CHAPTER 10: LATER IRONAGESTATES AND SOCIETIES OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA TO 1600

KEY POINTS

  • Characteristics of the Later Iron Age
  • The emergence of Later Iron Age states north of the Zambezi

Religion and kingship in central Africa

Origins and early growth of the Luba kingdom

Origins of the Lunda empire

The spread of Lunda titles

Peoples of central and southern Angola

The kingdom of Kongo

Later Iron Age peoples of eastern Zambia and Malawi

  • The development of Later Iron Age communities south of the Zambezi

The importance of cattle

Early cattle-keeping communities in eastern Botswana

Cattle-keeping, agriculture and the growth of trade: Leopard’s Kopje, Bambandyanalo and Mapungubwe

  • The origins and character of the Great Zimbabwe tradition

Origins

The rise of Great Zimbabwe

The abandonment of Great Zimbabwe

The Torwa state

The growth of the Mutapa state

Mutapa and the Portuguese

  • Cattle-keeping peoples south of the Limpopo

Characteristics of the Later Iron Age

  • Change in pottery style – finer clay and harder finish
  • Some change, gradual: local evolution
  • Others change, sudden: new ideas or people
  • Improved agricultural and fishing skills
  • Mining and manufacturing further developed
  • Specialisation: mining, metal manufacture, food production, hunting
  • More land brought into use
  • Further absorption of stone-using hunter-gatherers

The emergence of Later Iron Age states north of the Zambezi

Religion and kingship in central Africa

  • LIA increase in population: rise in size of political units
  • Kings and chiefs’ source of power: primarily religious, combined with secular
  • Secular power: control of trade, or superior skill (e.g. metal-working or hunting)
  • Religious power: mediators in traditional religion or links with ancestral spirits
  • E.g. Kongo, guardians of ‘spirits of the land’; Mbundu and Chewa: guardians of rain-making shrines
  • Chiefs/kings received tribute as religious leaders
  • In return they ensured success in secular field

Origins and early growth of the Luba kingdom

  • Core growth point: LakeKisale (upper Lualaba), continuous occupation since 4th century
  • Fertile area, edge of forest: good for food production, hunting and fishing
  • Skilled use of fishing resources: protein for trade
  • Imported iron and salt, and copper from ‘copperbelt’
  • Craftsmen: copper jewellery and ingots for trading or storing wealth
  • By 1300, competition between chiefdoms over resources
  • 14th century: Luba formed powerful chiefdom under Nkongolo dynasty
  • Oral tradition: founder, Ilunga Kalala, skilled hunter from Kunda, married Nkongolo’s sister
  • Perhaps leader of band of hunters who introduced bow and arrow
  • Ilunga synasty built powerful centralised dynasty
  • Power: religious authority of king (small standing army
  • 1450s: royal rivals found dynasty westwards among Lunda (upper Kasai)

Origins of the Lunda empire

  • Lunda: collection of decentralised chiefdoms, with a ‘senior’ chief
  • Luba royal (Chibunda Ilunga) married Queen Rweej of senior chieftaincy
  • Their descendants founded new dynasty: Mwaant Yaav
  • Brought Lunda chiefdoms into single centralised empire
  • Expanding by 16th century
  • Lunda technology, arts and crafts less developed than Luba
  • Luba introduced religious kingship, but local chiefs left in place as guardians of local spirits
  • Lunda chiefs paid tribute to royal court, and acted as royal advisers
  • King appointed cilool (kilolo) as local ‘adviser’ and tax collector, ensured loyalty

The spread of Lunda titles

  • Royal Lunda rivals moved away to set up dynasties among other peoples to south and west
  • Power justified through religious link to Luba source
  • Kinguri (brother to Rweej) founded new state in Angola
  • In due course this was organised on military grounds
  • By 1550 their ruler assumed the title Kasanje, and people became Imbangala

Peoples of central and southern Angola

  • From 14th century, rise of Mbundu-speaking kingdoms in Angola (e.g. Ndongo)
  • Religious authority: guardians of rain-making shrines + Metal-working skills
  • Ndongo ruler: title – Ngola
  • By 1500, Ndongo chiefdoms welded into powerful state

The kingdom of Kongo

  • Origins: farming villages north of Malebo Pool
  • Fertile margins of forest: food surplus
  • Copper, iron, salt within easy trading distance
  • River for fishing and trade
  • By 14th century, collection of chiefdoms south of river
  • Guardians of shrines to ‘spirits of land’ = known as mani kubango
  • By 1400, single kingdom: king’s title Manikongo, capital: Mbanza Kongo
  • Highly developed technology, arts and crafts
  • Widespread trade, encouraged through tribute system
  • By 1500 authority from Atlantic to KwangoRiver
  • 1480s arrival of Portuguese: see Chapter 14

Later Iron Age peoples of eastern Zambia and Malawi

  • LIA spread here 1000-1200: pottery style known as ‘Luangwa tradition’
  • Greater use of iron axes to clear woodland for cultivation and cattle grazing
  • Ivory hunter, copper manufacture, trade
  • Source of these ideas and practices unclear
  • Cultural links to modern Bemba, Bisa and Chewa
  • Malawi, religious authority, Phiri clan gained ascendancy, marrying into Banda clan
  • Possible links with Luba religious kingship
  • Royal title/dynasty: Kalonga
  • 16th century, Kalonga offshoots founded Lundu dynasty among Manganja, and Undi dynasty among Chewa
  • Fire important to Phiri clan: Kalonga, Lundu and Undi known as Maravi (‘peoples of the fire’)
  • Ivory hunting in Zambezi valley, trade to east African coast: source of wealth for kings

The development of Later Iron Age communities south of the Zambezi

The importance of cattle

  • Source of food and a tradable commodity
  • Source of wealth and social control
  • Gender relations: cattle brought men control over women, through bridewealth
  • Widening wealth gap: wealthy cattle-owners gained control over communities

Early cattle-keeping communities in eastern Botswana

  • Between Limpopo and Kalahari, good grazing, springs and seasonal streams
  • Archaeological evidence: Hilltop settlements, 650-1300 CE : ‘Toutswe tradition’
  • Hilltop for defence and night-time protection of cattle
  • Three large hilltops: wealth = consumption of beef: probably chiefdoms, controlling surrounding smaller settlements
  • Trade: iron from Tswapong hills, glass beads = indirect trade from Indian Ocean
  • Toutswe sites abandoned c.1300: persistent drought + possibly overgrazing
  • Toutswe people, fate unknown: possibly reverting to hunter-gathering or dispersal to better pastures
  • Their cattle-keeping culture probably influenced people elsewhere

Cattle-keeping, agriculture and the growth of trade: Leopard’s Kopje, Bambandyanalo and Mapungubwe

  • Leopard’s Kopje (south-western Zimbabwe plateau: Map 10.2), better-watered than Toutswe region, mixed economy: cattle-keeping and cultivation by 10th century
  • Terracing of southern slopes to prevent soil erosion
  • Mapela 12th century: dry stone-walling for terracing, housing and defence
  • Leopard’s Kopje gold-mining from 10th century: narrow shafts following seams + labour of slim girls (skeletons) down shafts; ore crushed and gold panned out in running streams
  • Gold trade = wealth = political power: Bambandyanalo (10th-12thC.) and Mapungubwe (12th – 13th C.) (Shashe/Limpopo confluence: Map 10.2)
  • Wealthy lived on hilltop: cattle, farming, ivory-hunting, mining (local copper)
  • Export trade: ivory and gold (from ‘Leopard’s Kopje region), Limpopo: route to east coast
  • Imports: beads, Indian cloth, small quantities Chinese pottery
  • c.1300, Mapungubwe declined in favour of Great Zimbabwe

The origins and character of the Great Zimbabwe tradition

Origins

  • Great Zimbabwe: site of stone ruins, capital of a powerful Shona state 1200-1450
  • dzimba dzamabwe (Shona for ‘stone buildings’): from which modern republic gets its name
  • Dry stone-walling for cattle enclosures and for enclosing mud-brick, thatched houses
  • Continuation and development of Leopard’s Kopje (Mapela) and Mapungubwe tradition
  • Earliest stonemasonry on hill, possibly for defence, utilising cracked granite slaps
  • Cave in hill: religious shrine – possibly original attraction of site
  • From 1300 stone-walling in valley, Great Enclosure from 1400
  • Evidence of increasing sophistication of stonemasonry
  • Great Enclosure in valley not for defence: probably to enhance power and prestige of king
  • Economic advantages of Great Zimbabwe site (eastern edge of plateau): good cattle-grazing (upland and lowland); widespread game (hunting for food and ivory); plentiful timber; fertile soil for cultivation; strategically placed for gold trade between gold mines of western plateau and Sofala on the Indian Ocean coast (see Chapter 9 for Kilwa and gold trade)

The rise of Great Zimbabwe

  • 12th – 13th century: diversion of long-distance trade via Great Zimbabwe
  • Taxation of trade + tribute-collection from Shona chiefdoms: wealth and power of Zimbabwe rulers
  • Centre of craft manufacture as well as trade
  • Weaving of locally-grown cotton throughout region
  • Valley enclosure: residence of king and court, trade bringing luxury items for elite: gold, copper ornaments, jewellery, Persian and Chinese plates, Indian cloths
  • Spread of smaller madzimbabwe indicating spread of power around region

The abandonment of Great Zimbabwe

  • Site abandoned c.1450
  • Oral tradition refers to shortage of salt as reason for moving
  • Archaeological evidence: exhaustion of local resources: soil, grazing, timber
  • Population: 11 000 by early 15th century
  • Large static site not suitable for traditional methods of shifting cultivation
  • Focus of trade shifting northwards to Zambezi valley (Ingombe Ilede) and Mutapa state

The Torwa state

  • Successor to Great Zimbabwe, in western plateau region, capital: Khami
  • Probably founded by 15th century migrants from Zimbabwe
  • Stonemasonry further enhanced, terracing and house enclosures
  • Besides gold mining, good for cattle-grazing = source of power for development of Rozvi state in 17th century

The growth of the Mutapa state

  • Oral tradition: founded by Nyatsimbe Mutota from Great Zimbabwe (c.1420), seeking salt
  • Moist, fertile Mazoe valley, plentiful timber for fuel and building, and Swahili trading stations in Zambezi valley (Sena & Tete)
  • Swahili attracted by copper and gold from Ingombe Ilede in middle Zambezi
  • Mutota and successors dominated northern Shona and took title Munhumutapa (‘Conqueror’)
  • Became major state of western Shona following decline of Great Zimbabwe
  • Mutapa rulers used army to maintained power; built in locally-available wood rather than stone
  • Locally-available alluvial gold for foreign trade and wealth of rulers

Mutapa and the Portuguese

  • Portuguese violent seizure of Swahili coastal trading towns, early 16th century
  • By then Sofala gold trade had shifted to Zambezi valley
  • 1530s sent army up Zambezi and seized Sena and Tete
  • Paid tribute to Munhumutapa for permission to trade
  • Disappointed with scale of gold trade, attempted to convert Munhumutapa to Christianity: failed
  • Attempted invasion in 1571 failed (drought, disease, resistance of valley Tsonga)
  • Invasion of 1574 also failed to control Mutapa

Cattle-keeping peoples south of the Limpopo

  • 11th – 15th century: expansion of cattle-keeping following clearing of woodland, and upland grazing brought into more extensive use
  • Highveld: rise of chieftaincy, as with Toutswe, linked to cattle ownership, large numbers of dependants and spiritual power of rulers (spiritual links with ancestors) and his rain-making powers
  • Origins of chiefly lineages of modern Sotho-Tswana from about this period
  • Stone-walled enclosures and house foundations across highveld
  • Early Batswana of western grasslands developed large central towns
  • Wealthy rivals within ruling families tended to split and set up own chiefdoms
  • South-east of Drakensberg (lowveld) greater rainfall: varied environment: hills, valleys, woodland: chiefdoms smaller and self-contained
  • Ancestors of modern Nguni-speaking peoples
  • Mixed farming, craft, metalwork, hunting, trading economy underpinned by cattle
  • Written evidence of ship-wrecked Portuguese sailor (1593)
  • Khoesan-speaking hunter-gatherers and pastoralists gradually absorbed during expansion of Later Iron Age chiefdoms – linguistic evidence of Khoisan ‘click’ sounds in Nguni and southern Sotho languages
  • Khoesan retained communities, culture and language in drier south-western region less suitable for iron-age farming.

© Kevin Shillington, 2012