Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

Zimbabwe organisation – is now challenged by uncontrolled growth of
vegetation, which threatens the stability of its dry stone walls. The spread
of lantana, an invasive flowering shrub introduced to Zimbabwe in the
early 20th century, has put added of strain on the preservation work.
“Great Zimbabwe’s significance – not only in Zimbabwe’s history, but
Africa’s as a whole – is immense,” says Clinton Dale Mutambo, founder
of the marketing company Esaja in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. “How
a powerful African empire built a kingdom that covered vast swaths of
southern Africa is a source of pride for Zimbabweans – and something
that colonial governments tried for a long time to undermine by linking
this wondrous kingdom to the Phoenicians.”
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There is much to be said for the claim that Great Zimbabwe was built by
ancestors of the Lemba tribe. DNA testing finds this tribe have semetic
origins, meaning thousands of years ago they came originally from the
eastern Mediterranian. However, by the time Great Zimbabwe was built,
in medieval times, the Lemba had become decidely African, having so
thoroughly intermixed with Bantu Africans over many hundreds of years
that, among other African traits, the Lemba have dark skin and speak a
Bantu language.
So, despite all attempts to prove unknown whites built Great Zimbabwe, it
was black Africans.
SEPTEMBER 2016