African Ancient History Denied
Zimbabwe’s Famous Stone Ruins The Key To Land Claim
Colonists once claimed ancient Shona ruins as belonging to a "lost white civilisation". This myth was used to justify European occupation in Southern Africa.
There was once a country in Southern Africa called Rhodesia. The indigenous people of the land there were dominated by European invaders, who had justified their claim to the land by asserting falsehoods about the simultaneous arrival of European and native peoples.
Evidence of ancient stone ruins was framed by European archaeologists in such a way as to support a non-indigenous claim to the land. It was reasoned that “Bantus” were incapable of the intelligence required for stone masonry and permanent architecture. Therefore the ancient structures must have been built by a lost European civilisation. Therefore the European claim to the land would extinguish that of the native peoples.
However, the Shona people knew the truth. Their leaders had never lost contact with their ancestors, the true architects of the ancient structures. To this day they still commune with past monarchs through ceremony, and retain the sacred knowledge of their ancient history.
Both sides of the debate around the origins of the ruins centred around colonial cultural assumptions of permanent architecture being an indication of “civilisation”. Does this imply that cultures based on sustainable living in closer relationship with the land are somehow “uncivilised”, as they build more temporary dwellings?
But whatever your position on the nature of “civilisation”, the fact remains that the ruins have since been proven to be of Shona origin, and carbon dating of the site confirms that these indigenous people occupied the land centuries before the arrival of Europeans.
In the 1980’s, the European invaders withdrew their claim to the land they had called “Rhodesia”, and the traditional owners renamed the place Zimbabwe, which means “Great House Of Stone”.
