Kingdom of Zimbabwe

The Kingdom of Zimbabwe (c. 1000–1450) was a medieval Shona (Karanga) kingdom located in modern-day Zimbabwe. Its capital, Lusvingo, now called Great Zimbabwe, is the largest stone structure in precolonial Southern Africa. This kingdom came about after the collapse of the Kingdom of Mapungubwe.

This article is about the pre-colonial African kingdom. For the modern-day Republic of Zimbabwe, see Zimbabwe.

Kingdom of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe
1220–1450
CapitalGreat Zimbabwe
Religion
Belief in Mwari
GovernmentMonarchy
Mambo 
History 
• Abandonment of Mapungubwe for Zimbabwe
1220
• Zimbabwe conquest of Mutapa
1430
• Abandonment of Zimbabwe for Mutapa
1450
ISO 3166 codeZW
Preceded by		Succeeded by
Kingdom of Mapungubwe
Kingdom of Mutapa
Kingdom of Butua
Towers of Great Zimbabwe.
Part of a series on the
History of Zimbabwe
Ancient history
Leopard's Kopje c.900–1075
Mapungubwe Kingdom c.1075–1220
Zimbabwe Kingdom c.1220–1450
Butua Kingdom c.1450–1683
Mutapa Kingdom c.1450–1760
White settlement pre-1923
Rozvi Empire c.1684–1834
Mthwakazi 1838–1894
Rudd Concession 1888
BSA Company rule 1890–1923
First Matabele War 1893–1894
Second Matabele War 1896–1897
World War I involvement 1914–1918
Colony of Southern Rhodesia 1923–1980
World War II involvement 1939–1945
Malayan Emergency
involvement		 1948–1960
Federation with Northern
Rhodesia and Nyasaland		 1953–1963
Rhodesian Bush War 1964–1979
1965
Rhodesia under UDI 1965–1979
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia June–Dec 1979
Dec 1979
British Dependency 1979–1980
Zimbabwe 1980–present
Gukurahundi 1982–1987
Second Congo War 1998–2003
Coup d'état 2017

Name
Main article: Zimbabwe § Etymology

The name "Zimbabwe" stems from a Shona term for Great Zimbabwe, an ancient city in the country's south-east whose remains are now a protected site. Two different theories address the origin of the word. Many sources hold that "Zimbabwe" derives from dzimba-dza-mabwe, translated from the Karanga dialect of Shona as "houses of stones" (dzimba = plural of imba, "house"; mabwe = plural of bwe, "stone").[1][2][3] The Karanga-speaking Shona people live around Great Zimbabwe in the modern-day province of Masvingo. Archaeologist Peter Garlake claims that "Zimbabwe" represents a contracted form of dzimba-hwe, which means "venerated houses" in the Zezuru dialect of Shona and usually references chiefs' houses or graves.[4]

Origin

Although the Kingdom of Zimbabwe was formally established during the medieval period, archaeological excavations in the region suggest that state formation here was considerably more ancient. Earlier theories suggested that in the early 11th century, people from the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in Southern Africa moved north into the Great Zimbabwe area. Newer research and evidence shows the Great Zimbabwe site had been occupied as early as 600AD and that the city and Kingdom were and evolution of the Gumanye and Gokomere cultures, some of which are still in existence today.

Culture and expansion

The rulers of Zimbabwe brought artistic and stonemasonry traditions from Mapungubwe. The construction of elaborate stone buildings and walls reached its apex in the kingdom. The institution of mambo was also used in Zimbabwe, along with an increasingly rigid three-tiered class structure. The kingdom taxed other rulers throughout the region. The kingdom was composed of over 150 tributaries headquartered in their own minor zimbabwes.[5] They established rule over a wider area than the Mapungubwe, the Butua or the Mutapa.

Economy

The Kingdom of Zimbabwe controlled the ivory and gold trade from the interior to the southeastern coast of Africa. Asian and Arabic goods could be found in abundance in the kingdom. Economic domestication, which had been crucial to the earlier proto-Shona states, was also practiced. The Great Zimbabwe people mined minerals like gold, copper and iron. They also kept livestock, as it is explained by its theory of cattle hypothesis.

Rise of Mutapa and decline of Zimbabwe

In approximately 1430 Prince Nyatsimba Mutota from the Great Zimbabwe travelled north to the Dande region in search of salt. He then defeated the Tonga and Tavara with his army and established his dynasty at Chitakochangonya Hill. The land he conquered would become the Kingdom of Mutapa. Within a generation, Mutapa eclipsed Great Zimbabwe as the economic and political power in Zimbabwe. By 1450, the capital and most of the kingdom had been abandoned.

Aftermath

The end of the kingdom resulted in a fragmenting of proto-Shona power. Two bases emerged along a north-south axis. In the north, the Kingdom of Mutapa carried on and even improved upon Zimbabwe's administrative structure. It did not carry on the stone-masonry tradition to the extent of its predecessor. In the south, the Kingdom of Butua was established as a smaller, but nearly identical, version of Zimbabwe. Both states were eventually absorbed into the largest and most powerful of the Shona states, the Rozwi Empire.

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See also

References
  1. "Zimbabwe – big house of stone". Somali Press. Archived from the original on 3 May 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2008.
  2. Lafon, Michel (1994). "Shona Class 5 revisited: a case against *ri as Class 5 nominal prefix" (PDF). Zambezia. 21: 51–80.
  3. Vale, Lawrence J. (1999). "Mediated monuments and national identity". Journal of Architecture. 4 (4): 391–408. doi:10.1080/136023699373774.
  4. Garlake, Peter (1973). Great Zimbabwe: New Aspects of Archaeology. London, UK: Thames & Hudson. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-8128-1599-3.
  5. Owomoyela 2002, p. 7.

Sources

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