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The Kingdom of Zimbabwe (1220 - 1450) was a medieval kingdom of the Shona people. It is famous for its capital, Great Zimbabwe, the largest stone structure in southern Africa until recent times.
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Etymology
The name zimbabwe is derived from one of two possible Shona terms: dzimba dza mabwe (great stone houses) or dzimba woye (esteemed houses).[1]
Origin
The creators of the Zimbabwe kingdom immigrated to the Zimbabwe plateau from the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in the early 13th century. This was likely as a result of changes on the Swahili Coast regarding the demand in gold (which the Zimbabwe hills were full of) over ivory (Mapungubwe's chief export).
Culture & Expansion
The proto-Shona rulers of Zimbabwe brought artistic and stone masonry traditions from Mapungubwe. The construction of elaborate Stone buildings and walls reached its apex in the kingdom. The institution of mambo was also used at 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.[1] They established proto-Shona rule over a wider area than Mapungubwe, Butua or Mutapa.
Economy
The kingdom of Zimbabwe controlled the ivory and gold trade from the interior to the south eastern coast of Africa. Asian and Arabic goods could be found in abundance in the kingdom. Cattle domestication, which had been crucial to the earlier proto-Shona states, was also practiced.
Mutapa Conquest and Decline
Around 1430, a prince from Zimbabwe traveled north in search of salt among the Shona-Tavara. The prince was Nyatsimba Mutota, and the land he conquered would become the kingdom of Mutapa. Within a generation, Mutapa eclipsed Zimbabwe as the economic and political power in southern Africa. 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 but 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 would eventually be absorbed into the largest and most powerful of the pre-colonial Shona states, the Rozwi Empire.
See also
References
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Sources
- Oliver, Roland & Anthony Atmore (1975). Medieval Africa 1250-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 738. ISBN 0-52120-413-5.
- Owomoyela, Oyekan (2002). Culture and customs of Zimbabwe. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 163. ISBN 0-31331-583-3.
- Stewart, John (1989). African States and Rulers. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc.. pp. 395. ISBN 0-89950-390-X.
- Wieschhoff, H. A. (2006). The Zimbabwe-Monomotapa Culture in Southeast Africa. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing. pp. 116. ISBN 1-42865-488-7.
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