We have only sketchy details about the ancestors of Pelagia Mukonomuwi. What information we have relates primarily to the dates of death of the following:-

Zvandakaitirwa Muziringa, Pelagia's mother, passed away in 1966.

Racha Bakasa, her grandmother (and Pelagia's great-grandmother) died eight years later, in 1974.

Pasweramuromo Muzengeza (seen here on the left with Colm) was

• Pelagia's grandmother,
  
• Norah's great-grandmother and
  
• Colm's great-great-grandmother.

We had the good fortune to meet Paswe while on holidays in Zimbabwe in 1993. She lived in Mahungwe close to where Pedzai Mukonomuwi lived until recently (see below) and she had been brought in a wheelbarrrow to the house of her daughter, Marwei Ndadzira, in Makwarimba just to meet us.

An interesting footnote is the fact that Marwei's husband was the brother of Norah's granny, Agnes Ndadzira. In other words, the sister of one granny (Zvandakaitirwa) was married to the brother of another granny (Agnes).

Paswe died a year later in 1994.

Paswe married Mariwa Muziringa. They had the following children:-

The Children of Mariwa Muziringa and Pasweramuromo Muzengeza

Pedzai Mukonomuwi (shown on the left with Colm and Nóra) was Pelagia's father.

His ID card gave his date of birth as 17/06/1913. However as registration of births in Rhodesia at that time was patchy, at best, we can not be certain of this information. We are reasonably sure that a younger brother of Pedzai was born in 1918.

Pedzai, also known as "Shekede", at one time worked in a hotel in Rhodesia. However with a wife and five children to support he decided to leave for South Africa in 1946 to make his fortune! He returned in 1951 having spent five years in Johannesburg working in a butchery.


After the death of his first wife, Zvandakaitirwa, in 1966, Pedzai remarried.

He was a "sabhuku" (village headman) and was due to be made a Chief late in 1999. However due to ill-health this did not happen.

Shekede died on 18th. May, 2005. Despite the severe shortage of fuel that existed throughout Zimbabwe at the time of his death, a huge crowd from Mukonomuwi, Goto, Matsine and as far away as Rusunzwe attended his funeral.

The Mukonomuwi totem is "tsoko" (monkey).

The Children of Pedzai Mukonomuwi and Zvandakaitirwa Muziringa

1. Phyllis

   married Dickson Mapranga (deceased). "mapranga" = gumtree
   Their son, Herbert, is a builder and lives in Mukonomuwi. Herbert Mapranga has carried out a number of building projects for Dennis Matyatya in Chifamba Village.

2. Matthew

   Matthew was the father of Scholastic, cousin and best friend of Norah.
   Matthew was murdered by "magandanga" in 1977 during the "Chimurenga" (liberation struggle). His body was never located.

   

3. Marufu Jacob (Job)

   worked as a fitter for almost 30 years with Central African Airways, which later became Air Zimbabwe. He retired due to ill-health (suffering from severe headaches). He now lives in Mukonomuwi. His daughter, Mutwa lives in Zengeza 1.

4. Dorothy

   married a man from Malawi. She lives in Mukonomuwi (where we park our car when visiting Pedzai).

   
   
   

5. PELAGIA, born 1947

   attended St. Vincent's Primary School, Rusape district and was in the same class a Moven Mahachi, currently Zimbabwean Minister for Defence. It is said that she consistently outperformed Moven in class!
   She married DENNIS MATYATYA (See MATYATYA Family in November, 1962 when aged 15 years. They had 10 children.
   

   

6. Casimir, born 1951

   joined the Rhodesian Police Force in 1976 (left for a time during the liberation struggle). Joined the Zimbabwe Republic Police (Z.R.P.) Support Unit after independence. He has four long service medals. He is now retired and lives in Mukonomuwi.

7. Anna, born 1953

   married Christopher Matyatya in 1972.

8. Bernard

   works as a security officer with the Municipal Council in Marondera.

9. Sophia, born 4/1/1959

   married Onismo Matyatya in 1976.

10. Nomore, born 1963, died 1998

    worked for a time in Leopard Rock Hotel, Mutare.