Mukarakate

Mukarakate is a place in the north-eastern Murehwa district of Zimbabwe. The district is in Mashonaland East province of Zimbabwe, and is sometimes spelt as Mrehwa, Murewa or Mrewa. It is almost entirely inhabited by Shona-speaking people (specific dialect: Zezuru). The traditional rulers of the area are the Nhowe people, whose chieftainship is called Mangwende. Many of the Nhowe people use Mukarakate as a surname, because it is the name of a great-great-ancestor of the tribe. Their totem is 'Moyo Muzukuru', which uses the bull as its symbolic animal. However, in practice, the tribe strictly holds only the heart of the animal as sacred, not the whole animal. Currently the chief is Jonathan Tafirenyika Chibanda who once president of the chief,s council. Jonathan Tafirenyika Chibanda is the son of Chief Chataika Chibanda Mangwende. Chibanda become chief Mangwende in 1926 and died in 1936. chibanda only ruled fwas the chief of chiefs in the parliament.

In modern day Zimbabwe, the surname is still widely used in the area.

Contrary to the above major aspects of the Mangwende Chieftainship history was missed. The Main house is Hundungu (son Mungate Mangwende) who was chief at the time when the white settlers arrived in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia. They were based at Mahopo Masekwa bordering Marondera. The totem is "Moyo Muzukuru", which belongs to entire Nhowe tribe. Most of the late Mangwende chiefs are buried at the Mangwende shrine in Masekwa Mahopo. Over a period of time the Mukarakate house decided to bury their chiefs at an Area called Bokoto near to Mukarakate, before that they were all buried at Masekwa Mahopo.

The name Nhowe was name given to the whole tribe. In that tribe they were different houses for the chieftainship which had their own family names, Mukarakate being one of them. Mukarakate is a name of a great-great-ancestor of their family name but not the entire Nhowe Tribe.

Chief Mungate Mangwende's oldest son, Muchemwa, through orders from his father the chief fought the white settlers in the 1896 rebellion (uprising) in conjunction with MbuyaNehanda, Kaguwi. After the rebellion the white settlers took over the fertile land in Mahopo and chief Mungate was moved at a place called Rota(Chamachinda. The chief's two sons Muchemwa and Gomba were moved to Murewa Centre District Headquarters, where they would be monitored, as part of the peace settlement with the white settlers. The village around the Murewa District Centre is known as the Mangwende Village, with most of its inhabitants being of Nhowe tribe Totem "Moyo Muzukuru". At the time of Muchemwa's death his father was still on the throne but Muchemwa's oldest son, Johannes Munhunepai, became a chief at the Mangwende Village and the entire Murewa area and was later dethroned from the chieftainship by the white settlers for participating in politics in the late 1950s 60s up until independence 1980, in NDP and then ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Peoples Union)which merged with ZANU PF (Zimbabwe African National Union) in 1987 into one party called ZANU PF. Once dethroned he was sent to detention at Gonakudzingwa Detention Centre and upon his release he was bannished from staying or visiting Murewa and restricted to 25 km (16 mi)radius of Salisbury, now Harare. Even when his relations passed away (died) he was not allowed to attend the funerals among them his own children and young brother, Maiziveyi Mangwende who died in 1971. He later died in November 1988 and was buried at the Mangwende shrine at Mahopo, near Marondera.