Mnangagwa reveals mystical royal blood, gunpowder smelting

HARARE – With a grandfather raised in the court of King Mzilikazi and maternal ties to the great state of Munhumutapa, President Mnangagwa was ready for greater heights from an early age.

On the day his landmark biography was released, President Mnangagwa gave an insight into his life, which began when his grandfather fired three shots in the air when he was born in 1942.

The book discusses his political beginnings, the trials, tribulations and also the ups and downs he encountered.

The book “A Life of Sacrifice – A Biography of Emmerson Mnangagwa” was launched Thursday at State House and the President took the opportunity to offer a rare insight into his life.

Born to Mafidhi and Mhurai Mnangagwa, the president told guests he had royal blood in his veins.

“My maternal side connects me to the Rozvi dynasty, whose history is linked to the state of Mutapa, the monuments of Great Zimbabwe and the civilization behind it.

“My late father Mafidhi was the son of Kushanduka, who was himself one of the grandsons of Chief Mapanzure.

“Chief Mapanzure was the son of Chief Chivi of the totem Shumba Murambwi. To consolidate his presence in the territory, Chief Chivi created another chief under the direction of his son Mapanzure, which continues to exist as Zvishavane today,” he said.

He added that his grandfather Kushanduka was brought up in the court of King Mzilikazi under the culture of the Ndebele state and this agreement cemented the excellent relationship between Chief Chivi and King Ndebele.

President Mnangagwa said his grandfather, renamed Mubengo, learned the art of war and became deputy to Mtshane Khumalo, the top general who destroyed the Allan Wilson company in Pupu.

The grandfather then returned to his family in Mapanzure, and when the president was born he was already very old and called him Hlupeko.

“My parents found the name difficult to pronounce and opted for its Shona equivalent, so I became Dambudzo,” he said.

The president also said that when he was born, his grandfather Mubengo fired three shots in the air with his old rifle, which he says is significant for the path he will follow in his life as a young man. ‘adult.

“It meant that I had smelled of gunpowder when I was born. When I was old enough to herd small livestock, Sekuru Mubengo sometimes found time to play war games with his grandson Hlupeko.

“He asked me to hit him on the head with Umqhwayi. I never caught him every time he delivered me with his martial arts. The end was still tearful: he hit me with his umqhwayi where it hurt the most.

“Looking back, I now fully understood why the game always ended in pain and punishment. This is how a would-be soldier was toughened up,” President Mnangagwa said.

President Mnangagwa has opened up about his political life and said his capture, torture and racist trial after a Rhodesian locomotive explosion in 1964 was one of the worst experiences of his life.

His death sentence was commuted to 10 years in prison because of his age.

“It was an experience that I wished for myself and for no one. The unfortunate experience ingrained in me of opposing the death penalty,” he said.

President Mnangagwa said the society he grew up in, shaped by brutal white settler colonial rule, encouraged him and his colleagues to fight for the country’s independence.

He said the various defeats and setbacks have never diminished their deep and inalienable claim to Zimbabwe.

He said the freedom the country enjoys today should be cherished.

“We have no intention of giving up our hard-won independence.

“Zimbabwe must remain a free and sovereign African country. We will never betray this national philosophy,” the president said.