Chapter 2; Zimbabwe: an historical overview.

1. INTRODUCTION

What follows is an overview of the salient phases in Zimbabwe's eventful history, from early times until the present. It is a story of successive inflows of peoples, attracted by the natural wealth and equitable climate of the plateau land between the middle courses of the Zambezi and the Limpopo rivers. In the 20th century an economically strong state, called Rhodesia, was developed in the area by immigrants of European stock during an era of European imperialism. It was negotiated out of existence towards the end of that century to make way for a resurrected, independent Zimbabwean state. Modern Zimbabwe emerged in a world totally different from the one in which ancient Zimbabwe existed for several centuries. However, within less than two decades modern Zimbabwe landed itself in a national crisis, mainly of its own doing.

2. EARLY SETTLEMENT

In the course of the first millennium of the Christian era, Bantu-speaking groups from the north crossed the Zambezi River, replacing the Stone Age peoples roaming the area. The newcomers were the bearers of Iron Age culture and brought with them the skill of mining and smelting metals. At a later stage they were joined by the ancestors of the Karanga who founded a kingdom on the central plateau during the early centuries of the second millennium AD. The Karanga kingdom was the first significant state south of the Zambezi. The kingdom was known by the same name as its capital, Great Zimbabwe (Houses of Stone), built on terraces with granite foundations on which monumental stone walls were erected. The stone edifices were built through successive generations by what must have been quite large labour forces, directed by strong leaders. (1))

Located in a central position on the shortest route to the coast, Zimbabwe predominated in a large area where the king's subjects extracted gold from rocks and streams. This was exchanged, together with ivory, for cloth and other articles, supplied by Muslim traders plying the Indian Ocean coast as far south as Sofala (near present-day Beira).

Around 1450 the Zimbabwe kingdom had reached its zenith and began to crumble with different groups migrating in all directions, presumably because the area around the capital had become overpopulated and the land exhausted. A prominent group moved westward, founding the Torwa kingdom with its capital at Khami, near present-day Bulawayo. Similar to Great Zimbabwe the new capital had impressive stone structures.

The reigning king at Great Zimbabwe moved northward, across the plateau, with many of his subjects, founding a new kingdom along the Zambezi River valley. This kingdom became known by the dynastic name of its rulers, Munhumutapa (variants being Mwene Mutapa, Monomotapa). The new kingdom expanded in the direction of the Indian Ocean during the 16th century and the gold-mining industry and gold trade was resumed. The kingdom's capitals continued to be built with massive stone walls, though not on the same scale as at Great Zimbabwe. From the middle of the 16th century the Portuguese began to establish trade relations with Munhumutapa and eventually became a strong influence in the kingdom.