Answer to Question #306821 in History for karols

Question

According to Mazarire, what are the problems with analysing pre-colonial Zimbabwe history as the history of the Shona people?

Answer 1

What we know about this period of Zimbabwean history has been under constant reinterpretation. Most of what today we call pre-colonial Zimbabwean history is a product of academic theories, and of ideas popularized during and since the nationalist struggle when it became necessary to debunk existing stereotypes of African identity, and to situate the struggle for independence within the ideals of self-determination and self-knowledge. This is as true of Zimbabwe as it is of many other African countries. Indeed, it can be argued that in its more recent assertions of sovereignty, reclamation, restitution, the return to tradition, and even anti-imperialism, the Zimbabwe state perceives the pre-colonial period as an important starting point for its own national reconstruction.

The pre-colonial history of Zimbabwe is usually explained in terms of the rise

and fall of empires – the Great Zimbabwe, the Mutapa, the Torwa, the Rozvi and Ndebele states. These large states are interesting and important but it is misleading to think that nothing of significance happened before or afterwards, or outside their frontiers. Most autochthons lived in smaller units, and we have come to learn a lot more about life in those societies than we did twenty years ago. Many Zimbabweans feel proud that there were once large ‘empires’ that could fight against external invaders, but the story of the occupation of Zimbabwe’s difficult landscape by many pioneering groups should be just as much a source of pride.

Interestingly, the pre-colonial era of southern Africa is also marred by bloodshed, the fight for territory, and tribal warfare. Proto Shona speaking peoples are believed to have inhabited the Limpopo Valley from circa the 9th century CE. Groups then immigrated to the Zimbabwean plateau which subsequently became the center of Shona history. In about 1000 CE Arab traders operating along the Indian Coast facilitated the founding of the Mapungubwe Kingdom. The latter kingdom acted as a precursor to the Shona civilizations that had developed sophisticated trade systems by the time the first Portuguese explorers arrived in the area today known as Mozambique.