Great Zimbabwe National Monument

Infobox World Heritage Site
Name = Great Zimbabwe National Monument


State Party = ZIM
Type = Cultural
Criteria = i, iii, vi
ID = 364
Region = Africa
Year = 1986
Session = 10th
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/364

The Great Zimbabwe, or "stone buildings", is the name given to hundreds of great stone ruins spread out over a 500 km² (200 square mile) area within the modern-day country of Zimbabwe, which itself is named after the ruins.

Name

The exact origin of the word "Zimbabwe" is not known, but there are three schools of thought. In the first theory, the word "Zimbabwe" could be a short form for "ziimba remabwe" or "ziimba rebwe", a Shona (dialect: chiKaranga) term, which means "the great or big house built of stone boulders". In the Karanga dialect of the Shona language, "imba" means "a house" or "a building" and "ziimba", or "zimba", mean "a huge/big building or house". The word "bwe" or "ibwe" (singular, plural being "mabwe") in the Karanga dialect means "a stone boulder". Thus, a linguistic analysis of the word "Zimbabwe" clearly indicates that the origin of the word refers to the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe whose huge buildings were built of stone boulders. The Karanga-speaking Shona people are found around Great Zimbabwe in the modern-day province of Masvingo and have been known to have inhabited the region since the building of this ancient city

A second theory is that Zimbabwe is a contracted form of "dzimba woye" which means "venerated houses" in the Zezuru dialect of the Shona language. This term is usually reserved for chiefs' houses or graves. It should also be noted that the Zezuru-speaking Shona people are found to the northeast of Great Zimbabwe, some 500 km away.

A third theory is that Zimbabwe comes from the Shona "dzimba dza mabwe" meaning houses of stone, referring to the ruins of Great Zimbabwe

The first theory could be said to have the advantage of a linguistic analysis that produces an outcome that ties in with the physical nature of the Ancient City of Great Zimbabwe and that is based on the language in use today among the people who are found in the surrounding area today. The second theory of the origin of the name "Zimbabwe" brings in the concept of veneration of the ancient city which is known to be associated with Great Zimbabwe as a national monument. However, a linguistice analysis would seem not to be as sound as that of the first theory. The lack of proximity of the Zezuru-speaking Shona people to the Great Zimbabwe seems to further weaken the second theory. Further to this, the veneration of Great Zimbabwe as a shrine or religious centre seems to have started sometime after its inhabitants deserted the ancient city for reasons historians have found difficult to determine with speculation associating it with overpopulation and disease. Hence, the attribute of "veneration" could not be said to be as permanent and all-time as the attribute of the city's buildings being built from "mabwe" or "huge stone boulders". The Zezuru theory of "dzimba woye" could be said to be close in sound to a 16th-century Portuguese explorer's rendering in "Symbaoe". However, reliance on a linguistic analysis of the language that is closely associated in space and time to the original builders of Great Zimbabwe would appear more reasonable and sound than a reliance on a foreign rendering of an indigenous language. The Portuguese explorer figured out that the name was given to the buildings and that its meaning in the local language was "court", which could be considered to be close to the second Zezuru theory. However, the first theory does not exclude veneration, "court" or "chief's house", since in Shona culture "stone boulders" around Great Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Zimbabwe were/are associated with the chief's courts, veneration and religious shrines, for instance, there is today a "venerated" stone boulder "Dombo raMwari" (Stone of God). "Dombo" is the Zezuru word for "bwe" or "ibwe". There is also a place called "Chibwedziva", which also indicates a culture of venerating stone structures.

Description

Built consistently throughout the period from the 11th century to the 15th century [ [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/zimb/hd_zimb.htm Great Zimbabwe (11th–15th century) | Thematic Essay | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art ] ] , the ruins at Great Zimbabwe are some of the oldest and largest structures located in Southern Africa. At its peak, estimates are that the ruins of Great Zimbabwe had as many as 18,000 inhabitants. The ruins that survive are built entirely of stone. The ruins span 1,800 acres (7 km²) and cover a radius of 100 to 200 miles (160 to 320 km).

In 1531, Viçente Pegado, Captain of the Portuguese Garrison of Sofala, described Zimbabwe thus:

The ruins can be broken down into three distinct architectural groups. They are known as the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex and the famous Great Enclosure. Over 300 structures have been found so far in the Great Enclosure. The type of stone structures found on the site give an indication of the status of the citizenry. Structures that were more elaborate were probably built for the kings and situated further away from the center of the city. It is thought that this was done in order to escape sleeping sickness.

What little evidence exists suggests that Great Zimbabwe also became a center for trading, with artifacts suggesting that the city formed part of a trade network extending as far as China. Chinese pottery shards, coins from Arabia, glass beads and other non-local items have been excavated at Zimbabwe.

Nobody knows for sure why the site was eventually abandoned. Perhaps it was due to drought, perhaps due to disease or it simply could be that the decline in the gold trade forced the people who inhabited Great Zimbabwe to look for greener pastures.

History of research

Portuguese traders were the first Europeans to visit the remains of the ancient city in the early 16th century. The ruins were rediscovered during a hunting trip by Adam Renders in 1867, who then showed the ruins to Karl Mauch in 1871. They became well known to English readers from J. Theodore Bent's season at Zimbabwe, under Cecil Rhodes's patronage.

Bent, whose archaeological experience had all been in Greece and Asia Minor, stated in "The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland" (1891) that the ruins revealed either the Phoenicians or the Arabs as builders. Mauch favored a legend that the structures were built to replicate the palace of the Queen of Sheba in Jerusalem. [cite news |title=Vast Ruins in South Africa- The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland |work=The New York Times |page=19 |date=1892-12-18] Other theories as to their origin abounded among white settlers and academics, with one element in common: they were probably not made by sub-Saharan Africans.

The first scientific archaeological excavations at the site were undertaken in by David Randall-MacIver in 1905–1906. He wrote in "Medieval Rhodesia" of the existence in the site of objects that were of African origin. [cite news |title=Solomon's Mines |pages=RB241 |publisher=The New York Times |date=1906-04-14] In 1929, Gertrude Caton-Thompson was the first to conclusively state that the site was indeed created by Africans. [cite news |title=Ascribes Zimbabwe to African Bantus |publisher=The New York Times |page=2 |date=1929-10-20] Since then artifacts and radiocarbon dating have proved that the oldest remains date back to the 1200s.

Martin Hall writes that the history of Iron Age research south of the Zambezi shows the prevalent influence of colonial ideologies, both in the earliest speculations about the nature of the African past and in the adaptations that have been made to contemporary archeological methodologies. [cite journal |last=Hall |first=Martin |year=1984 |month=July |title=The Burden of Tribalism: The Social Context of Southern African Iron Age Studies |journal=American Antiquity |volume=49 |issue=3 |pages=455–467 |doi=10.2307/280354] When European colonialists like Cecil Rhodes first saw the ruins, it was seen as a sign of the great riches that the surroundings would yield to its new masters. When it was finally proved that the builders were in fact Africans, it was also characterized as "product of an infantile mind" built by a subjugated society. Later researchers confirmed this condescending view and refused to accept that Great Zimbabwe could have been a product of internal processes, but rather had to be the result of outside stimulus. After the white minority attempt at gaining independence from colonial rule in 1965 the theories about the black population having been subjugated by outside overlords was reconfirmed. Later on, after the independence of the modern state of Zimbabwe in 1980, Great Zimbabwe has been employed to mirror and legimitize shifting policies of the ruling regime. At first it was argued that it represented a form of pre-colonial "African socialism" and later the focus shifted to stressing the natural evolution of an accumulation of wealth and power within a ruling elite. [Garlake (2002) 23-25]

Archaeologists generally agree that the builders probably spoke one of the Shona languages, and so were members of the Bantu family. Some have postulated that Zimbabwe was the work of the Gokomere people, who gave rise to both the Warozwi people, and the Mashona people. Great Zimbabwe and various stone cities in east Africa are also claimed by the Lemba, an ethnic group who claim ancient Jewish descent. [ [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/israel/familylemba.html NOVA Online | Lost Tribes of Israel | The Lemba ] ] Certain features of Swahili architecture on the East Coast resemble those at Zimbabwe, in particular the great tower.

The ruins of this complex of massive stone walls undulate across almost convert|1800|acre|km2 of present-day southeastern Zimbabwe. Begun during the eleventh century A.D. by Bantu-speaking ancestors of the Shona, Great Zimbabwe was constructed and expanded for more than 300 years in a local style that eschewed rectilinearity for flowing curves. Neither the first nor the last of some 300 similar complexes located on the Zimbabwean plateau, Great Zimbabwe is set apart by the terrific scale of its structure. Its most formidable edifice, commonly referred to as the Great Enclosure, has walls as high as convert|36|ft|m extending approximately convert|820|ft|m, making it the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara Desert. Investigations were conducted during the first few decades of the twentieth century which confirmed both the antiquity of the Great Zimbabwe and its African origins.

Political implications

Despite this evidence, the official line in colonial Rhodesia was that the structures were built by non-blacks. According to Paul Sinclair, interviewed for "None But Ourselves": [cite book |last=Frederikse |first=Julie |others=Biddy Partridge (photographer) |title=None But Ourselves |origyear=1982 |year=1990 |publisher=Oral Traditions Association of Zimbabwe with Anvil Press |location=Harare | isbn=0-7974-0961-0 |pages=10–11 |chapter=(1) Before the war]

To black anti-colonialist groups, Great Zimbabwe became an important symbol of achievement by black Africans. Reclaiming its history was a major aim for those wanting independence. In 1980 the newly independent country was renamed for the site, and its famous soapstone bird carvings became a national symbol, depicted in the country's flag.

Some of the carvings had been taken from Great Zimbabwe around 1890 and sold to Cecil Rhodes, who was intrigued and had copies made which he gave to friends. Most of the carvings have now been returned to Zimbabwe, but one remains at Rhodes' old home, Groote Schuur, in Cape Town.

Great Zimbabwe has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986.

Image gallery

See also

* History of Zimbabwe
* Nyanga, Zimbabwe
* Ziwa
* Dhlo-Dhlo
* Khami
* List of World Heritage Sites in Africa
* Gertrude Caton–Thompson

Notes

ources

*Garlake, Peter (2002) "Early Art and Architecture of Africa" Oxford, Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-284261-7
*Ndoro, Webber. "Great Zimbabwe" "Scientific American" (November 1997)

Further reading

*

External links

* [http://www.endingstereotypes.org/zimbabwe.html Chapter on Great Zimbabwe from "Ending Stereotypes for America"]
*Great Zimbabwe entry on the [http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=364 UNESCO World Heritage site]
*Pictures of [http://joyandbobby.com/albums/zimbabwe/index.html Great Zimbabwe]
*Ampim, Manu. [http://www.manuampim.com/ZIMBABWE.html "Great Zimbabwe: A History Almost Forgotten"] . Retrieved 18 April 2006.
*Tyson, Peter. [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/israel/zimbabwe.html "Mystery of Great Zimbabwe"] . Retrieved 18 April 2006.
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/10chapter1.shtml The Story of Africa: Great Zimbabwe] — BBC World Service