AY Honors/African Lore/Answer Key
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Shona (IPA: [ʃona]),is the name collectively given to several groups of people in Zimbabwe and western Mozambique. Numbering about eight million people, who speak a range of related dialects whose standardised form is also known as Shona.
Most Zimbabweans identify themselves as either belonging to the amaNdebele or maShona ethnic group. Dialect groups are nowadays almost irrelevant because 'standard' Shona is spoken throughout Zimbabwe. Dialects only help to identify which town or village a person is from (e.g. a person claiming to be a Manyika would be from Eastern Zimbabwe, ie. towns like Mutare). The above differences in dialects developed during the dispersion of tribes across the country over a long time. The influx of immigrants, into the country from bordering countries, has obviously contributed to the variety.
The Shona people of today are a scattered group of tribes, which are made of several clans; each clan has a very strong sense of unity. In fact, most Shona people identify first with their own clans and then with the entire Shona people.
A small group of Shona speaking migrants of the late 1800s also live in Zambia, in the Zambezi valley, in Chieftainess Chiawa's area.
The shona are farmers that grow beans, peanuts, corn, different types of grass, pumpkins, and sweetpotatoes.
