Kingdom of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe, 1220–1450. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe was a Shona kingdom located in modern-day Zimbabwe. Its capital was Great Zimbabwe, the largest stone structure in precolonial Southern Africa, which had a population of 10,000. Around 1300, Great Zimbabwe replaced Mapungubwe as the most important trading centre in the interior, exporting gold via Swahili city-states into the Indian Ocean trade. By the 16th century, the Mutapa Empire and the Kingdom of Butua centred on Khami had replaced Great Zimbabwe as the major powers in the region.

Seat of power: Great Zimbabwe

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• The name "dzimbabwe" is Shona for "great house of stone".
• At Great Zimbabwe's centre was the Great Enclosure which is thought to have housed royalty and had demarcated spaces for rituals, while commoners surrounded them within the second perimeter wall.
• The institutionalisation of Great Zimbabwe's politico-religious ideology served to legitimise the position of the king (mambo), with a link between leaders, their ancestors, and God.

Picture

The Great Enclosure, with its 11 m high dry stone walls, was built during the 13th and 14th centuries and likely served as the royal residence.

Image: Andrew Moore from Johannesburg, South Africa, CC BY-SA 2.0, file

Sources

• Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe (Wikipedia)
• Kingdom of Zimbabwe (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.