Unit 14 Black Empire of Zimbabwe

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 429.

Zimbabwe is about 15 miles south of Fort Victoria in South Africa. Portuguese travellers who first gazed at the impressive ruins of Zimbabwe early in the 16th century thought they had discovered the legendary King Solomon's Mines. Two groups of vertical structures cover 60 acres, the purpose of which is still unknown. Neither buildings nor towers have any doors or steps to get inside. Yet Zimbabwe was not built by some unknown race, but by a people who established one of the great civilizations of Africa.

According to Herodotus, the Persians discovered black small iron-working people living in Zimbabwe in the 6^th century AD. This era is represented in Zimbabwe by the remains of huts made of earth and branches, and carbon analysis dated them as the 3rd century AD.

Monomotapa Empire known as Zimbabwe state covered the territory from the Zambezi to the Limpopo and from the Kalahari Desert to the Indian Ocean. The first leader was always hidden by special clothes from ordinary people who can communicate only with his courtiers who were to copy any movement of their leader whether he sneezed or coughed or so.

Monomotapa Empire had grown rich on the gold they started mining around 1000 AD and the ivory they plundered from the vast herds of elephants that roamed their land. They had established trade links with the Arabs, but too few travelers penetrated their homeland. Those, who have managed, describe five-storey houses and mystical temples what proves high developed civilization there. It seems fantastic after facing only tribal stage of living in Africa later. However, those mysterious stone constructions prove the existence of social hierarchy and high technologies of Zimbabwe culture which aren't possible without the existence of a state. It presupposes an elaborate social organization, a collective spiritual awareness, and the presence of authority.

Zimbabwe is the most impressive monument to that culture, which finally died as recently as 1832 when the warriors of the great Zulu chieftain Shaka wiped out the last of the Rozwi dynasty. Until that time, Zimbabwe had been the living, breathing heart of a once-great empire. A few Bantu-speaking tribes today recall occasional glimpses of its past brilliance, but they have forgotten the underlying concept of the Zimbabwe Empire.