Mutoko is a small town in

Mashonaland East Mashonaland East, informally Mash East, is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 32,230 km2 and a population of approximately 1.35 million (2012). Marondera is the capital of the province. Geography Districts Mashonaland East i ...

province,

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. It was established as an administrative station in 1911. It lies 143 km from

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

. It is named after the local chief, Mutoko. The town is the capital of the Mutoko District, which is inhabited by the Buja people. The Buja people are said to have settled in Mutoko coming from the north through Mhingari in what is now Mozambique. They were led by Nehor-eka(or Nehoreka or Nohureka), his father Mukombwe, his brothers Nyanzunzu and Mukwiradombo and sister Chingate (Nyamungate). Nehor-eka found Makate and his people in this area and Nehor-eka gave his sister Chingate (or Nyamungate) to Makate as a wife who later tricked Makate into losing the kingdom to Nehor-eka. (see Nehanda and Chaminuka), a spiritual leader of the Buja people. Nehor-eka's

totem A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While ''the wo ...

is shumba(

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

). The name "Nehor-eka" does not have a local origin or meaning. Some would argue that it is derived from a fight with Makate that led him to be named ''Ndakukoreka''. However, the structures of the names are too different to compare. There has previously been an attempt to link the name to a beast or animal such as ' (cow) or buffalo, with no real meaning to the name. These animals do not relate to Nehor-eka

. This attempt has resulted in it being distorted to Nohoreka or Nohureka by local people in the area in an effort to accommodate its unusual structure. It constitutes two words which are hyphenated. The first name, Nehor is of

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...

origin which means "light". The variant of this name is Nahor. Neither 'Nohor' or 'Nohur', is found in local languages either, and the word 'eka' is also not found in Shona or any other local languages. Nehor-eka is a combination of two words. If 'Nehor' is of

origin, 'Eka' is of

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch ...

origin and means 'one', or 'first' or 'hero', with other related meanings. In an attempt to preserve the name, Nehoreka is also the name of a 10 piece

Afro-Fusion Afrobeats (not to be confused with Afrobeat or Afroswing), or Afro-pop or Afro-fusion (or Afropop or Afrofusion), is an umbrella term to describe popular music from West Africa and the diaspora that initially developed in Nigeria, Ghana, and ...

music band, formed in

Gweru Gweru is a city in central Zimbabwe. Near the geographical centre of the country. It is on the centre of Midlands Province. Originally an area known to the Northern Ndebele people, Ndebele as "The Steep Place" because of the Gweru River's high ...

, Zimbabwe by Percy Nhara, Solomon Jahwi and Innocent Madamombe. The band is now based in Harare. The town includes a future based young artist Blessing Sulumba (King Shy) who rose fame in 2015 after his first album (Shasha dzega) which was also Sponsored by Childline Mutoko and launched at Starbrite Talent Show. The Mutoko District measures up to 678 km wide and has the famous teacher's college situated in the east. The Buja people are known for being amongst the best

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

and

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree ''Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South a ...

farmers in

. Mutoko is surrounded by villages which were given to farmers after the war. It is from these resettlements the country is fed. In these areas, they produce maize, cotton, beans and recently tobacco. Mutoko is considered one of the major breadbaskets of Zimbabwe. Mutoko area is also known for being very mountainous, and as such is an important source of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

stone. In 1937 at nearby Mutemwa one of the few

leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damag ...

treatment centres in the country was established, at which

John Bradburne John Randal Bradburne, OFS (14 June 1921 – 5 September 1979) was an English lay member of the Third Order of Saint Francis, a poet, and warden of the Mutemwa leper colony at Mutoko, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Bradburne was murdered by ZANLA t ...

worked from 1969 until he was killed by guerrillas during the

Rhodesian Bush War The Rhodesian Bush War, also called the Second as well as the Zimbabwe War of Liberation, was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe-Rhodesia). The conflict pitted three for ...

. Up to 25,000 people attend a service there each year in his memory. Mutoko is also the birthplace of

Tsitsi Dangarembga Tsitsi Dangarembga (born 4 February 1959) is a Zimbabwean novelist, playwright and filmmaker. Her debut novel, ''Nervous Conditions'' (1988), which was the first to be published in English by a Black woman from Zimbabwe, was named by the BBC in ...

, author of the famous post-colonial novel

Nervous Conditions ''Nervous Conditions'' is a novel by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga, first published in the United Kingdom in 1988. It was the first book published by a black woman from Zimbabwe in English. ''Nervous Conditions'' won the Commonwealth Writ ...

, Wilson Katiyo, Dzekasburg, Chawasarira, Admire Mudzonga and many others who stood as luminaries in this area of Zimbabwe. UK-based author,

Masimba Musodza Julius Masimba Musodza (born 29 March 1976) is a Zimbabwean author. Life Musodza was born at the cusp of the emergence of the new Zimbabwe, the eldest son of a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Lands. The Musodza family are of the Buja ...

, although born and raised in Harare, is of the Buja people and takes pride in his heritage as a direct descendant of Nehor-eka. List of famous institutions in Mutoko: * Nyadire Methodist Mission: Teachers College, mixed boarding facilities for High and primary school, hospital, Methodist church institution; * Mutoko High School Government Funded boarding facilities mixed; * All Souls Catholic Mission: Orphanage mixed Boarding facilities for High and primary schools, hospital, church; * Nyamuzuwe Methodist Mission: mixed Boarding facilities for High and primary School hospital and church. Tourist attractions: * Mutoko airport; * Motoko centre; * Mutoko ruins; * Mudzi River. 27 km south-west of Mutoko lies a Developing Growth Point called Jani. It is considered the rapid rural developing centre in Mashonaland East. It has a capture area of about 30 km.

References

Further reading