Book Review : The Shona and Zimbabwe 900-1850 by DN Beach

 So I finally got my hands on the book The Shona and Zimbabwe by DN Beach. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in Shona history. In fact, the book should be mandatory reading to school children. I learnt a lot of things that had never been taught to me in school. 

I do not know much about DN Beach but the footnotes at the end of the book, show he undertook thorough research before writing the book. He uses archaeology, written history and a bit of oral tradition to weave together the historical narrative of the Shona people. As a white person, he did somehow remain fair and neutral. There was no patronising and biased approach to African history. He writes about Shona people with respect and the book is devoid of a condescending tone that is prevalent in many books about Africans written by Europeans.

What I learnt about the Shona people is that they actually did not enter the plateau now called Zimbabwe from the north. Beach believes that the ancestors of the Shona people actually came from the Drakensberg mountains in search for farming land and grazing pastures. He calls this community the Kutama culture. These ancestors of the modern Shona people displaced the Khoisan who had been living in the land since 500 BC and mixed with the early iron age people who he believes were the ancestors of the Venda. 

According to Beach five innovations made the late iron people very successful : pottery, mud and pole huts, iron smelting, agriculture and keeping farm animals. This led to larger numbers of people and this explains the constant need to migrate from one place to the other.

I also learnt that the so called Gumanye culture led to the people who created Great Zimbabwe and the Leopard Kopje people are the ancestors of the Kalanga people. DN Beach credits the Shona people with the building of the Great Zimbabwe walls. He believes it was built by the rulers to separate themselves from the common folk. According to Beach it was built from 1250 until 1550. The elite at Great Zimbabwe became rich from tribute they exacted from gold and ivory trade with Muslims at the coast. At some point Great Zimbabwe became so populated the people began to migrate to other parts of the plateau. It is these people who built the Khami ruins and founded the Mutapa kingdom.

I also learnt from the book that ancient Shona did not originally worship Mwari. They worshipped a god called Umbe or Murungu. Mwari was later worshipped by the Rozvi and was accepted by other people. DN Beach also doubts the narrative that Mutota existed. He believes the story of Mutota leaving Great Zimbabwe in search of  salt is merely oral tradition. DN Beach goes into detail into the politics of the Mutapa kingdom and their dealings with the Portuguese that ends in wars, chaos and the fragmentation of the Mutapa kingdom.

DN Beach then focuses on the Torwa state but little is known about them because the Portuguese hardly dealt with them. According to Beach the Kalanga were the population living in the Torwa state. They built walls and stone towns similar to Great Zimbabwe and the leaders may have been somehow related to the Great Zimbabwe elite. Long story short, the Torwa are conquered by the Rozvi under Changamire Dombo. The book says that it was after the conquest the people therein took the name Karanga and it became Kalanga. Later on a break away group of Kalanga left and created the Hwange dynasty that ruled the Nambya. I also learnt that the Lemba people are actually not a lost tribe of Israel but a mixed race of people descended from Arabs who had children with Shona people.

The book ends with the Shona being conquered by the Nguni tribes. Although according to Beach the decline began before the arrival of the Ndebele. It was because there was no more gold and ivory to trade. The Shona had mined all the gold they could with the technology they had and had nearly hunted the elephants to extinction. Thus by 1700 the Shona were no longer as wealthy as they were and had devolved into wandering clans fighting for land. Had the Shona kings indulged in the lucrative slave trade they would have created a lot of wealth. But according to Beach and historical records the Mutapa kings did not participate in the slave trade. It is also important to note that the term Shona was not used for much of Shona history. The Shona people referred to themselves by their totems. The word Shona came about as a term used by the Ndebeles for Shona people. Furthermore the terms Zezuru, Manyika, Kore Kore are very recent terms used to Shona to refer to themselves.

The Shona and Zimbabwe 900-1850 is a great book and read it if you can. Link below.

https://www.amazon.com/Shona-Zimbabwe-900-1850-Outline-History/dp/0841906246