The Mutapa State Essay Example

in the rise of the Mutapa State.

Social of Mutapa State

The use of cattle as a source of social or political power among the Shona in Zimbabwe in the distant and recent past is well documented (Mudenge, 1974, 1988) and also recounted in Shona oral traditions. Indeed for the Mutapa state, the Portuguese refer to their importance in this regard. The hypothesis is that cattle rich immigrant communities settled among a people who were not so rich, but who were very keen to use cattle products or own more cattle herds. The immigrants used cattle gradually to build up economic power, prestige and social dominance.

At some stage they translated that prestige and social dominance into political power. It has also been suggested that the rulers’ control of external trade also contributed to the rise and expansion of the state. Imported goods like glass beads and ceramics testify to the participation in long distance trade. Trade goods obtained from far away places were also used in further developing and building up a strong political power base. That was achieved by redistributing them among people who may not have participated in long distance trade on a large scale.

This fits in well with the contention that 'luxury goods from a distant source are often distributed to reproduce a system of rank status or offices within a polity' (Kipp and Schortman, 1989). G. Pwiti argues that if one of the reasons for the collapse of Great Zimbabwe was the shift in the focus of trade to the north, then it is logical to credit the early rulers of the Mutapa state with the introduction

of large scale external trade in northern Zimbabwe. The emerging Mutapas made alliances with Musengezi chiefs and assured them of continued political power as well as access to cattle and trade goods.

Archaeological evidence from the excavated sites suggests mining was also important in the rise and expansion of the state. Finished metal products as well as wastes from processing have been dug up and these all point to mining activities. Mining led to the making of tools such as hoes and axes which were all important for agricultural production as they facilitated the clearing of large tracts of land. Iron spears and arrows were made to facilitate game hunting which augmented meat supplies as well ivory for trade.

Economic activities of the Mutapa State

The weapons manufactured also contributed to the rise and expansion by facilitating military conquests of weaker groups like the Korekore and Tavara of the Dande and Chidema areas. Agriculture was another economic activity that contributed to the rise and expansion of the state. Farming was for the most part subsistence and labour intensive. Crops like sorghum, millet and rapoko were grown on the family plots. The generally favourable climatic conditions ensured successful harvests and resulted in the accumulation of surplus grain, animals and other forms of wealth.

All this stimulated the population growth that was so crucial in the emergence and growth of so large and powerful a state such as the Mutapa. Agriculture not only enabled the subject peoples to produce for themselves but for the state in order to pay tribute to their rulers. They paid the tribute either by way of actual agricultural produce or

through the provision of agricultural labour. It has been said that one day out of each month, different parts of the state offered labour to the royal fields, the zunde (Mudenge, 1988, 164). Trade also played a hugely significantly role in facilitating both the rise and expansion of the Mutapa state.

Trading activities were internal as when then Mutapa people traded among themselves exchanging items like iron tools, pottery and agricultural produce. It also assumed an external character like when they traded with other African groups and with the Swahili-Arabs and Portuguese. They traded gold and ivory for luxury goods such as mirrors, cloth and even guns. Trade has often cited as the main factor behind the growth and expansion of the state but it could not have been enough on its own and it depended on other economic activities.

As Randles rightly pointed out, trading activities require that what is sold on the external market be procured in the first place. For the Mutapa state, this is where agricultural production and livestock herding played an important role. According to Portuguese documents, when the Mutapa needed gold for trade he would give his subjects cattle and they in return would mine and supply the gold (Randles, 1979, 86). It can therefore be concluded that the early development and growth of the Mutapa state was facilitated by the successful integration of different economic activities. These included agriculture, pastoralism, mining and trade.

Aims of the Portuguese in the Mutapa State

Mutapa-Portuguese relations were also characterized by intrigue and conspiracies that ultimately led to conflict within the Mutapa and with outsiders. Portuguese attempts to Christianise the

locals in the 1560s sparked conflict within the state as they opposed by traditional religious authorities who feared the loss of their own influence over the rulers and subjects in general. They also bred a rivalry with Swahili traders based at the court. The latter feared that this would result in the loss of their privileged trading position in the state.

The Swahili then conspired with the traditional religious authorities to have the Portuguese priest Father Goncalo da Silveira assassinated in 1561. The murder only aggravated tensions in the Mutapa state. It fuelled Portuguese demands for the expulsion of all the Swahili traders from the state and the surrender of Mutapa gold mines to the king of Portugal. The Portuguese had clearly found a pretext to conquer the state. Between 1569 and 1575 they organised three abortive expeditions to conquer the Mutapa State and to control the gold.

In 1561 Goncalo da Silveira, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, visited Mutapa, where he quickly made converts, including the Mutapa Negomo Mupuzangutu murdered. The presence of the Portuguese had a serious impact that left the empire so weakened that it entered the 17th century in serious decline. By the mid-17th century the Portuguese controlled Munhumutapa Empire. Another significant aspect of the Mutapa-Portuguese relations was the persistence of violence.

Even the Portuguese documents mention a terrible wave of violence generated by the Portuguese prazo holders and their Chikunda armies from the Zambezi against the various Mutapas who were politically and militarily weak. There are references to attacks made on the people of Mukaranga, some of whom were enslaved and forced to work in the gold mines

by the Portuguese. They fled leaving the core of the state largely depopulated. Some prazo holders seized areas of the land that belonged to the Mutapa and tried to convert them into prazos. Some local rulers joined them, for example, the Nyachuru dynasty of the upper Mazowe.

Clearly the Mutapa State lost control of the plateau area around this time. In 1561 Goncalo da Silveira, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, visited Mutapa, where he quickly made converts, including King Negomo Mupuzangutu. However, the Swahili traders who lived there, fearing for their commercial position, persuaded Negomo to have Silveira murdered. The presence of the Portuguese had a serious impact that affected some of its trade and there had been a series of wars which left the empire so weakened that it entered the 17th century in serious decline. By the mid-17th century the Portuguese controlled Munhumutapa Empire.

Another aspect of Mutapa-Portuguese relations was the military co-operation between the two. In c. 1599, the Mutapa sought and received Portuguese assistance to fight Chikunda who led rebels in attacking villages under Mutapa control. In 1607, Gatsi Rusere also sought Portuguese help to deal with threats to his rule. That war dragged on for some years despite Portuguese assistance. Mutapa Gatsi Rusere was eventually deposed from his throne and his capital taken over. In a desperate situation, he surrendered all his mines to the Portuguese Crown so as to receive some assistance. Bocarro dates this event to August 1607.

A joint Mutapa Portuguese army then engaged the rebel Anconhe forcing him to flee to Chizinga where he joined another rebel called Gurapaza. Bocarro reports that some of

the villages in Chizinga were attacked and razed but the Mutapa and the Portuguese forces were eventually forced to retreat to the Mazowe River. Portuguese military assistance was however obtained at the heavy cost of Mutapa submission and this turned them into vassals or puppets of the Portuguese. Mutapa rebels like Mavura were forced to sign treaties of vassalage to the Portuguese thus tying the Mutapa state to the Portuguese crown.

The Portuguese took this opportunity to advance their imperial interests by using slave labour to work on the land they acquired under these treaties. This resulted in many armed conflicts in the area, causing many Shona to flee to the south where Rozvi rule was being established. The Portuguese at Massapa entered into a secret agreement with the Mutapa rebels of Chizinga. That led to a combined attack on the Mutapa’s garrison at Massapa. The Portuguese were after the mines, particularly those of silver reportedly located somewhere in Chikova in the Zambezi Valley.

They had realised the weakness of Mutapa Gatsi Rusere and even prepared a conquest of the whole state. The building of the forts such as St. Estevao (by Dom Estevao) and St. Miguel (by Madeira) on the Zambezi between 1612 and 1614 must be understood in this context. They even rejected some of the gestures of peace made by Mutapa Gatsi Rusere. Their relations were also characterized by trade. The Mutapa state was also rich in gold and ivory which attracted first the Swahili, and then the Portuguese, from the Indian Ocean coastal ports.

The Portuguese, who came to know about the lucrative gold trade from the Swahili,

started to collect information relating to the location of gold mines, the quantity of gold produced, the nature of exchange, the African rulers in charge of the gold mines as well as the nature and extent of their political systems (Smith, 1983; Beach, 1980). The Portuguese built up Sofala as part of the grand strategy to tap all the gold and ivory coming from the Mutapa state. Following their failure to establish a monopoly, the Portuguese decided to penetrate the Zimbabwe Plateau interior.

There was also a cultural exchange that involved Portuguese attempts to Christianise the Mutapa. The Portuguese had quickly realised that there was the close link between politics and religion of the Mutapa state, they sought to penetrate it through religion. When father Gonzalo da Silveira arrived in December 1560, he worked on converting the royal family to Christianity. He was largely successful in this because the vast empire had become heavily riddled with conspiracies, coup plots, succession disputes and civil wars to the extent that the reigning Mutapa probably wanted Portuguese help to hold on to power.

Apart from religion, there was intermarriage or at least sexual relations between the two. Shona oral traditions and Portuguese documents have all testified to Portuguese men obtaining Shona women as wives and concubines. The nature of their interaction also resulted in the introduction of new crops among the Mutapa. Wills (1985) argues that the maize crop was introduced by the Portuguese among the Shona from about the 16th century. It spread rapidly into areas formally dominated by traditional food crops such as finger millet (rapoko or rukweza), bulrush millet (mhunga), and sorghum (mapfunde).