A Girl Named Disaster

THE HISTORY AND PEOPLES OF ZIMBABWE AND MOZAMBIQUE RECENT HISTORY OF ZIMBABWE AND MOZAMBIQUE

From 1964 to 1974 Mozambique was embroiled in a war of liberation from Portugal. Independence was declared in 1975, with the political party Frelimo taking over the government.

In 1963 the British attempted to grant independence to their colony Zimbabwe (then called Rhodesia). A small English tribe living in the country took over the government. They ruled until 1979, when independence was finally achieved after several years of fighting.

Nhamo’s journey takes place around 1981. Land mines were still in place along the border, and relations among white people, the Shona, and the Matabele were sometimes hostile. THE SHONA

The ancestors of the Shona arrived from the north between A.D. 1000 and 1200 as a collection of tribes with a common language and a distinct culture. The whole group was not referred to as Shona until the nineteenth century.

Histories of several royal lines were preserved in oral poetry, but the most famous king was Monomatapa. Monomatapa lived in the fifteenth century, and tales of his splendor reached the first Portuguese traders on the coast of Mozambique. He was supposed to rule a vast kingdom from the Kalahari Desert in the west to the Indian Ocean in the east.

Throughout southern Africa are the traces of an ancient civilization. The most important site is the city of Great Zimbabwe. This is located inland from the southeastern coast of Africa in present-day Zimbabwe. The city center was on a hilltop that was naturally protected from attack by a large outcrop of granite. Because it was situated on a high plateau, it was safe from the disease-infested tsetse flies that were common in the lowlands. This made it possible for an economy based on cattle to exist. Large amounts of rain made the land good for farming, and, rich in minerals, the earth could be mined for granite, iron, copper, and gold. The ancient Zimbabweans traded gold for glass beads, porcelain, and silk from as far away as China.

The city was only one of many such structures. More than 150 stone enclosures were built over several centuries from Mozambique to South Africa, but it is unknown whether they were part of a large kingdom or the remains of several small ones. The word zimbabwe means “stone enclosure” in Shona. THE MATABELE OR NDEBELE

Mzilikazi, one of Shaka Zulu’s generals, was allowed to leave the Zulu tribe with three hundred warriors. He built up his own tribe (the Matabele), but was driven out of South Africa by encroaching white settlers. He moved into southern Zimbabwe around 1836. Mzilikazi brought with him the powerful military organization of the Zulus and was able to establish a kingdom at the expense of the resident Shona. At the time of independence, the Matabele made up about 19 percent of the population. The two tribes, Shona and Matabele, have had a long history of mutual hostility. THE BRITISH

The British tribe is composed of several subgroups: the Scots, Irish, Welsh, and English. One of these, the English, has been dominant for several centuries. The British gained control of Zimbabwe around 1890, but not without violent dissent from the Shona and Matabele. Several uprisings occurred before 1965, when the British lost control of the country. From 1965 to 1979 Zimbabwe was ruled by a small minority of English tribesmen. THE PORTUGUESE

The Portuguese first settled in East Africa in the fifteenth century. They pursued a policy of conquest and trade with the interior for five centuries, and developed the slave trade from around 1600 until the late nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, a great number of Portuguese immigrated to colonies in Africa. After Mozambique and Angola became independent in 1975, many of these people moved to South Africa, Zimbabwe, or back to Portugal. THE AFRIKANERS

While the Afrikaners’ language is based on Dutch, only about a third of their ancestors actually came from Holland. They are a mixture of Dutch, French Huguenots, and Germans. They also clearly have a few English, Malay, Hottentot, and black African ancestors as well. In spite of this mixture, they form a distinct culture with strict Protestant ethics. Beginning in the late seventeenth century, they established farms throughout South Africa. In 1906 only about 6 percent of them lived in cities, towns, or villages.

Some of the early Afrikaners became wandering farmers, or Trekboers, and performed amazing feats of courage and endurance. Each group was highly individualistic, with a patriarch and a holy mission to find the Promised Land under the guidance of God. Some, hazy on geography, thought they had reached the Nile River when they were about halfway up South Africa. Trekboers went as far as Kenya in their wanderings, and many settled in Zimbabwe. THE TRIBES OF MOZAMBIQUE

Many Shona-speaking people live in Mozambique. Other cultural groups include the Maravi, the Yao, and the Maconde. The most important influence on the tribal system of northern Mozambique was the slave trade. This was carried on by Arab traders, the Portuguese, and the Yao from the sixteenth century on, but became epidemic from about 1790 to 1840. Serious depopulation and great displacement of people occurred. This permanently disrupted the traditional culture. One group, the Tonga, appears to be the remnant of several groups of fleeing people rather than a genuine tribe.

The Portuguese in Mozambique gave up slavery in 1890, although it had become technically illegal years earlier. At this time the majority of the Yao converted to Islam in order to keep trading slaves with the Muslim sheikhs on the coast and with the sultan of Zanzibar.