Nzvenga, and what followed partly explains why. Nzvenga, who claimed the title of Chapuradima the title of a Marange heir who had not yet been installed lived under Mukwada's rule for a while, being in some danger from poison. In the end he forged an alliance with Mutsago and the Mukwada leader was killed. After this the Mukwada house remained in exile in the southern lowlands. The price of Mutsago's support for Nzvenga was virtual autonomy at Dema, including the prized right to keep the tusks of elephants killed on his land. Mutsago was known as Marange's head councillor. However, either Nzvenga or his son Gandidzanwa was faced with a threat from Mutsago's ambitions: Mutsago wished to become the official installer of Marange rulers. Nzvenga's response was to claim that it was the 'custom' for the Rozvi to crown Marange rulers, and so the Rozvi, now settled in strength on the upper Save, came and installed him. Mutsago was forced to let his daughter marry Nzvenga, in spite of the closeness at their relationship. This effectively debarred Mutsago from claims to the Marange title, and in retrospect it looks as though Nzvenga used the Rozvi as a counterweight in the balance of power. Nzvenga's success over the Chimhiti-Dongorere, Mukwada and Mutsago houses was short lived, however, and in 1931 he was not counted as having been a ruling Marange. He is said either to have been killed by the Chimhiti house or to have been forced into exile, first to Sadza, then to Garahwa and finally to Mapembenja. Nevertheless, his descendants managed to overwrite this set-back, and continued to dominate Marange politics from then on. This process was begun by Nzvenga's son Gandidzanwa, also known as Chahuruva, perhaps because his descendants were as many as the dust, as he had at least thirty-two sons. He managed not only to become recognized as Marange by all the rival groups but also to cut the Mafararikwa house out of the succession. This house took up what became a semi-autonomous ward around Senda mountain, presumably first as a place of exile from the centre of Bocha politics and later as compensation for exclusion from the title. Gandidzanwa lived at Mapembe in his youth, but by 1880 the Marange capital was at Makomwe. One of the factors that aided Gandidzanwa was the arrival of the Mushunje house. The father of Mushunje left Manyika during the reign of Dongorere in order to escape the civil wars in that territory. He married Dongorere's daughter, but his son was to align himself with Gandidzanwa. According to one account he helped to rule Bocha during Gandidzanwa's minority and helped him during a famine. The Mushunje line acquired land east of Nyaruhwe, and became the hereditary semukadzi, a senior councillor. When Gandidzanwa died --- possibly in 1884, certainly by 1895 ---- his third and eldest living son, Nyachitu or Nyakupeni, succeeded as Marange. He apparently had to fight off an attempt by the Mafararikwa house to take the title, and during his long reign he appears to have had to grant wards to the houses of two of his brothers, of Chipfatsura who died before Gandidzanwa and of Chikuku who died before Nyachitu himself. This and the recognition of Mutsago as a sub-ruler over Mukwada and Chiwadzwa, seems to have given Nyachitu a relatively secure power base. He needed it, because whereas Bocha had been divided by civil wars almost since the death of Dambamuromo it was not isolated from foreign affairs. As noted above, Bocha paid tribute to the Gaza Nguni after 1862, but paying tribute to the Gaza did not bring the degree of stability that resulted from Ndebele rule: when the Jesuits reached Mapembe in 1880 they were met by an envoy of Mutasa who had apparently invaded Bocha without reference to Marange, and indeed it seems that relations between the two were cool. Bocha also got involved in the politics of the Mutambara dynasty of Garwe, and seems to have got the worst of it, as it had to cede an enclave of land in the uplands, at Chikwiriro, to Garwe. The sudden transfer of the centre of the Gaza state to the south in 1889 seems to have upset the whole balance of power in the east of the Zimbabwean plateau, and it is not surprising that Marange signed treaties with the British South Africa Company shortly afterwards. Actual colonial rule arrived gradually: the Native Department was collecting forced labour by 1895, and although Nyachitu was ‘inclined to give trouble’ at first he seemed to have been persuaded to 'subjection and compliance with the rules of the government' . But not for long: in April 1896 two of NC Nesbitt's men demanded labourers from Nyachitu, but he sent them on to Mutsago who supplied 60 men. On the way back they found that Nyachitu had fled from his village, so they seized his herds. An attack followed in which Nyachitu recovered his stock, and the police finally reached Umtali with only 30 labourers. Nesbitt's death and the 1896 Chimurenga prevented further action, and Marange was neutral during the rising, though like Zimunya he probably considered joining in against the colonial state. In August 1896 a patrol of Volunteers looking for carriers penetrated as far as Mutsago at Dema, and collected some hundreds after a demonstration of artillery. In the decades after 1896 the Marange lost a strip of the uplands along the Mutanda range to European farmers, but the core of settlement around Nyaruhwe remained, though it had to absorb people from the farms. After Nyachitu's death in 1929 the Marange succession continued without, for the first time in almost a century, civil war, although in 1955 war very nearly broke out. As the brothers of Nyachitu took the title in turn, real power began to accumulate in the hands of his son Hama Isia, who as a 'progressive' was appointed as acting Chief in between reigns. In 1955 he and his supporters were evidently tired of waiting for Nyachitu's generation to die out, and he opposed Makarara for the Marange title. Spears, axes and sticks were in evidence, and after the state had played for safety by appointing Makarara as Marange the latter took his revenge by fining his opponents, threatening to exile them to the lowlands of Rombe and appointing his own semukadzi. 'I made them pay', he said; 'if the Europeans had not been in the country I would have killed them' Hama Isia finally became Marange in 1961." To put the foregoing saga in perspective, we have been looking at the history of no more than the ruling minority of the 5 000-odd people who lived in Botha in pre-colonial days: when the Mushunje, Mukunguma, Gombe, Dambiko, Mutsago, Mukwada and Chiwadzwa leaders met to discuss the succession in 1931, fourteen other non-shava leaders aided them.