History of Africa - Southern Kingdom

Good morning, it has been fun exploring other channels for documentaries to review.  Also doing some preplanning for August’s suggestion blogs so I am pressing forward with exploring other channels for reviews.  I am going to pull a documentary from the BBC Africa channel about the history of Africa and I am going to look at a new presenter: Zeniab Badawi.  This episode is called the Southern Kingdom and the run time is 44:49. 

Zeniab Badawi travels the width and breadth of Africa to learn more about the kingdoms of Africa.  Africa is home to a variety of civilizations that have rivaled other civilizations.  In this series, Zeniab interviews a variety of historians, archeologists, and citizens to learn more about these civilizations.  Africa’s history is long, often complex, and not really well known.  Zeniab brings light into this hidden part of history.

The episode kicks off with Zeniab at Victoria Falls, one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world.  Zeniab is looking at the kingdoms of Southern Africa and the commonalities the ancient people have with modern people.  She explores the history of Great Zimbabwe.  In the Ninth Century, communities lived off of agriculture.  People began to keep cattle as well as grow crops.  Cattle were an extension of wealth and social control.  The more cattle you had, the more control you had.  Cattle was the reason warriors went to war.  Cattle were rarely killed, because to kill your cattle you would kill your wealth.

A cattle-keeping kingdom would call the Zimbabwe area and beyond home.  They would also farm too on terraces.  Additional to cattle and farming, Africans mined precious resources.  Early Africans were very much aware of the value of the minerals.  They would mine those minerals as well.

The first kingdom Zeniab explores is Mapungubwe and it was a kingdom that lasted 1075-1220 and it was in the north of modern-day South Africa.  They would establish stone settlements and live in clay-built houses.  The elite grew rich from ivory and copper.  The chief has religious and political authority.  There was a sacred hill where ordinary people would not be allowed.  There was an extensive trade network.  Items from Mapungubwe were found in Saudi Arabia and Europe.  There were many beautiful objects found including golden objects, beads, and clay pots.  This early kingdom predates Great Zimbabwe and would eventually be absorbed by Great Zimbabwe.

Great Zimbabwe was one of the greatest finds in African history.  This kingdom was built on the foundations left by Mapungubwe.  Its capital may have housed 18,000 people.  The settlement was built without mortars.  The ruins of Great Zimbabwe were the largest settlement in the southern part of Africa.  One of the sources of wealth was trade and it was in the center of a trade network.  In this section, Zeniab works to debunk the theories that lead to the creation of Great Zimbabwe.  The kings of Great Zimbabwe enforced their power and lived high up above their subjects.  There were eight kings.

However, life would change and Great Zimbabwe like other civilizations would go into decline for a variety of reasons.  The people would eventually leave the Great Zimbabwe settlement and settle in other areas.  Other kingdoms would eventually rise up.  Zeniab explores the Mutapa Kingdom and it was a kingdom that ran from 1450 to 1629.  They reigned over in a place that is modern-day Mozambique.  They were rich in agriculture and were at the center of a trade network.  Why was there so much emphasis on salt?  Where else does Zeniab’s travels take her?  What other kingdoms were there in Southern Africa?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

I might as well kick off this review with the thought that this episode was going to be too short.  I was right, this could have potentially been broken up into two episodes because there could have been more of a discussion on Great Zimbabwe.  I enjoyed Zeinab’s commentary because she was engaging with the content.  She should do a documentary on Great Zimbabwe.  So far this would be a good documentary to show in the classroom setting because it was a very informative documentary and the historians were very good with their contributions.