Remember: when our founding ancestor, Masina, gave us this (sur)name, he only SAID it; he never WROTE it; had he done so, the Masina people would have only one universally reigning spelling of their surname; regardless of the geographical location they are found. It is often said 'Documents do not forget": a book remains a reference even after a historian has departed. Willy Masina (waGabheni Masina) and Moses Masina (waMnukwa Masina) were among the first people to realize that the Masina history is in fact writable and that the Masina people need to own, tell and preserve their stories for future generations. Moses was infatuated with genealogies and family trees. He saw them as a convenient starting point for understanding the Masina story; especially the story of those currently found in sub-Saharan Africa. He unfortunately passed on shortly after the inception of his research. Luckily the zest did not die with him. Around the beginning of the current millennium and applying state-of-art equipment and research methodologies, new generation decided to take over from where Moses had left off. But despite having all these enablers at their disposal, compiling this web-page and family trees has not been practically easy. It has been a daunting task. Firstly, major tribal conflicts between (mainly) the late 18th and the 1st quarter of the 19th century), such as Imfecane, resulted in the displacement of thousands of people. Self-preservation took precedence over familiar relationships. Secondly, this situation was later exacerbated by the implementation of the Bantustan policy whereby Blacks were forcefully removed and arbitrarily resettled in new locations without regard to family ties. Thirdly, family integrity and cohesion was further compromised by the stringent implementation of the pass-laws which strictly curtailed the freedom of movement for Blacks. Fourthly, family cohesion was further destabilized by the prolonged absence of Black family heads from home due to the migratory labour system. - David Masina