Unaki hwomukadzi huri pamwana

Mukadzi akanaka anoonekwa nekuzvara uye nekurera vana vane hunhu netsika dzakanaka.

The beauty of a wife lies in the children

A good wife is the one who bears and rears disciplined children with good character and values.

The proverb is based on the undisputed role of the mother as the first and most important teacher for a child. Indeed even Shona is often referred to as “rurimi rwaAmai” (mother’s tongue) and as such it is disturbing when a child cannot speak her mother tongue as this should be the language of instruction from the mother. This mother’s role extended to providing opportunities for the child to engage other "teachers" like tete (aunt), sekuru (uncle), mbuya (grandmother), etc. who the child could only know through its mother. All these helped to mould the character of the child but it is the mother who is credited with the good traits of the child. This role is revisited at marriage for the girl child with a specific cow (or other representative gift) for the mother in acknowledgement of her role in rearing the prospective bride well. Inversely the mother is often credited with the bad habits of the child.

This is proverb is both used to advise women on the importance of their roles as mothers and to instruct men on some of the attributes they should seek in a prospective partner. Earlier interpretations seem to insist on a literal meaning of a wife who bears children due to the importance and centrality of children and family in our culture. But in present day it would seem the relevance of the proverb is in its allegorical or figurative meaning. Again it must be noted that motherhood is not always limited biologocal reality in many african cultures in Africa including the shona culture.