Pre-colonial history of Zimbabwe

The pre-colonial history of Zimbabwe lasted until the British government granted colonial status to Southern Rhodesia in 1923.

Ancient civilization

Archaeologists have found Stone-Age implements, Khoisan cave paintings, arrowheads, pottery and pebble tools in several areas of Zimbabwe, a suggestion of human habitation for thousands of years, and the ruins of stone buildings provide evidence of more recent civilization. The most impressive of these sites are the Great Zimbabwe ruins, after which the country is named, located near Masvingo. Evidence suggests that these stone structures were built between the 9th and 13th centuries AD by indigenous Africans who had established trading contacts with commercial centers on Africa's southeastern coast.

There have been many civilizations in Zimbabwe as is shown by the ancient stone structures at Khami, Great Zimbabwe and Dhlo-Dhlo. The first major civilization to become established was the Mwene Mutapa (or Monomotapas), who were said to have built Great Zimbabwe, in the ruins of which was found the soapstone bird that features on the Zimbabwean flag. By the mid-1440s, King Mutota's empire included almost all of the Rhodesian (Zimbabwean) plateau and extensive parts of what is now Mozambique. The wealth of this empire was based on small-scale industries, for example iron smelting, textiles, gold and copper, along with agriculture. The regular inhabitants of the empire's trading towns were the Swahili merchants with whom trade was conducted.

The Gokomere people, a Bantu-speaking group of migrant farmers, inhabited the Great Zimbabwe site from about AD 500, displacing earlier Khoisan people. From about 1000, the fortress took shape, reaching its peak by the fifteenth century. These were the ancestors of the Shona (or Mashona) people, who make up about 80% of modern Zimbabwe's population. Later they formed the Rozwi Empire, which continued until the nineteenth century.

Ndebele invasion

The Matabele (Ndebele) people in the south arrived in 1834 -- Mzilikazi fleeing Shaka.

British occupation

References