Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia: An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of RhodesiaHall, R. N. (Richard Nicklin)
History
Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia: An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of Rhodesia
Hall, R. N. (Richard Nicklin)
Great Zimbabwe (Extinct city); Zimbabwe -- Antiquities
(_f_) The Zimbabwe Makalanga did not reside in the ruins, as this in
later generations was opposed to their traditions, but they used the
ruins up to ten years ago as cattle kraals and places for carrying on
their copper and iron-smelting operations, for offering sacrifices,
and for burial-places. Once they occupied them as residences, but
possibly the fear of the ruins at night caused them to desert them as
residences, probably owing to the increased number of graves which they
contained. The Barotse did not appear to have been inspired by this
fear, for they have occupied ruins all over the country.
All the remains of native huts and many of the native articles found
in the ruins must be at least six generations old, if not much older.
When the present Mogabe Handisibishe took up his residence on the
north side of Zimbabwe Hill, in the ruins of the Acropolis, there had
been no Makalanga occupations for many generations previously. All
the remains of Makalanga huts found on the Acropolis, and round the
faces of the hill, and outside the area occupied by Mogabe’s kraal,
belong to Makalanga, who had ceased to occupy them for very many years
previously. When Mogabe arrived these remains were considered by his
people to be exceedingly old.
(_g_) The present Zimbabwe Makalanga originally came from Masungye, in
the direction of the Lower Sabi. Mogabe is the dynastic title of each
succeeding chief of this tribe. The Mogabe-Molinye moved to Jena and
finally to the Beroma country, in the neighbourhood of Zimbabwe. The
succeeding Mogabe, a son of Molinye, moved up from Beroma to Mangwa
(Morgenster), four miles south of Zimbabwe, from which place he drove
out the Amangwa people, who occupied the Zimbabwe district and the
country for a considerable distance round about. The next Mogabe,
Chipfuno, a son of the previous Mogabe, settled at Wuwuli, five miles
south of Zimbabwe, and later his younger brother, Handisibishe, the
present Mogabe, succeeded Chipfuno in the dynastic rule. Handisibishe
is seventy years of age, but Chipfuno was much older.
The connection between the present Zimbabwe Makalanga and the Zimbabwe
ruins only dates back authoritatively for some sixty or seventy years,
but their opinion as to the age of the native remains at the ruins, as
found by them when they arrived, added to a similar account based on
the longer residence of the Barotse and Amangwa, and on their history
and traditions, enables investigations to be carried back at least
eight generations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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