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| The
history of Shona Tribe of Zimbabwe |
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| Shona people are internationally known for two art forms: stone sculpture and
mbira music (mbira: an instrument made of a hollow gourd with metal reeds that the player
plucks). The Shona are a cluster of peoples who have lived for about 2,000 years in a region of the southern Africa Plateau that includes most of ZIMBABWE and part of MOZAMBIQUE. |
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| There have been many
civilisations in Zimbabwe as is shown by the ancient
stone structures at Khami, Great Zimbabwe and Dhlo-Dhlo.
The
archaeological ruins known as "Great Zimbabwe"
have been radio carbon dated to approximately 600 A.D.
Historic findings seems to point to the fact that the
ancestors of modern day Shona people built Great
Zimbabwe and hundreds of other stone walled sites in
Zimbabwe. Bantu-speaking farmers, either Khoisan
settlers or Iron Age migrants from the north, were the
first occupants of the Great Zimbabwe site in the south
of the country. Between 500 and 1000AD, the Gokomere (a
Bantu group) enslaved and absorbed San groups in the
area. As early as the 11th century, some foundations and
stonework were in place at Great Zimbabwe and the
settlement, generally regarded as the burgeoning Shona
society. |
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| The Shona tribe, believe in veneration of spirits. There
is a line of thought that suggests that the Shona people
are descendants from one group of families, that was ruled
by one paramount Chief. This line of thought would justify
the fact that such Shona High spirits as Chaminuka, Kaguvi and Nehanda command unquestionable authority over all Shona tribes.
It is this that could have enabled the Shona risings of
1896-7, known as the First Chimurenga. Before the risings
there where a number of mhondoros (Mhondoro is a Shona
language term meaning the founding ancestor of a particular
dynasty) in the then
Rhodesia
(now Zimbabwe) but none had the authority to co-ordinate the various
Shona tribes against the European settlers.
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The Shona people as they are today
are a fragmented horde of tribes with very tenuous bonds of
unity between them. Most Shona people identify with a
particular clan rather than with the Shona group as a whole, most Shona communities contain a mixture of clans.
(Clan - group of people who descended from the same
ancestor) The Shona consisted and still consist
to this day two distinct families – the original Bantu
occupants of the country and the conquerors – each which
has split up into a multiplicity of tribes.
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The original Shona occupants of Zimbabwe
are all embodied under the umbrella name “Hungwe”. The
conquerors of the Hungwe fall under the blanket name “Mbire”.
It is believed that it was the Mbire who were the founders
of the Mutapa Empire as well as the Rozvi Empire which was
destroyed by the various Nguni tribes that passed through
the land
of
Zimbabwe
during the Mfecane wars. Namely, the Ndebele tribe, who now occupy southwest Zimbabwe, and the Shangane
tribe in the southeast of Zimbabwe. The Hungwe settled in
Zimbabwe
for probably two to three hundred years before the Mbire
arrived.
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| Its important to note that the
difference between the present day Mbire (which refers to
the Marondera – Wedza district and the people whose is
mutopo is Soko), and the 1500 A.D. Mbire. In about 1500
A.D. the term referred to all the members of the
invading family which took over the land from the Hungwe.
The Mbire took over the
land
of
Zimbabwe
around somewhere between 1000 and 1050 AD. Their invasion
from across the
Zambezi
river marked the beginning of the dynasty of the Mbire
empire which is commonly known as Mutapa Empire (state).
The Mutapa Empire or Mbire Empire covered most pasts of
present day
Zimbabwe
. The empire incorporated most of the whole of
Mozambique
, South of the
Zambezi
river and north of the Sabi river down to the sea. Some of
the present day
South Africa
tribes are known to have been segmented from the Shona
(best known ones are the
Venda
and Lovendu). The expansion of Mbire Empire, include the
following shona tribes Barwe, Manyika, Ndau, Korekore,
Shangwe, and Guruuswa.
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The Mwanamutapa (or Monomatapas) were the first
major civilisation to become established in Zimbabwe. The
Mwanamutapa empire, headed by a ruler of the same name,
was founded about 1420 among the Karanga people and was
centered at Great Zimbabwe. By the mid 1440's, the empire
included almost all of the Zimbabwean plateau and
extensive parts of what is now Mozambique. The empire was
ruled in pyramidal fashion, with the Mwanamutapa
appointing regionally based vassals. The wealth of this
empire was based on small-scale industries, for example
iron smelting, textiles, gold and copper, along with
agriculture. At the height of Mwanamutapa state, it was part of a gold trade network that extended as far as China.
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In about 1490 the empire split into two parts — Changamire
in the south (including Great Zimbabwe) and Mwanamutapa in
the north. The latter stretched from the Indian Ocean in
the east to present-day central Zambia in the west and
from central Zimbabwe in the south to the Zambezi River in
the north. The regular inhabitants of the empire's trading
towns were the Arab and Swahili merchants with whom trade
was conducted. The empire was an important source of
gold and ivory, the area attracted Swahili traders from
the east coast of Africa (in modern Tanzania). When the
Shirazis founded Sofala (in present-day Mozambique), the
Karanga empire acquired an export market for its mining
production. The ‘Monomotapa’, the Karanga leader,
imposed a tributary relation on the neighboring Muslim
nation as he had done with other minor cultures of the
area. Thus, Karanga supremacy was established over a
region including parts of present-day Malawi. The area
around Great Zimbabwe became the trading capital of
the wealthiest and most powerful society in south-eastern
Africa of its era. The hilltop acropolis at Great Zimbabwe
came to serve not only as a fortress but as a shrine for
the worship of Mwari, the pre-eminent Shona deity.
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In the early 16th century the Portuguese arrived in the
form of traders and soldiers from Mozambique, and
established contact with the empire. Between 1509 and 1512
António Fernandes traveled inland and visited the
Mwanamutapa kingdom, which controlled the region between
the Zambezi and Save rivers and was the source of much of
the gold exported at Sofala. Soon after, Swahili traders
resident in Mwanamutapa began to redirect the kingdom's
gold trade away from Portuguese-controlled Sofala and
toward more northern ports. Thus, Portugal became
interested in directly controlling the interior. In 1531,
posts were established inland at Sena and Tete on the
Zambezi, and in 1544 a station was founded at Quelimane.
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| The Mutapa empire started its decline around 1500 AD,
power struggles among the Mbire resulted in fall of the
Mutapa state and the founding of the Rozvi Empire in the
South West of present day
Zimbabwe
. Further splits resulted in the fragmentation of these
empires, which led to the innumerable autonomous Shona
tribes found in present day Zimbabwe. |
In 1560 and 1561 Gonçalo da Silveira, a Portuguese Jesuit
missionary, visited Mwanamutapa, where he quickly made
converts, including King Nogomo Mupunzagato. However, the
Swahili traders who lived there, fearing for their
commercial position, persuaded Nogomo to have Silveira
murdered. The presence of the Portuguese had a serious
impact that affected some of its trade and there had been
a series of wars which left the empire so weakened that it
entered the 17th century in serious decline. By the
mid-17th century the Portuguese controlled Mwanamutapa
empire.
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| By 1690 the Portuguese had been forced off the plateau and
much of the land formerly under Mwanamutapa was
controlled by the Rozwi. The Shona dynasties fractured
into autonomous states, many of which later formed the
Rozwi empire. Peace and prosperity reigned over the next
two centuries and the centres of Dhlo-Dhlo, Khami, and
Great Zimbabwe reached their peaks. The Mwanamutapa
citadel and palace were taken over by the Rozwi, whose
Changamira (king) extended his control over the mining
area. The Rozwi empire did not however succeed in
controlling an area as vast as the ancient Karanga had
done. |
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| As a result of the mid-19th century turmoil in Transvaal
and Natal, the Rozwi Empire came to an end, this was due
to the fact that The Matebeles led by Mzilikazi came and
devastated the region. The Rozwi emigrated westwards;
cities and farmlands, palaces and irrigation canals were
abandoned and grass began to grow over the ancient walls
of Great Zimbabwe. It was not until the late 19th century
that the peoples speaking several mutually intelligible
languages were united under the Shona name. There are five
main language clusters: Korekore, Zeseru, Manyika, Ndau,
and Karanga. The last of these groups was largely absorbed
by the Matebeles (Ndebele)
when they moved into western side of present day Zimbabwe. |
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