- Pre-colonial history of Zimbabwe
The pre-colonial history of Zimbabwe lasted until the
British government granted colonial status toSouthern 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 ofhuman habitation for thousands of years, and the ruins of stone buildings provide evidence of more recent civilization. The most impressive of these sites are theGreat Zimbabwe ruins, after which the country is named, located nearMasvingo . Evidence suggests that these stone structures were built between the 9th and 13th centuries AD by indigenousAfricans 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 andDhlo-Dhlo . The first major civilization to become established was theMwene Mutapa (orMonomotapa s), 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 nowMozambique . 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 AD500 , displacing earlierKhoisa n people. From about1000 , 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 theRozwi Empire , which continued until the nineteenth century.Ndebele invasion
The Matabele (Ndebele) people in the south arrived in
1834 --Mzilikazi fleeingShaka .British occupation
References
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