We watched a video in class the other day on lost civilizations that focused primarily on Africa and the argument of who occupied it first, that black people or white people. The video documents the struggles of archaeologists and African citizens to uncover the truth about who the areas belonged to first. In particular, the portion of the video on Zimbabwe interested me. The video talked about why the civilization, as well as who first inhabited it, were forgotten and therefore claimed by white people.
Great Zimbabwe was first inhabited by the Shona speaking people in about 500 A.D. The Shona translation of Zimbabwe is "house of rock". Zimbabwe was called so for the obvious reason that they built their entire city of stone, which they created starting around 1100 AD. There was more than one area of the City of Great Zimbabwe; the Hill Complex, built first, the Great Enclosure, built second, and the Valley Complex which was built last in the 15th century. All areas of Zimbabwe were massive, but the largest was the Great Enclosure which had walls up to 32 feet high, 17 feet thick, and 300 feet around.
The Shona people left Zimbabwe at some point in the 15th century and left nothing behind to identify themselves as the creators of the legacy that was the great city. When Europeans discovered the city after the Shona had left, they believed that nothing as great as Zimbabwe with its massive structures and and complexity could have been created by black Africans, and thus must have been created by white people. Because the citizens of Zimbabwe did not document in writing and mostly passed on stories by word of mouth through the generations, there was nothing to document the founding of Zimbabwe.
As time passed, many archaeologists studies the areas of Zimbabwe. For a long time, people still refused to believe that black people could have created the massively amazing city. Eventually, however, some archaeologists unearthed artifacts that were irrefutably of African crafting. These findings proved that the structures of Zimbabwe were in fact created by the Africans and they deserve the credit for their doings.
It is not surprising to me that Europeans thought in such shallow minded ways as to deem the black Africans as incapable of creating anything of a massive, complex, or beautiful nature. I am glad, however, that archaeologists who disagreed with such erroneous assumptions continued to search for untouched lands to dig and find proof. The Shona people deserve to have the credit for building such an amazing city, and thanks to those who want to know the truth, they do.
Informational sources:
Time Life's Lost Civilizations Series - http://www.timelife.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=1001&langId=-1&top_category=&productId=211131
http://theculturedtraveler.com/Heritage/Archives/Zimbabwe.htm
http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/Africa/GreatZimbabwe.html
Great Zimbabwe was first inhabited by the Shona speaking people in about 500 A.D. The Shona translation of Zimbabwe is "house of rock". Zimbabwe was called so for the obvious reason that they built their entire city of stone, which they created starting around 1100 AD. There was more than one area of the City of Great Zimbabwe; the Hill Complex, built first, the Great Enclosure, built second, and the Valley Complex which was built last in the 15th century. All areas of Zimbabwe were massive, but the largest was the Great Enclosure which had walls up to 32 feet high, 17 feet thick, and 300 feet around.
The Shona people left Zimbabwe at some point in the 15th century and left nothing behind to identify themselves as the creators of the legacy that was the great city. When Europeans discovered the city after the Shona had left, they believed that nothing as great as Zimbabwe with its massive structures and and complexity could have been created by black Africans, and thus must have been created by white people. Because the citizens of Zimbabwe did not document in writing and mostly passed on stories by word of mouth through the generations, there was nothing to document the founding of Zimbabwe.
As time passed, many archaeologists studies the areas of Zimbabwe. For a long time, people still refused to believe that black people could have created the massively amazing city. Eventually, however, some archaeologists unearthed artifacts that were irrefutably of African crafting. These findings proved that the structures of Zimbabwe were in fact created by the Africans and they deserve the credit for their doings.
It is not surprising to me that Europeans thought in such shallow minded ways as to deem the black Africans as incapable of creating anything of a massive, complex, or beautiful nature. I am glad, however, that archaeologists who disagreed with such erroneous assumptions continued to search for untouched lands to dig and find proof. The Shona people deserve to have the credit for building such an amazing city, and thanks to those who want to know the truth, they do.
Informational sources:
Time Life's Lost Civilizations Series - http://www.timelife.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=1001&langId=-1&top_category=&productId=211131
http://theculturedtraveler.com/Heritage/Archives/Zimbabwe.htm
http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/Africa/GreatZimbabwe.html
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