Vol 4 Ep 93 - Great Zimbabwe

Imagine a civilization so advanced it built monumental stone cities without using any mortar. A place of such immense wealth that its gold and ivory flowed across the oceans to Asia, and in return it received exotic luxuries like Chinese porcelain and Persian glass beads. But for centuries its story was largely unknown to the wider world. We're talking about Great Sin Babway. This incredible ancient city was the heart of a powerful kingdom built by the Shona people on the rich fertile plateau of modern days in Babway. At its peak it was a hub of sophisticated trade and a master of agriculture. But why did this fry the civilization eventually decline and fade? And how did a new power, the Mutapa Empire, rise from its shadow, only to face a new and disruptive force from the sea, the Portuguese? Join us as we explore the fascinating history of Great Sin Babway, its remarkable people and the epic story of trade, power and change in sub-Saharan Africa. The History of the World Podcast written and presented by Chris Hasler. Volume 4, the Medieval World Episode 93, Great Sin Babway. A brief introduction to sub-Saharan Africa. Entering the first millennium CE, the best known societies in Africa were located along the northern Mediterranean coastline which was subject to the Romans and along the comparatively fertile banks of the River Nile. Very little is specifically known about the societies in the rest of the continent at this point. The Roman Presence in Africa gave the Axomites in the Horn of Africa a great trading partner. Their access to the Arabian Peninsula and India meant that they could help supply exotic goods to wealthy Romans which in turn enabled the Axomites to benefit and enhance their own wealth, leading to the growth of the Axomite Empire. When the Romans converted to Christianity, the Axomites decided to follow suit, which is why Christianity is the dominant religion in Ethiopia to this day. Coastal North Africa was split between Western and Eastern Rome when the Roman Empire officially divided at the end of the 3rd century. While Eastern Rome held onto its territorial possessions, Western Rome struggled to maintain its own possessions as it famously declined during the 5th century. The Germanic peoples called the Vandals took control of the Margrave area during the 5th and 6th centuries until the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire, took control of the area back. In the 7th century, the earliest Islamic caliphates took the Mediterranean coastal lands from the weakening Byzantine Empire, shaping the Islamic identity of much of North Africa today. The arrival of the Muslims completely changed the nature of trade between East and West. This dramatically affected the Christian Axomites whose power declined, but in Newbia, the lands of the modern border between Egypt and Sudan. The Christian Kingdom of Macuria stood firm and forced the Muslims of the Lower Nile to take them seriously. So, although Islam travelled the width of the Mediterranean coastline, it could not travel up the River Nile. One of the earliest great powers of West Africa was the Ghana Empire, which was actually based in the heart of West Africa at the confluence of Mauritania, Marley and Senegal, not in the modern country of Ghana. The Ghana Empire prospered due to its access to precious gold and salt, and its ability to foster a trans-Saharan trade relationship with the wealthy peoples of North Africa. The Ghana Empire emerged perhaps during the 4th century. Further East, perhaps during the 8th century, another trading empire emerged centered around Lake Chad, called the Canem Empire. Unlike the Ghana Empire, the Canem Empire fully converted to Islam, which tightened its trans-Saharan trade bond with the Muslims of North Africa. The religious diversity of the lands of the up and aisle became apparent towards the end of the First Millennium, particularly in Ethiopia, where the Islamic Sultanate of Shoa and the community of Ethiopian Jews became significant political entities. In the meantime, further down river in Sudanese lands, the Christian Kingdom of Alodia would border the already existing and aforementioned Kingdom of Macuria, which had defended Christianity with passion and strength. The emergence of Great Zimbabwe The East Coast of Africa faces the Indian Ocean, and its particular tributary waterways, which meant that it provided convenient stop-off locations for traders. These trading ports would provide a great link between the maritime traders of the ocean, and the land-based traders of the African continent, bringing the riches of Africa's interior to the sea ports of the East Coast. One key port was Sofala, which appears to have existed by the 10th century. Sofala was near the mouth of the Busy River, which flows from the lands of the modern border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique to the coastal lands of Mozambique, where the river flows into the Mozambique Channel, an arm of the Indian Ocean. Merchants were aware that there was gold in Africa's interior and that Sofala was ideally placed for the gold to reach the coast. So this made control of Sofala an attractive prospect for whoever could do so. The existence of Sofala may have been thanks to Somali traders who had originated much further north on the East African coast, particularly in the area of the Sultanate of Mogadishu. Sofala originally started out as the Somali traders best kept secret, but it would only be a matter of time before competition for the riches of Africa's interior, particularly gold, would threaten the Somali traders monopoly on this particular source of economic wealth. The Somalis would have been expert boat builders who could also specialise in boats that could navigate the waterways of modern Mozambique as well as the open seas. Over in Asia, a Persian prince called Ali Ibn al-Hasan Shirazi was driven out of Persia by his ambitious brothers, so he set sail to find his fortune elsewhere. His journey took him to Mogadishu, but he was unable to stay due to a clash with the city's elites. So he sailed further down the African coast, past the coastline of the modern country of Kenya and onto the coasts of the modern country of Tanzania with its various islands. Ali eventually chose to settle on an island which is known to us today as Kilwa Kiswani and negotiated its purchase from the local people. The new settlement would grow to become a new trading force in the Indian Ocean called the Keep it. Guilua Sultanate and it would become a rival to the traders of Mogadishu. It was during the 1180s that the Guilua Sultanate took control of Safala, turning it into a significant colony that specialised in hosting the trade of gold and ivory from Africa's interior with the seafarers and societies of the Indian Ocean. The gold-rich lands accessible from Safala stretched into the lands of the modern country of Zimbabwe. By the early second millennium these lands were dominated by Bantu speakers who had originated from West Africa and gradually migrated eastwards and southwards across the continent over the course of the previous two millenniums. Specifically the people responsible for the rise of great Zimbabwe were the Shona people and they lived in organised agricultural chieftains on the gold-rich Zimbabwe plateau. The interest in their gold resources forced the Shona to modernise into a respectable political entity. The Shona people specialised in constructing stone buildings which they were called Zimbabwe which roughly translates to houses of stone and we can likely derive the name Zimbabwe from this reference. So when we speak of great Zimbabwe we are referring to the largest of the stone wall enclosures constructed by the Shona people and founded on the wealth of the gold trade of the Zimbabwe plateau which they were now firmly in control of. Trade and society at great Zimbabwe. Evidence of gold mining on the Zimbabwe plateau has convinced archaeologists and historians that gold mining may have taken place from the 10th century but with more modern investigation it appears that this state has been pushed back and the gold mining took place centuries before this suggested date. Historians tend to agree now that gold mining appears to have intensified during the 10th century. The knowledge of gold and the development of methods to mine and extract the gold ores and even the active processing of the gold ores existed long before the emergence of great Zimbabwe but the significance of the gold and its influence was enhanced by the interest of foreign peoples and the development of mining techniques. To the south of the Zimbabwe plateau the Mepun-Gubwe people of the Limpopo basin were producing ivory before the emergence of great Zimbabwe. So trade networks were already in motion before the Shona peoples began to intensify their gold trade. We should note that we don't know whether the Mepun-Gubwe people and the Shona people have any direct blood relationship with each other at this stage or whether they were completely separate peoples. Both the Mepun-Gubwe and the Shona people respectively of the Limpopo basin and the Zimbabwe plateau were ban two speaking agriculturalists but as time went by, climate conditions favoured the Shona of the Zimbabwe plateau more and the Shona would become more dominant. One major problem for sub-Saharan pastoralists is the CT fly which can transmit disease to cattle. Experts have determined that the conditions of the Zimbabwe plateau were not suitable for the CT fly which meant that the plateau was particularly favourable for cattle farming. This aided the success of the Shona people and could be part of the reason why they prospered at the dawn of their construction of the great Zimbabwe and all of the other Zimbabwe or houses of stone which rang up on the landscape. It was thanks to the abundance of cattle, ivory and gold that the Shona people were able to engage in lucrative trade opportunities which would put them in a position of dominance. The Shona could supplement their produce to include iron tools, pottery and textiles. So the tradesmen of the Swahili coast, the stretch of East African coastline which stretches from southern Somalia to Mozambique would have had good reason to travel up river to the interior for all of these resources. A lot of our knowledge of the trade of this region of Africa during this period comes from the artefacts discovered at sites such as Great Zimbabwe. Great Zimbabwe in itself is one of the most incredible ancient cities of Africa. The oldest part of the site is the Hill Complex but there are two other main parts of Great Zimbabwe, the Great Enclosure and the Valley Ruins. The Hill Complex overlooks the locality which is likely to be why the Shona people chose this location to build their great settlement. It is important to point out that the Shona people were not a single political entity. The Shona were an ethnolinguistic group who spoke in the language called Chishonna. So it would be more accurate to say that the constructors of Great Zimbabwe were Chishonna speakers. Not only was the Hill Complex on top of a high granite hill but it was difficult to access meaning that anybody who had ambitions of attacking the city would find it to be very well defended due to its natural condition. Historians believe that the Hill Complex would have been used as a place for the elites of society. There is a lack of artifacts found at the Hill Complex compared to other areas of the site which may suggest that the Hill Complex was not a place for everyday domestic life. In the same way that the modern country of Zimbabwe took its name from Great Zimbabwe when it changed its name from Rhodesia in 1980. The modern flag of Zimbabwe contains an image which we call the Zimbabwe bird. The Zimbabwe bird image was inspired by artifacts discovered at the Hill Complex at Great Zimbabwe where the image of the bird was sculpted into soapstone. These soapstone sculptures could have been placed around the complex and it is thought that the Zimbabwe bird would have represented a totemic animal or in other words an animal of spiritual significance. We have already learned that the name Great Zimbabwe refers directly to the fact that the complexes were built in stone, particularly this was dry stone masonry. The shona used no mortar to solidify the walls of Great Zimbabwe. At the Hill Complex the stone enclosures would have been reserved for the residences of the elite, storage of wealth and ritual and administrative areas. The area was highly defensible and superb for maintaining control over the wider population of Great Zimbabwe as a whole. The total population of Great Zimbabwe has been estimated based on the valley ruins which would logically demonstrate where the large percentage of the population were living. The population in general could not be afforded the great stone structures of the elite of their society. Instead they would have to be content with mud brick buildings which were not only thought to represent the homes of the population but also the workshops. Estimates can range between 10,000 and 20,000 residents living at Great Zimbabwe. The valley ruins would have looked up to the Hill Complex which in turn would be able to oversee the valley ruins. Stone masonry did exist in the valley ruins but only a small percentage of the buildings were built in stone while the rest were built with dalga which is a type of mud brick consisting of a number of materials typical of this region of the world. With a population of so many one can only imagine the valley ruins being a busy and bustling hive of human activity. activity. Day-to-day life coupled with archaeology dictates that workshops and artisanry must have existed in the valley ruins. Iron tools and slag point to the presence of metallurgy and artefacts which point towards a connection to a globalised trade network. Thousands of glass beads have been discovered and they are not all from the same place. Analysis shows that they originated from Persia, India and even as far as South East Asia. It is debated whether the beads were used for jewellery, currency or even both. The exotic goods do not just stop there. Blue and white porcelain which dates to the Yuan and Ming dynastic periods of China's history have also been found. Glass beads have been recovered at the site which originates in the lands of India and Persia. These items would have swapped hands at the port cities of Kilwa and Sothala with the ivory and gold of Africa's interior. It is notable that there is no evidence of a European connection in Great Zimbabwe's excavations. It is not impossible for glass beads from Venice, for example, to have ultimately ended up in Great Zimbabwe thanks to the trade links of the medieval world, but there is no definitive evidence of this. As Great Zimbabwe became bigger and wealthier, the construction works continued with the creation of the Great Enclosure. The Great Enclosure is both mysterious and impressive. The Great Enclosure is comprised of a 250m elliptical outer wall with a smaller inner wall. The outer wall is a considerable feat of stone masonry. Once again, it is built with mortar using finely cut granite blocks fitted together with precision. This is interesting when we look at the completely unrelated construction techniques of the Inca who are the South American contemporaries of Great Zimbabwe and also had astonishing stone masonry that did not use mortar. The precision of the Inca was greater than that of the Shona at Great Zimbabwe, but it is still nonetheless fascinating to consider the similarities in these two disparate places. The Great Enclosure also has a tower which, like the entire enclosure, has an unclear purpose. We could compare this to the tower of Jericho, which although was built over 9000 years earlier, also has historians speculating about its exact purpose. The tower of Jericho has an internal staircase, but there is no evidence of one within the tower at the Great Enclosure. In fact, it appears that the tower could not even be entered and may have only been built to simply look impressive. Its conical shape has led to some historians speculating that it may have represented a granary, a building which symbolises wealth. Otherwise it could have just been to demonstrate the elite status of the enclosure compared to the rest of the site. The wealth and power of Great Zimbabwe were fueled by the fact that the wider world's desire for the region's ivory and gold was greater than the residents desire for exotic goods. This meant that traders kept coming, allowing Great Zimbabwe to impose taxes on them for operating in their territory, which enabled the city to grow even wealthier. The considerable outer wall of the Great Enclosure reaching heights of around 11 metres and thicknesses of 6 metres was highly impenetrable. Instincts often tell us that such considerable walls are built to protect against foreign invasion, but with the lack of evidence of such activity it may just have simply been to keep the bulging population of the valley ruins out. It is likely that only select individuals would have been granted passage to the Great Enclosure, whether it be for the containment of royal or religious activities or both. The wealth and power of Great Zimbabwe would have been fueled by the fact that there was a greater desire for the wider world to have access to the ivory and gold of the Zimbabwe plateau than there was for the residents of Great Zimbabwe to own exotic goods. This meant that traders kept coming that Great Zimbabwe could impose taxes on these traders for operating in their territory. This would enable Great Zimbabwe to become greater and wealthier. It is very important to remember that Great Zimbabwe in itself was a successful agricultural community and that the ability to create an abundance of food was not something to be taken for granted. With food came power, not just over the city's population, but over the local trade of the area. The power of Great Zimbabwe would have also helped it to maintain the obedience of neighbouring tribes who were likely to have been subservient in times of need. Irrigation was not something that was very obvious at Great Zimbabwe, so it appears that the agriculture relied on rainfall and moisture conservation techniques alongside the minimal irrigation from local water sources. This would have helped the farmers of Great Zimbabwe to produce a large amount of bullrush millet, finger millet and sorghum, but there would have also been a production of beans and ground nuts. Alongside their crop grain expertise, the farmers of Great Zimbabwe would have had a good degree of animal husbandry skills involving cattle as well as goats and sheep and poultry. The manure of the cattle would have also been useful for the crops. The success of Great Zimbabwe's farming was a symbol of its mastery and dominance of the region. Great Zimbabwe grew to its peak strength during the 12th century and remained powerful all the way through to the 15th century. The Mutapa Empire and Portuguese arrival. The 15th century appears to have been a period of decline for Great Zimbabwe. The reasons for this decline are thought to have been due to a number of factors. With no written history, modern scientists and historians are left to discover the truth with a little bit of help from the remnants of oral traditions from the local area. It could have been the case that Great Zimbabwe became overpopulated and that sustaining the population may have been untenable, especially if there was a climate change in the area. We already suspect that climate change enabled the Shona to exploit the conditions of the Zimbabwe Plateau in order to dominate the region. There is evidence to support a fluctuation in climate conditions during the 15th century, but it is very difficult to say without a doubt that this had a profound impact on Great Zimbabwe. If the climate did change, then there could have been a number of consequences to the residents. Droughts would have depleted agricultural yield but so would sole degradation. So even if there was a downturn in agricultural yield, this could have been as much down to overfarming as it could have been down to climate change or drought. Another perspective is that there was a shortage of the sort after resources of Great Zimbabwe. The gold dried up and traders started to look elsewhere. Even if environmental pressures affected Great Zimbabwe in the way that we just suggested, then a downturn in the ability to mine gold effectively by the weakening population could have urged traders to look elsewhere for their trade opportunities. Oral tradition suggests that this period of hardship during the 15th century may have prompted a prince in Great Zimbabwe to start an expedition northwards in search of new opportunities. His name was Niyat Simba Motota and it is said that his main objective was to find salt, one of the commodities that was apparently running short. His expedition led him to the Dande region which is in the northern area of the modern country of Zimbabwe. arriving in the Zambezi River Valley, Mutota used all of his advanced knowledge and experience to establish seniority over the local tribes, whether it be through diplomatic negotiation or simple aggression. It is possible that he had learned skills relating to the management of resources and agriculture, which allowed him to take the position of superiority in the region. With his newfound power, he would declare himself "wenni mutapa", roughly meaning "Lord of the conquered lands". Mutota established a new capital city at Zvongonbe, not too far from the Zandese River. From here, Mutota and his successes were to establish a new sphere of influence called the Mutapa Empire, that would eclipse the fading power of great Zimbabwe. The Mutapa Empire became the preferred trade partner of the seafaring traders of the Swahili coast. The Portuguese arrive. 1498 marked a significant change of times to the people involved in trade in and around the southeast of the African continent. The Portuguese were keen to find a trade route to India and the Far East, so that they could get their own share of the spoils that had been previously enjoyed by Arab Swahili and Venetian traders. In 1488, Bartolomu Diaz was the first European to navigate around the Cape of Good Hope. The iconic landmark that represented the far south of the African continent, although it is not strictly the southernmost point of the continent. That honour is awarded to Cape Agullas, almost 200 km further east. Although Diaz was attempting to find a new seavoot to India, the journey was not completed until Vasco de Gamma rounded the Cape around a decade later and sailed onto India. The Portuguese explorers had discovered the trade ports of Africa's Swahili coastline and knew that they would need to have a strong influence over them if they were to successfully establish a trading colony in India. Although Vasco de Gamma strong armed Kilwa into a tributary relationship in 1502, something that Kilwa strongly resented. When Kilwa stopped paying their tribute to the Portuguese, the Portuguese would be back and they would bring military. Kilwa was overwhelmed and the city came under Portuguese control. If Kilwa's power now compromised, it would not take long for Portuguese influence to extend over the key port of Sephala too. The city of Great Zimbabwe had lost most of its prestige and influence by the time the Portuguese had started disrupting the affairs of the Indian Ocean and swahili coast traders. In fact, there is a case to suggest that the site had been largely abandoned. It was the Mutapa Empire that the Portuguese wanted to trade with and by the end of the year 1505 they had largely cut out the Swahili middlemen such as the Kilwa traders. The Portuguese would begin to establish small trading posts along the Zambezi River. This was just the start of the Portuguese plan to control the gold trade of Africa's interior. As the 16th century passed by, the Portuguese would contemplate taking control of the gold trade by means of aggression. However, the Mutapa Empire proved to be no pushover, so the Portuguese had to resort to interfering in Mutapa politics, such as supporting rival claimants to the leadership of the Mutapa Empire. This would weaken the stability and cause fractures in the ruling classes that the Portuguese were able to exploit. This caused the Mutapa Empire to fragment, enabling the Portuguese to play off the splintered factions against one another. The Mutapa Empire may well have been defeated from within, rather than directly by Portuguese conquest, but resistance to the Portuguese continued, meaning that the Portuguese, despite all of their advanced technology, such as firearms, were never able to fully colonise Africa's interior. Thank you very much for listening to this episode of The History of the World Podcast about Great Zim Babway, and it gives me real pleasure to write this episode, because I think what I will take away from Volume 4 is not so much all of the medieval history of Europe, but how much of the pre-exploration age history of the rest of the world outside of Europe has been slanted by European historians and scientists of years gone by. So we see such wonders of Southeast Asia, of South America, Central America, North America, and indeed Africa. And to an extent oceania, which we find we don't celebrate as much as we ought to, or certainly we haven't celebrated as much as we ought to, because of a European desire to downplay the intelligence of society's elsewhere in the world, and this has gone on for hundreds of years, and now we live in an age thankfully where in general historians want to present things impartially and truthfully. So this is what I'm going to take away from Volume 4 is how wonderful the medieval period of the rest of the world is not so much European history, because we all know plenty about that because of what we've been taught. Great to concentrate on Africa and the wonderful advances in African technology that were occurring long before European discovery. Now if you enjoy this podcast and you'd like to support the podcast you can please visit our website historyoftheworldpodcast.com, click on the Patreon link and sign up to make a monthly contribution. In doing so you will become a lifelong member of the history of the world podcast Illuminati and you'll qualify for gifts and rewards, and we welcome into the history of the world podcast Illuminati, a little sorry, a bit of a tongue twister there, Elliott Crabtree, Kin Kay O'Neil, Robert Jank, Joseph Beckerman, Zachary Raffer, Barbara Murphy, Rory Cunningham, Robert Vol and Alan T. Hock, thank you one and all and I'm sorry for any mispronunciations. Now you can follow the podcast on social media, we're on Facebook, X Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube, Tumblr, Threads and Mastodon and I'm always very keen to hear about your, or from you or about your opinions about the podcast episode. What did you think about the great Zimbabwe episode? Do you think it was represented well, was there anything I missed out anything I should have mentioned? Please do let me know, drop me a line at [email protected] and you'll feedback we'll be discussing one of our history of the world podcast debrief episodes, a rare animal at the moment, those debrief episodes but I will make an effort to publish one in a very near future. Our next episode we'll be looking a little bit further west to the Kingdom of Benin, a medieval kingdom not actually as you'll find with many African ancient African societies that modern countries have taken their name from, it's not actually in the exact location that the modern country of Benin is located in that can be found in so but not far away, the Kingdom of Benin and also in looking at that we'll be looking a little bit at the history of the Yoruba people and indeed of the city of Ifei so lots to look forward to in terms of medieval west African history next time but until then thanks very much for listening, sorry for all the delays I may be able to go into that in one of the history of the world podcast debrief episodes but still very much looking forward to wrapping up volume 4, so please do stick around. with me and until next time, thanks a lot and be good. Hope girls at my.com and don't forget to join our social media at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. See you next time!