The Mutapa State
Afternoon once again some more on Zimbabwe...DISCUSS THE RISE AND EXPANSION OF THE MUTAPA STATE. (NOV 2008)
The rise and ultimate expansion of the Mutapa State owed in part to the decline of Great Zimbabwe. According to oral traditions, Nyatsimba Mutota migrated from the declining Great Zimbabwe and began his conquests of the Korekore and Tavara of the Dande and Chidema areas It has been claimed t...hat his victims were so impressed by his military exploits that they nicknamed him Mwene Mutapa, ‘owner of conquered lands’ or ‘master pillager’, hence the birth of the Mutapa dynasty. He then embarked on an expansionist policy that resulted in the creation of a vast Mutapa empire which stretched from the Zambezi valley into the Mozambique lowlands and towards the fringes of the Kalahari Desert. The Mutapa’s control in these far away lands was probably peripheral and not regular.
It has been suggested by some including the archaeologist Peter Garlake that religion was also significant to the rise and expansion of the Mutapa State. In as far as religion is an important component of ideology, this suggestion is plausible. It is generally accepted that religion is part of statecraft and plays an important role in reinforcing and maintaining political power. Parallels can be drawn from contemporary European political systems that were bound together by a shared religion. In these states, the political power of the rulers was reinforced by religious doctrines that claimed that kings had a divine right to rule and was therefore not accountable to their subjects and should not be forcibly removed from their positions.
There is a general consensus among historians that cattle ownership played a significant role in the rise of the 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 rise and ultimate expansion of the Mutapa State owed in part to the decline of Great Zimbabwe. According to oral traditions, Nyatsimba Mutota migrated from the declining Great Zimbabwe and began his conquests of the Korekore and Tavara of the Dande and Chidema areas It has been claimed t...hat his victims were so impressed by his military exploits that they nicknamed him Mwene Mutapa, ‘owner of conquered lands’ or ‘master pillager’, hence the birth of the Mutapa dynasty. He then embarked on an expansionist policy that resulted in the creation of a vast Mutapa empire which stretched from the Zambezi valley into the Mozambique lowlands and towards the fringes of the Kalahari Desert. The Mutapa’s control in these far away lands was probably peripheral and not regular.
It has been suggested by some including the archaeologist Peter Garlake that religion was also significant to the rise and expansion of the Mutapa State. In as far as religion is an important component of ideology, this suggestion is plausible. It is generally accepted that religion is part of statecraft and plays an important role in reinforcing and maintaining political power. Parallels can be drawn from contemporary European political systems that were bound together by a shared religion. In these states, the political power of the rulers was reinforced by religious doctrines that claimed that kings had a divine right to rule and was therefore not accountable to their subjects and should not be forcibly removed from their positions.
There is a general consensus among historians that cattle ownership played a significant role in the rise of the 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,