Afri-Speak

Tsumo

“Chaitemura chava kuseva.”

In English

The once great are now impoverished.

When people say it

  • Rogers Tapera Biza used the proverb as the title of his Shona novel, published by Longman Rhodesia in 1971. Open Library
  • A man who once owned three buses in Mutare was selling airtime at the roadside. Two old friends saw him there, and one of them said it quietly as they walked past.

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