Finding and Preserving Mutuke People Cultural Identity

Finding and Preserving Mutuke People Cultural Identity is a plot by the Mutuke clan people living in Zimbabwe to trace and investigate their ancestry. Mutuke people have not found any recorded history or article about their origins, culture and how they came to be in Zimbabwe. Mutuke people would appreciate any useful contribution to their cause by anyone of the local and international community.
The Name Mutuke
Mutuke is the name of a river in northern Zambia; Mutuke is the name of a village in Gombe State, Nigeria; Mutuke is a surname of a Pigmy family, of the Pigmy Race of the Congo; Mutuke is the surname of a Congolese family other than the Pigmy surname; Mutuke is the surname of a Kenyan ., Mutuke is the surname of a white family in the United States and Mutuke is a clan of the Karanga people located mostly at Chizhou, Chirumanzu near Mvuma in Zimbabwe, and a few in Chiundura and Zhombe near Kwekwe in the Midlands Province.
Who was Mutuke, so popular and regionally? Why is the surname so unpopular today? Mutuke people in Zimbabwe are concerned and they want to find their roots but above all they want to resuscitate the dying name of Mutuke.
Mutuke Concern
Most people with the surname Mutuke do not even know what it means and where were its origins. What they know is that they know is that they are connected by the common bond of the 'Elephant' totem. The totem Elephant English language;
* Karanga Zhou,
* Kalanga Ndlovu,
* Ndebele Ndhlovu,
* Zezuru Nzou,
* Korekore Nzou,
* Venda Ndou,
* Bemba Nsofu
* Lingala nzoku
* Chewa Njovu,
* Swahili Ndovu (or Tembo),
* Kinyarwanda Nzovu
* Kongo Nzau and
* Sotho Tlou.
Mutuke people in Zimbabwe are concerned because among the Shona people, it is generally agreed that the totem does not necessarily identify one’s ancestral genealogy. Many people before the 20th centuries changed totems for various reasons in as much that some that are of the Elephant totem now were not in past time. Another concern is that the world over not only animal and bird species are going extinct; if care is not taken some names will be forgotten about soon. There are some names when you hear them for the first time you would think they are brand new names yet they are more ancient than yours. Had the name Adam, Lot and Job not been popular with preachers of the Christian gospel, one would think they were newer names. Many traditional names are at risk of dying out, and some are becoming very unpopular. Even names of celebrities die and they die even quicker that how they became popular. Some names are extinct in less than 40 years. Without traceable names it would be very difficult to identify one's line of genealogy.
Mutuke is one such name that if care is not taken may go extinct. Most of the Mutuke blood-line does not even know who Mutuke was and what his name meant, or its origins. For the fact that a few people and places in Africa have the name Mutuke, he must have been a prominent person whose name lost its savour.
Causes of Name Extinctions
Disused names eventually die. There so many reason why names cease to be used.
* In early colonial days the then authorities set people in Tribal Trust Lands on tribal lines. They also changed numerous native surnames to make it easier for them to identify people of the same tribe and relocate them to their respective Tribal Trust Lands. This made for example a few Shona speaking people living in Ndebele Tribal Trust Lands changed surnames so they could relatively live peacefully with the Ndebele people. The Ndebele people living in Shona Tribal Trust Lands did the same. You will find that someone whose Shona totem was Nzou (elephant) called himself Ndlovu (Ndebele word for Elephant), and went on to register Ndlovu with the registrar general. A Ndebele man whose surname was Nkatazo (problems) would change it to Katazo (branchlet), and the meaning of the surname becomes corrupted.
* Some names are undesirable by the child; he would rather be known by an untraceable name than his given name. The above example of the Ndebele name Nkatazo which means all sorts of problem would not go well with many children. He would rather accept the corrupted name Katazo which means a little branch in Shona. It is not only African names that are undesirable according to the child. Many English names are dying in the same way. Someone whose name was Margarineworth thought it better to do away with it.
* Idolizing celebrities also affects old customary names for celebrities' names. Many people want to identify themselves with popular people not minding about future identity puzzles. Miriam Silverman thinks people today are more interested in the source of their names If the source is unfavourable, then name change has more chances than not.
Possible Solutions
Even though Mutuke has been one of such names that became almost obsolete, there is hope for it to come back into fashion as formerly echoed by Professor Carole Hough from the University of Glasgow who specialises in the study of Onomastics.

* In the later years of the colonial era in Zimbabwe, and even so after independence in 1980, the registrar of births officials used the father's surname as an automatic surname for the baby. This idea revived those surnames that were in danger of extinct. Today the Registrar General officials even ask you to check the entries they have made for any mistakes before officially stamping birth certificates.
* Preserving the clan name as a surname.
Repercussions
* Saving a name for the sake of keeping it alive may cause more harm than good but saving it to keep track of genealogy is recommendable. Scientists Harald Jockusch and Alexander Fuhrmann propose that spouses should weigh up which surname between theirs is rarer give that one to their children to keep it alive. This idea may work to keep the children's maternal surname live but it will still complicate their paternal identity.
The bible had a possible solution for saving the name of one's brother if he died leaving his widow with no son; It was a way to save both the name and be bloodline.
Resuscitation of a Dying Surname
Mutuke people in Zimbabwe have two priorities; to keep the name alive and to trace their roots.
* Parents should register their children’s surnames as Mutuke wherever possible and right to do so.
* Mutuke people as a clan, groups, families or individuals should research by all possible and legally means for their roots.
* Finally the Mutukes should knit together bits and pieces of history they know into one possible true history of the Mutuke people. Cultural and social theories must all be considered in this investigation of Mutuke cultural identity.
Launch pad
To start on the research here is one such oral history from one of the Mutuke elders who lives in Zhombe Communal Land near Empress Mine Township, Zimbabwe in the Kwekwe District, Katazo Amos Magundwane, born 1926.
Posible Origins
K. A. Magundwane says the Mutuke people came from from Gona, Ethiopia and dwelt in the area of the Great Lakes popularly known in Shona as ‘‘Guruuswa’’ basin before scattering all over west, east central and Southern Africa.
He says they came into Southern Africa with the totem Nzou (Elephant) and dwelt in the Zambezi valley in the central part of the then Mutapa Kingdom. Mutota of the Moyo totem though not of the Rozwi changed his totem from Moyo to Nzou, (elephant) because he had been too powerful for the Tavara people who were of the Nzou totem, whom he defeated and sent them packing to a place beyond the Zambezi river in the now Mozambique. Mutota even changed their totem from Nzou to Marunga, Hangaiwa, the Pigion; because of their fearful flight across the Zambezi as they ran for their lives. K.A. Magundwane is not sure if Mutuke was part of the Tavara people but he is certain that Mutuke was related to Nyandoro.
Recommendation
Mutuke people join in the globally family who are trying by all means to save names from extinction. Galton-Watson process is also recommendable if the Mutuke people are serious.

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