Members of Dzama Community
Dzama Sub-Community is one of the few that are named not after an
individual but rather after a virtue. I believe that it was the first Rector’s
Delegate at Dzama, Fr Lawrence Daka, who proposed the name. The word
dzama in Shona (according to the dictionary written by Fr Michael
Hannan, after whom another of the Arrupe Jesuit Community houses is
named) has a variety of meanings.
Used as an intransitive verb it means (literally) “to be deep” as in
duhwinho ravo rakadzama meaning “their swimming pool is deep”, or
(metaphorically) “to be profound” as in chitandaro chavo chakadzama
meaning “their conversation is very profound”. I am sure it was this later
sense of intellectual profundity and wisdom that Fr Daka intended.
Certain, as all visitors will testify, it characterises the current community
and its stimulating and profound conversation! (Fr Hannan actually gave
the meaning of dzama as “to be abstruse” which means “to be hidden, or
remote from comprehension”, which is to say, “very difficult to
understand”. But, as a description of our community, that would be both
inaccurate and unkind.)
Dzama also means “to disappear for a time (e.g. edible caterpillars in the
off-season)” as in bhasikoro rangu rakadzama chose, meaning “my bicycle
is lost and gone”. A final meaning is “to persevere, continue to the end,
refuse to go away” as in nyangwe zvayo vhunzo yakanga ichigozha,
ndakambodzama-dzama, meaning “although the test was hard, I did my
best i.e. I kept trying, I did not give up”. So: profundity and perseverance,
depth and determination, wisdom and welcome – that’s Dzama SubCommunity!
