Great Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe

Great Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe
Further information: List of rulers of Mutapa
Great Zimbabwe
The Kingdom of Mapungubwe was the first state in Southern Africa, with its capital at
Mapungubwe. The state arose in the 12th century CE. Its wealth came from controlling the trade
in ivory from the Limpopo Valley, copper from the mountains of northern Transvaal, and gold
from the Zimbabwe Plateau between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers, with the Swahili
merchants at Chibuene. By the mid 13th century, Mapungubwe was abandoned.[150]
After the decline of Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe rose on the Zimbabwe Plateau. Zimbabwe
means stone building. Great Zimbabwe was the first city in Southern Africa and was the center
of an empire, consolidating lesser Shona polities. Stone building was inherited from
Mapungubwe. These building techniques were enhanced and came into maturity at Great
Zimbabwe, represented by the wall of the Great Enclosure. The dry-stack stone masonry
technology was also used to build smaller compounds in the area. Great Zimbabwe flourished by
trading with Swahili Kilwa and Sofala. The rise of Great Zimbabwe parallels the rise of Kilwa.
Great Zimbabwe was a major source of gold. Its royal court lived in luxury, wore Indian cotton,
surrounded themselves with copper and gold ornaments, and ate on plates from as far away as
Persia and China. Around the 1420s and 1430s, Great Zimbabwe was on the decline. The city
was abandoned by 1450. Some have attributed the decline to the rise of the trading town
Ingombe Ilede.[151][152]
File:Africiv.JPG
African empires & states
A new chapter of Shona history ensued. Mutota, a northern Shona king of the Karanga,, engaged
in conquest. He and his son Mutope conquered the Zimbabwe Plateau, going through
Mozambique to the east coast, linking the empire to the coastal trade. They called their empire
Wilayatu 'l Mu'anamutapah or mwanamutapa (Lord of the Plundered Lands), or the Kingdom of
Mutapa. Monomotapa was the Portuguese corruption. They did not build stone structures; the
northern Shonas had no traditions of building in stone. After the death of Matope in 1480, the
empire split into two small empires: Torwa in the south and Mutapa in the north. The split
occurred over rivalry from two Shona lords, Changa and Togwa, with the mwanamutapa line.
Changa was able to acquire the south, forming the Kingdom of Butua with its capital at Khami.
[152][153]
The Mutapa Empire continued in the north under the mwanamutapa line. During the 16th
century the Portuguese were able to establish permanent markets up the Zambezi River in an
attempt to gain political and military control of Mutapa. They were partially successful. In 1628,
a decisive battle allowed them to put a puppet mwanamutapa named Mavura, who signed treaties
that gave favorable mineral export rights to the Portuguese. The Portuguese were successful in
destroying the mwanamutapa system of government and undermining trade. By 1667, Mutapa
was in decay. Chiefs would not allow digging for gold because of fear of Portuguese theft, and
the population declined.[154]
The Kingdom of Butua was ruled by a changamire, a title derived from the founder, Changa.
Later it became the Rozwi Empire. The Portuguese tried to gain a foothold but were thrown out
of the region in 1693, by Changamire Dombo. The 17th century was a period of peace and
prosperity. The Rozwi Empire fell into ruins in the 1830s from invading Nguni from Natal
Origins
The Kalanga and the Shona migrated in separate groups from a common region in the north. The
Kalanga speaking people are thought to have been the first. They first settled in South Africa.
Ruins of their oldest settlement are called the Mapungubwe ruins. Their speech shows
considerable differences from that of the Shona people.
[The conclusion that Kalanga is a Shona dialect is one of the most eroneous conclusions that
have ever been made in history. It will be understood that this is a battle that has been going on
for over eighty years now. Way back in 1927 the Rhodesia Missionary Society wanted to create
a standard Shona orthography, but they could not agree on Kalanga being listed as a Shona
dialect. They enlisted the help of Professor Clement M. Doke, then a Bantu Studies professor at
the University of the Witwatersrand. After a year long study in Zimbabwe, he actually concluded
that Kalanga is cannot be listed as a Shona dialect because it is too phonologically diverse from
what can be called Shona. In fact, a simple test that this is true is this: those who speak the so-
called Shona cannot understand the Kalanga when they speak, though the Kalanga can
understand the Shona.
Kalanga is a distinct language group by itself with the following languages affiliated to it: what
has been termed TjiKalanga tjekuDombodema (as spoken in the Plumtree area, name first coined
by the UCCSA in 1929), Lilima, Talahunda, Jahunda, Nanzwa(or Nambya), Venda, Lobedu,
Hlengwe and Lozwi. It should be recognized that all these are now distinct languages
themselves, but historically they all profess to have originated from Bukalanga/Vhukalanga. [To
be expanded on...]
Kalanga is, for instance, the only dialect to have the l sound; the rest of the Shona dialects have r
only. The language is closely related to the Balobedu-baka-Modjadji group of languages
including Shona, Karanga, Zezuru, Venda, Birwa, Tjililima and Shankwe. From this it is
believed that they stem from a people who originated from the Limpopo/Drakensburg areas of
South Africa and settled in the Northern part of Botswana and the modern day Zimbabwe. The
oldest Kalanga ruins are strikingly similar to the Great Zimbabwe ruins. These ruins contain
similar artifacts as those found in the Great Zimbabwe ruins. The Mapungubwe ruins pre-date
the Great Zimbabwe ruins. These observations suggest that the builders of the Great Zimbabwe
Ruins, the Khami Ruins, the Lusvingo Ruins and others ruins in western Zimbabwe and eastern
Botswana are the Kalanga people. The Khalanga are the descendants of the Kingdom of Butua.

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Great Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe

Further information: List of rulers of Mutapa

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