Totenda maruva tadya chakata

Kusatendera chinhu kana kubvumira kusvikira chaitika kana kuti mibayiro yachi yave pachena.

We will only believe in the blossoms once we have eaten the (mobola plum) fruit.

One must not rely on promises until there are tangible results or signs. It is similarly to responding to a promise by saying “fingers crossed!”

Chakata (hacha, umkuna) - mobola plum also known as the gingerbread plum is an indigenous fruit to Africa found across the continent from Madagascar to Senegal. The mobola tree is loved for its beauty, sweet-smelling flowers, provision of shade from the large drooping crown-like branches and the many traditional uses of the tree. The mobola plum is reddish-yellow, high in vitamin C and regarded as one of the best wild fruits which can be consumed as a snack, pounded with water to create a citrus juice or even boiled as a cereal. As such in Zimbabwe the mobola fruit is greatly prized and in the middle part of the year expectations grow for a sweet fruit. But whatever promising sings or patterns one may read, one can only be sure that the fruit will be sweet once they have eaten the first offerings from the tree. From this example, our elders sought to share the lesson that some promises are best believed only when they have actually materialized.

This proverb is used to doubtfully respond to a promise usually coming from someone untrustworthy or an institution that has developed a habit of not meeting their promises. It is a quiet and clever way of provoking the one making promises to act rather than talk.