The Doma or vaDoma (singular muDoma), also known as Dema or Wadoma,[2] are a tribe living in the Kanyemba region in the north of Zimbabwe, especially in the Hurungwe and Chipuriro districts around the basins of Mwazamutanda River, a tributary of the Zambezi River Valley. They are the only traditional hunter-gatherers indigenous to Zimbabwe and are famous for the inherited ectrodactyly existing among some vaDoma families at much higher rates than typical globally.
Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
Zimbabwe | |
Zimbabwe | 16,000?[1] |
Languages | |
Dema, Korekore Shona, Kunda | |
Religion | |
Seventh-Day Adventist, African Traditional Religion | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Khoisan, Shona |
The vaDoma speak the Dema language, which is closely related to the dominant Shona language of Zimbabwe and largely comprehensible to those who speak the Korekore and Tande Shona dialects.[3] Living alongside Shona and Kunda people in Kanyemba, they also speak Korekore Shona and Kunda.
According to vaDoma mythology, their ancestors emerged from a baobab tree. Upon descending from it, they walked upright to hunt and gather the fruits of the land.[4] The name vaDoma is also used in the Zambezi region for a semi-mythical people characterized as magical, capricious, hard to find, and living among the trees. This may refer to Khoisan hunter-gatherers who preceded the migration of the Bantu Shona into the Zambezi Valley, and the vaDoma are possibly related to this earlier population.[5] Rumors also persist among nearby peoples that the vaDoma are capable of disappearing in the forest and performing magic.
Historically, the vaDoma chiefly dwelt in the mountains, living a largely nomadic lifestyle of hunting, fishing, trapping, honey hunting, and gathering wild fruits and roots.[6] Prior to the European colonization of Africa, the vaDoma also resisted incorporation into the Korekore Shona kingdom of Mutapa,[3] which resulted in little access to fertile land.[7] Land reform after Zimbabwe's independence did not change this, despite pressure from the Mugabe government, and the vaDoma's continuing dispossession has made them Zimbabwe's only non-agricultural society, leading to stereotypes as "Stone Age cave-dwellers".[8][better source needed]
The mountain homeland of the vaDoma has now become the Chewore Safari Area.[9] In recent years, vaDoma have been threatened by game rangers due to a crackdown on poaching. Many abandoned their hunter-gatherer lifestyle and moved to the lowlands. Today, though they have little contact with the majority populace, many vaDoma families live settled lives as semi-foragers, building houses on wooden platforms to avoid predators. During rainfall, they cover the shelters with thatching. vaDoma are also reluctant to wear textile fabrics.[7][10] In 2014, the Seventh-day Adventist Church built Mariga Primary School to educate vaDoma children.[4]
A substantial minority of vaDoma have a condition known as ectrodactyly in which the middle three toes are absent and the two outer ones are turned in, resulting in the tribe being known as the "two-toed" or "ostrich-footed" tribe. This is an autosomal dominant condition resulting from a single mutation on chromosome 7.[2][failed verification] It is reported that those with the condition are not handicapped and are well integrated into the tribe. While possibly an aid in tree climbing, the condition prevails because of a small genetic pool among the vaDoma and is propagated by the tribal law that forbids members to marry outside the group.[2]
Due to the vaDoma tribe's isolation, they have developed and maintained ectrodactyly, and their comparatively small gene pool has resulted in the condition being much more frequent than elsewhere.[2] The Talaunda/Talaote Kalanga of the Kalahari Desert also have a number of members with ectrodactyly and may share common ancestry with the VaDoma.[2]