WRITTEN at the height of the liberation struggle in 1978, the poem ‘Zimbabwe’ by Musaemura Zimunya depicts Great Zimbabwe as a focal idiom of the liberation struggle.
The poem elicits patriotism and fires sentiments of greatness while celebrating the creative power of Zimbabwean people.
An extract from the poem ‘Zimbabwe’ (after the Ruins 1978), reads:
“The mind that dreamt this dream
Massively reaching unto time and space
The voice that commanded
The talent that wove the architecture:
friezes of dentelle
herringbone
chequered patterns,
chevron
and all……
The many hands that put the silence together
Stone and bone will speak
Reach out to you in no sound
So mysteries will weave in your mind when I am gone.”
The ancient Iron Age metropolis of Great Zimbabwe (c.1220–1450) emerged while the rest of the West was struggling in ruins of its decay.
Here, eagles soared as marshals in the hills surrounding the complex as monitors of the observance of ‘chisi’ (the weekly day of rest).
Great Zimbabwe was founded as early as 1000 CE as a trading centre by the Shona people.
It was believed to have been constructed at the site of a gold-mine, as gold, along with ivory and iron were key commodities exchanged for cloth, beads and ceramics.
The kingdom, approximately 27 km south of Masvingo, was constructed entirely of granite bricks and boulders covering an area of over 1 779 acres.
Radiating from a huge elliptical nine-metre-high and five-metre-thick tower at the base, was said to accommodate a population estimated between 18 – 20 000 people, living in traditional adobe houses; its architecture is still used today.
The industrious people of Great Zimbabwe were miners, industrialists, commercial traders, designers, artists and musicians as well as agriculturalists who were already practising indigenous cattle husbandry as part of their vital trade and wealth.
These traditional agriculture, religion and customary practices were inherited by future indigenous populations, particularly cattle, which were, and still are, the heirlooms of generations of Zimbabweans.
Moulded stylised clay sculptures of cattle found at Great Zimbabwe are symbolic and signify relevance of the socio-cultural identity of the indigenous people and bear testimony to the artistic skills of the court’s artists.
The kingdom was one of the first civic centres of early trade routes via the sea to Eastern and Western civilisations.
Its wealth was derived from the many gold-producing areas of Zimbabwe.
The city complex was built as an artistic, military, civic, fiscal and socio-religious centre, paying tribute to the wealth, authority, power and pomp of the royal occupants; the Shona Emperors, clergy and citizenry of Zimbabwe’s ancient rulers.
The landmark Conical Tower is a solid structure, which has given rise to many suggestions for its function.
Some archaeologists have postulated the conical tower represents a grain bin (dura), symbolising good harvest and prosperity.
Others have suggested it was a phallic symbol of royal fertility, while many have alluded to its religious symbolism, designed to represent a tower to the heavens to reach the gold of the skies; the sun, the moon, the stones and the waters.
A military perspective suggested it was a watchtower – a lookout for invaders.
It was one of the last structures to be constructed in the Great Enclosure.
Built solidly of granite blocks throughout, it rests directly on the ground.
It was constructed with dressed masonry blocks, deliberately shaped to the required shape and size.
Originally, there were three courses of the ‘Dentelle’ – style stonework around its top, and a smaller, shorter conical structure nearby, with other similar examples in other valley enclosures.
Their functions were unknown, thought to be symbolic.
The Great Zimbabwe complex is the single largest Iron Age site south of the Sahara.
This ancient medieval city was enclosed by monumental walls defining the enclosed spaces used for ritual practices and/or residential living within the spaces.
The largest building complex, the Imba Huru/Guru or ‘The Honoured House’, was surrounded by a long dry wall (without mortar), measuring approximately 250m long x 10m high x 5m wide.
Using a process called ‘battering’, the walls subtly slope inward to the top, to keep them from crumbling and enforce the stability of the massive walls.
The masonry walls of Great Zimbabwe built in the 1300s were of dressed stones (stones with smooth finishes) laid in level, regular courses.
The earliest walls were poorly coursed and were built so they worked with the terrain.
These walls would be amongst boulders and rock slopes.
The last style of walls to be constructed at Great Zimbabwe were of uncoursed stones wedged into place which surrounded large enclosures on the outskirts of the stone city.
The walls are not only an excellent example of Afro-medieval Zimbabwean engineering, but are testimony to indigenous ingenuity in science and artistic industrial design.
What has become known as Great Zimbabwe today was originally the state’s regional Palace of Stone.
Great Zimbabwe has resisted the vagaries of weather for over 700 years.
Although the original adobe foundations from the long-decayed houses still remain within these enclosures, the remaining ruins are declarations of a supreme indigenous ancient architectural legacy.
Archaeological findings at Great Zimbabwe indicated that it was a rich centre for culture, commerce, trade, civic, religion and political diplomacy.
Additional antiquary such as stone and clay sculptures were excavated by early Western explores and settlers at Great Zimbabwe.
Large quantities of these indigenous Zimbabwean cultural artefacts have long since been looted by the colonisers.
Although a lost heritage to Zimbabwean people, many still bear testimony to Zimbabwe’s artistic legacy in various museums in Europe and America.
Among items excavated were Arabic and Chinese porcelain ware, silver ornaments, pottery and coins, which were traded as barter-exchange between other parts of the ancient Occidental World and our forefathers.
Birds of prey sculpted in stone, particularly the (Chapungu) bateleur eagle (terathopius ecuadatus) and the fish-eagle (Hungwe) (haliaeetus-vocifer) were erected as stone sentinels on tall monoliths as symbols of the people’s socio-religious iconography.
The seventh bird found in one of the enclosures has been adopted as Zimbabwe’s national emblem, since independence in 1980.
Birds known to the Shona as ‘shiri dzedenga’, which means ‘birds of the heavens’, are culturally important.
It was believed that avians served as intermediaries and messengers between the heavens and earth.
Continuing research directed towards answering social, economic, political, religious and artistic questions regarding life at Great Zimbabwe and the large area of Southern Africa over which Great Zimbabwe exerted its influence are still not adequately addressed as our Zimbabwe-Shona genesis from an indigenous perspective.
Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD. in art theory and philosophy and a DBA (Doctorate in Business Administration) and post-Colonial Heritage Studies. He is a writer, lecturer, musician, art critic, practising artist and corporate image consultant. He is also a specialist art consultant, post-colonial scholar, Zimbabwean socio-economic analyst and researcher.
For views and comments, email: tonym.monda@gmail.com