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42-584: The Kingdom of Mutapa – sometimes referred to as the Mutapa Empire , Mwenemutapa , ( Shona : Mwene (or Munhu) we Mutapa , Portuguese : Monomotapa ) – was an African kingdom in Zimbabwe, which expanded to what is now modern-day Mozambique , Botswana , Malawi , and Zambia . The Portuguese term Monomotapa is a transliteration of the Shona royal title Mwenemutapa or Munhumutapa derived from

84-433: A combination of two words Mwene or Munhu meaning Man, and Mutapa meaning conqueror. Over time the monarch's royal title was applied to the kingdom as a whole, and used to denote the kingdom's territory on maps from the period. There are several Mutapa origin stories, the most widely accepted told by oral tradition is of the princes of Great Zimbabwe . The first "Mutapa" was a warrior prince named Nyatsimba Mutota from

126-545: A spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Gon%C3%A7alo da Silveira Gonçalo da Silveira, S.J. (23 February 1526 – 15-16 March 1561) was a Portuguese Jesuit missionary in southern Africa. Silveira was born at Almeirim , Portugal , about 40 miles (64 km) from Lisbon . He was the tenth child of Luís da Silveira, first count of Sortelha, and Beatriz Coutinho, daughter of Fernando Coutinho, Marshal of

168-548: A succession crisis erupted. The Portuguese backed one successor and Dombo another. In support of his candidate, Changamire Dombo razed the Portuguese fair-town of Dembarare next to the Mutapa capital and slaughtered the Portuguese traders and their entire following. From 1692 until 1694, Mwenemutapa Nyakambira ruled Mutapa independently. Nyakambira was later killed in battle with the Portuguese who then placed Nyamaende Mhande on

210-491: A want of missionaries to carry on his work. A cause for Silveira's beatification was formally opened in 1629, and he was granted the title Servant of God in the Catholic church. H. Rider Haggard would base the fictional character, José Silvestre , on Silveira in his 1885 novel, King Solomon's Mines . Silveira House , a Jesuit development centre in Zimbabwe, is named after him. Silveira High School and Hospital,

252-550: Is quite common cross-linguistically, with similar systems occurring in Greek , Spanish , Tagalog , Swahili and Japanese . Each vowel is pronounced separately even if they fall in succession. For example, Unoenda kupi ? ("Where do you go?") is pronounced [u.no.e.nda.ku.pi] . The consonant sounds of Shona are: Shona and other languages of Southern and Eastern Africa include whistling sounds , (this should not be confused with whistled speech ). Shona's whistled sibilants are

294-538: The Kingdom of Zimbabwe who expanded the reach of the kingdom initially to discover new sources of salt in the north. It is believed Prince Mutota found salt in his conquest of the Tavara, a Shona subdivision. Another historical narrative of the empire's origins is that Prince Mutota had broken away from Great Zimbabwe after going to war with Prince Mukwati, (believed to have been either his brother or cousin) over control of

336-640: The Rector of the Jesuit college at Coimbra . Silveira was appointed provincial superior of India in 1555. The appointment was approved by Ignatius Loyola a few months before his death. Gonçalo's term of government in India lasted three years. He used to say that God had given him the great grace of unsuitability for government — apparently basing this on a certain want of tact in dealing with human weakness. The next provincial, António Quadros, sent Silveira to

378-699: The fricatives "sv" and "zv" and the affricates "tsv" and "dzv". Whistled sibilants stirred interest among the Western public and media in 2006, due to questions about how to pronounce the name of Morgan Tsvangirai , the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe. The BBC Pronunciation Unit recommended the pronunciation "chang-girr-ayi" / ˈ tʃ æ ŋ ɡ ɪ r eɪ i / . The letters "L", "Q", and "X" are not used in Shona and are used only in loanwords. From 1931 to 1955, Unified Shona

420-452: The Jesuit only a few days after his baptism. This was all the justification the Portuguese needed to penetrate the interior and take control of the gold mines and ivory routes. After a lengthy preparation, an expedition of 1,000 men under Francisco Barreto was launched in 1568. They managed to get as far as the upper Zambezi , but local disease decimated the force. The Portuguese returned to their base in 1572 and took their frustrations out on

462-699: The Kingdom of Portugal . Losing his parents in infancy, he was brought up by his sister Filipa de Vilhena and her husband, the Marquis of Távora . Silveira was educated by the Friars Minor of the friary of Santa Margarida until 1542, when he went to finish his studies at the University of Coimbra , but he had been there little more than a year when he was received into the Society of Jesus by Father Miron,

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504-684: The Kingdom. Mutota's son and successor, Nyanhewe Matope, extended this new kingdom into an empire encompassing most of the lands between Tavara and the Indian Ocean . This empire had achieved uniting a number of different peoples in Southern Africa by building strong, well-trained armies and encouraging states to join voluntarily, offering membership in the Great council of the Empire to any who joined without resistance. Matope's armies overran

546-470: The Mutapa palace. The ceilings of the rooms in the palace were gilt with golden plates alongside ivory chandeliers which hung on silver chains and filled the halls with light. In 1569, King Sebastian of Portugal made a grant of arms to the Mwenemutapa. These were blazoned: Gules between two arrows Argent an African hoe barwise bladed Or handled Argent – The shield surmounted by a Crown Oriental. This

588-516: The Mutapa state for very long, and it moved back and forth between the two throughout the 17th century. Far from a victim of conquest, the Mutapa rulers actually invited in foreign powers to bolster their rule. This included vassalage to Portuguese East Africa from 1629 to 1663 and vassalage to the Rozwi Empire from 1663 until the Portuguese return in 1694. Portuguese control of Mutapa was maintained or at least represented by an armed garrison at

630-508: The Mutapa was one of only four Shona states that was not entirely "uprooted by new settlements of people" and the only one "close to Portuguese centers" thus providing important data on contact and relationships between this and other Shona states as well as with Europeans. The Mutapa Empire is an example of a working system of government in Africa and of a flourishing civilization, both of which are often assumed to have been absent before

672-404: The Mwenemutapa's strong control over gold production. What posed the greatest threat was infighting among different factions which led to opposing sides calling on the Portuguese for military aid. However, the Portuguese proved to be happy with the downfall of the Mutapa state. In 1629 the Mwenemutapa attempted to throw out the Portuguese. He failed and in turn he himself was overthrown, leading to

714-615: The N'Pande kraal in Zimbabwe, close by the Musengezi River, a southern tributary of the Zambezi. He arrived there on 26 December 1560, and remained until his death. During this period he baptized the king and a large number of his subjects. Some Arabs from Mozambique agitated against the missionary, and Silveira was strangled in his hut by order of the king. The expedition sent to avenge Silveira's death never reached its destination, while his apostolate came to an abrupt end from

756-449: The Portuguese historian João de Barros , Great Zimbabwe was a medieval capital city built of stones of marvellous size without the use of mortar. And while the site was not within Mutapa's borders, the Mwenemutapa kept noblemen and some of his wives there. By the 17th century, other Europeans would extensively describe Mutapa architecture through paintings. Olfert Dapper revealed four grand gateways which led to several halls and chambers in

798-427: The Portuguese installation of Mavura Mhande Felipe on the throne. Mutapa signed treaties making it a Portuguese vassal and ceding gold mines, but none of these concessions were ever put into effect. Mutapa remained nominally independent, though practically a client state. All the while, Portugal increased control over much of southeast Africa with the beginnings of a colonial system. The Portuguese were now in control of

840-510: The Shona kingdoms, including Mutapa's metropolitan district, between 1512 and 1516.He mainly travelled with Dhafa Zharare,son of Chipere Zharare who wanted the son to learn how to trade The Portuguese finally entered into direct relations with the Mwenemutapa in the 1560s. They recorded a wealth of information about the Mutapa Kingdom as well as its predecessor, Great Zimbabwe . According to Swahili traders whose accounts were recorded by

882-502: The Shonic group. Shona is closely related to Ndau , Kalanga and is related to Tonga , Chewa , Tumbuka , Tsonga and Venda . Ndau and Kalanga are former dialects of Shona but became independent languages in 2013 because their grammar is very slightly less similar to those of Manyika, Korekore, and Zezuru. Shona is also similar to Swahili and Tswana . Shona is a written standard language with an orthography and grammar that

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924-504: The Swahili traders, whom they massacred. They replaced them with Portuguese and their half-African progeny who became prazeiros (estate holders) of the lower Zambezi. Mutapa maintained a position of strength exacting a subsidy from each captain of Portuguese Mozambique that took the office. The Mwenemutapa also levied a duty of 50 percent on all trade goods imported. Mutapa proved invulnerable to attack and even economic manipulation due to

966-573: The breakaway was Dombo's dissatisfaction with the levels of Portuguese interference in the Mwenemutapa Empire's governance. By the late 17th century, Changamire Domborakonachingwango (or Dombo for short. Pronounced as Ɗömbö) was actively challenging Mutapa. In 1684 his forces encountered and decisively defeated those of Mwenemutapa Kamharapasu Mukombwe just south of Mutapa's metro district at the Battle of Mahungwe . When Mukombwe died in 1692,

1008-567: The capital. In 1712, yet another coveter of the throne invited the Rozwi back to put him on the throne and kick out the Portuguese. This they did, and Mutapa again came under the control of the Rozwi Empire. The new Mwenemutapa Samatambira Nyamhandu I become their vassal, while the outgoing king was forced to retreat to Chidama in what is now Mozambique . The Rozwi quickly lost interest in Mutapa, as they sought to consolidate their position in

1050-720: The coming of the Europeans. The Emperor Mutope had left the empire with a well-organised religion with a powerful shamanism. The religion of the Mutapa kingdom revolved around ritual consultation of spirits and of ancestors. Shrines were maintained within the capital by spirit mediums known as mhondoro . The mhondoro also served as oral historians recording the names and deeds of past kings. Shona language The larger group of historically related languages—called Shona or Shonic languages by linguists—also includes Ndau (Eastern Shona) and Kalanga (Western Shona). In Guthrie's classification of Bantu languages, zone S.10 designates

1092-526: The empire inspired in Europeans a belief that Mwenemutapa held the legendary mines of King Solomon , referred to in the Bible as the biblical port of Ophir . The belief that the mines were inside the Mwenemutapa kingdom in southern Africa was one of the factors that led to the Portuguese exploration of the hinterland of Sofala in the 16th century, and this contributed to early development of Mozambique, as

1134-452: The financial and political support for further developing sources of gold. Legacy For several centuries, this trading empire enabled people across a large territory to live in peace and security under a stable government and succession of rulers. With primary records dating back to 1502, the empire is a "prime testing ground for theories … concerning economic, political and religious development" in pre-colonial Africa . Beach comments that

1176-659: The kingdom of the Manyika as well as the coastal kingdoms of Kiteve and Madanda. By the time the Portuguese arrived on the coast of Mozambique, the Mutapa Kingdom was the premier state in the region. He raised a strong army which conquered the Dande area of the Tonga and Tavara. The empire had reached its full extent by the year 1480 a mere 50 years following its creation. The Portuguese dominated much of southeast Africa's coast, laying waste to Sofala and Kilwa , by 1515. Their main goal

1218-423: The legend was widely used among the less educated populace to recruit colonists. Some documents suggest that most of the early colonists dreamt of finding the legendary city of gold in southern Africa, a belief mirroring the early South American colonial search for El Dorado and quite possibly inspired by it. Early trade in gold came to an end as the mines ran out, and the deterioration of the Mutapa state eliminated

1260-461: The next syllable. For example, mangwanani ("morning") is syllabified as [ma.ᵑɡwa.na.ni] ; Zimbabwe is [zi.ᵐba.ɓwe] . Shona is written with a phonemic orthography, with only slightly different pronunciation or grammatical differences according to variety. Shona has two tones, a high and a low tone, but these tones are not indicated in the standard writing system. Shona has a simple 5- vowels system: [a, e, i, o, u] . This inventory

1302-415: The praezeros to establish fortified settlements across the kingdom. In 1663, the praezeros were able to depose Mwenemutapa Siti Kazurukamusapa and put their own nominee, Kamharapasu Mukombwe on the throne. In the 17th century, a low ranking Mutapa prince broke away from the Empire, invading the neighboring Kingdom of Butua. The leader of this Dynasty became known as Changamire Dombo. A possible reason for

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1344-559: The south. Mutapa regained its independence around 1720. By this time, the Kingdom of Mutapa had lost nearly all of the Zimbabwe plateau to the Rozwi Empire . In 1723, Nyamhandi moved his capital into the valley near the Portuguese trading settlement of Tete , under Mwenemutapa Nyatsusu . Upon his death in 1740, the young Dehwe Mapunzagutu took power. He sought Portuguese support and invited them back to Mutapa along with their garrison of armed men, but Mutapa remained independent. The Mwenemutapa died in 1759, sparking yet another civil war for

1386-627: The speakers are considered to be ethnically Shona, are the S15 Ndau language , spoken in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and the S13 Manyika language , spoken in eastern Zimbabwe, near Mutare specifically Chipinge. Ndau literacy material has been introduced into primary schools. Maho (2009) recognizes Korekore, Zezuru, Manyika, Karanga, and Ndau as distinct languages within the Shona cluster. Shona allows only open syllables . Consonants belong to

1428-402: The throne as their puppet. In 1695, Changamire Dombo overran the gold-producing Kingdom of Manyika and took his army east and destroyed the Portuguese fair-town of Masikwesi. This gave him complete control of all gold-producing territory from Butwa to Manyika, supplanting Mutapa as the premier Shona Kingdom in the region. It appears neither the Rozwi nor the Portuguese could maintain control of

1470-436: The throne. This one was more destructive than its predecessors and Mutapa never recovered. The "winners" ended up governing an even more reduced land from Chidima. They used the title Mambo a Chidima and ruled independently of Portugal until 1917 when Mambo Chioko , the last king of the dynasty, was killed in battle against the Portuguese. The empire had another indirect side effect on the history of southern Africa. Gold from

1512-509: The trade and the trade routes. Another problem for Mutapa was that its tributaries such as Kiteve, Madanda and Manyika ceased paying tribute. At the same time, a new kingdom under the Rozvi dynasty near Barwe was on the rise. All of this was hastened by Portugal retaining a presence on the coast and in the capital. At least one part of the 1629 treaty that was acted on was the provision allowing Portuguese settlement within Mutapa. It also allowed

1554-599: The unexplored mission field of south-east Africa. Landing at Sofala on 11 March 1560, da Silveira proceeded to Otongwe near Cape Correntes . There, during his stay of seven weeks, he instructed and baptized the Makaranga chief , Gamba, and about 450 natives of his kraal . Towards the end of the year he started up the Zambezi River on his expedition to the capital of the Monomotapa , which appears to have been

1596-517: Was codified during the early 20th century and fixed in the 1950s. In the 1920s, the Rhodesian administration was faced with the challenge of preparing schoolbooks and other materials in the various languages and dialects and requested the recommendation of South African linguist Clement Doke . The language is now described through monolingual and bilingual dictionaries (chiefly Shona – English). The first novel in Shona, Solomon Mutswairo 's Feso ,

1638-456: Was probably the first grant of arms to a native of southern Africa; however it is unlikely that these arms were ever actually used by the Mwenemutapa. In 1561, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, Gonçalo da Silveira managed to make his way into the Mwenemutapa's court and convert him to Christianity. This did not go well with the Muslim merchants in the capital, and they persuaded the king to kill

1680-681: Was published in 1957. Subsequently, hundreds of novels, short story collections and poetry volumes in Shona have appeared. Shona is taught in the schools, but after the first few grades it is not the general medium of instruction for subjects other than Shona grammar and literature. The last systematic study of varieties and sub-varieties of the Central Shona dialect continuum was that done by Clement Doke in 1930, so many sub-varieties are no longer functional and should be treated with caution. According to information from Ethnologue: Languages with partial intelligibility with Central Shona, of which

1722-528: Was to dominate the trade with India; however, they unwittingly became mere carriers for luxury goods between Mutapa's sub-kingdoms and India. Main commodity brokers included Zharare and mhere mhere As the Portuguese settled along the coast, they made their way into the hinterland as sertanejos (backwoodsmen). These sertanejos lived alongside Swahili traders and even took up service among Shona kings as interpreters and political advisors. One such sertanejo , António Fernandes, managed to travel through almost all

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1764-772: Was written with an alphabet developed by linguist Clement Martyn Doke . This included these letters: In 1955, these were replaced by letters or digraphs from the basic Latin alphabet. For example, today ⟨sv⟩ is used for ⟨ȿ⟩ and ⟨zv⟩ is used for ⟨ɀ⟩ . Noun classes ( mupanda ) Shona nouns are grouped by noun class ( mupanda ) based on: Vanhu vese vanoberekwa vakasununguka uyewo vakaenzana pahunhu nekodzero dzavo. Vanhu vese vanechipo chokufunga nekuziva chakaipa nechakanaka saka vanofanira kubatana nomweya wohusahwira. Translation All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in

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