Great
There is evidence that the site was first occupied as early as 500 AD, as it was high enough above the plains to avoid the ravages of the tsetse fly, which made life intolerable. The structures we can see today were begun in about 1100 AD, and the site was in constant occupation until about 1450 AD, when its occupiers moved away. At its height, the city of Great Zimbabwe was probably home to around 18,000 people, thus making it a major population centre, and there is evidence of a highly organized and developed civilization.
The site was unknown to the outside world until 1871, when a German geologist, Karl Mauch, came across the ruins. The controversy of Great Zimbabwe then started, because of disbelief that Africans could possibly have built anything so remarkable. To many whites, Africans were inherently inferior human beings who were incapable of creating anything as splendid as this.
Cecil Rhodes, whose colony of Rhodesia included the area of Great Zimbabwe, was also convinced that the city must have been built by white men, because of his unshakeable belief in the superiority of the white race. He was also convinced that the ruins contained buried treasure, and he set up a company, the Zimbabwe Ruins Company, to dig for the gold and diamonds, with no thought being given to the archaeological evidence that might be destroyed in the process.
Rhodes was followed by other Europeans who thought similarly, and some even claimed to have found the proof that the structures were not the work of Africans. The British archaeologist Richard Hall investigated the site in 1902, and asserted in his book “The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia”, that it was built by “more civilized races” than the Africans. By digging down more than six feet and removing everything that was there to be found, he effectively destroyed all the evidence that countered his theory, even stating his aim as being to “remove the filth and decadence of Kaffir occupation”.
So, if Great Zimbabwe could not have been built by Africans, who did the imperialists think was responsible? They knew that no white Europeans had settled in this area, so they went for a candidate from the Old Testament instead, namely King Solomon. Karl Mauch was the first to suggest that this was the palace of the Queen of Sheba, who had famously visited Solomon and marvelled at his riches and splendour. He even detected, in one of the
However, these views were challenged by two British archaeologists. In 1905, David Randal-MacIver gave his opinion that the dwellings on the site were “unquestionably of African origin”. This was virtual blasphemy to the imperialist rulers of the region, and no archaeologists were allowed to return for nearly 25 years.
When archaeology was once again
permitted, in 1929, Gertrude Caton-Thompson, who led an all-female excavation,
agreed with Randal-MacIver’s view. She used all the available evidence,
including the oral traditions of the Shona people, to demonstrate that Great
Zimbabwe must have been built by Africans. However, that did not stop the myth
of Zimbabwe ’s
white origin from continuing. When Ian Smith declared, illegally, the
independence of Southern Rhodesia with a
minority white government, he had the history and guide books rewritten to show
black Africans bowing in submission to the white builders of Great Zimbabwe.
Despite systematic efforts to destroy
the evidence, it is now abundantly clear that the builders of Great Zimbabwe
were the Shona people who settled in the area as long ago as 500 AD. Over time,
they built an empire, known as Monomotapa, that covered most of modern Zimbabwe and Mozambique . Their wealth was based
on trade, exporting gold, iron, copper, tin, cattle, and cowrie shells, and importing
items including glassware from Syria ,
and Persian and Chinese ceramics. At the time of Great Zimbabwe’s discovery,
there was considerable proof of this wealth in the form of items found on the site,
but the looting of these treasures and destruction of archaeological evidence
makes this less obvious today.
We also know that the Shona empire was
powerful and wealthy enough to support a large city at its centre, and the size
of the Great Zimbabwe site is itself evidence of this fact. Clearly this was
not a city of white people, presumably descended from Solomon and Sheba , living in southern Africa
for hundreds of years.
The empire of Monomotapa appears to have
abandoned Great Zimbabwe in about 1450, although the empire itself continued to
thrive. The reason for abandoning the site is not clear. Perhaps water supply
became a problem, or maybe the Shona kings preferred to live in less austere
surroundings than a massively fortified palace. Whatever the reason, they left
behind a remarkable relic of their ancestors’ ability to build sophisticated
structures that later colonizers could not believe were products of African
skill and knowledge.
(See also: The Khami Ruins in Zimbabwe)
(See also: The Khami Ruins in Zimbabwe)
© John Welford
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