Watch my latest full length history documentary:- ruclips.net/video/c3Hq6UaFQqk/видео.html Alright guys please keep the vitriol, lies and wild claims to a minimum. Thanks. This is a history channel and believe it or not history exists outside of Europe. Cheers and see you on the next one. Back to Early Medieval Britain next time.
I'm not a "White supremacist" just because I understand that race is a reality, and this era is governed by anti-White hatred. I still love your videos. You're a great video artist, narrator, and historian. What you do here is very much an art form.
The fact that this kind of unheard history is basically free online is astounding. Love learning this so much. As a black American who loves ancient/medieval history, its so cool to have a grand heritage of my own, yknow?
Miguel Forster I don’t know my heritage, exactly. Most African-Americans don’t because of how jumbled up slavery leaves one’s lineage. But if Europeans who have the barest trace of Italian in them can be proud of Rome (I frickin love Rome), I see no issue with me, being descended from Africans, being excited about an African kingdom even if it weren’t where my ancestors are from.
The crazy thing about Great Zimbabwe’s walls is that it was built with no mortar. Just friction and gravity. And yet it still stands incredibly strong.
These stone structures in Great Zimbabwe have lasted almost a millennium, yet the American Interstate Freeway System was built in the early 1960's with a planned life expectancy of just 50 years. Think about it. ... jkulik919@gmail.com
@@JosephKulik2016 stacking rocks or bricks on top of each other is one of the simplest form of building and the concept grasped by toddlers..... think about it.. Angkor wat, the great pyramids and this wall, not much comparison. I am amazed they could stop fighting long enough to build them
@Mike-Wayne Django II Theres a couple of more documentaries on RUclips.Sadly in America and Europe they basically teach people that nothing was build in the continent let alone Zimbabwe.Which is a remnant of the old racism that has served as a way to keep the people divided since the end of Bacons Rebellion.
I am Swedish and this is the first time I am really introduced to this amazing history. I absolutely love it and I am a bit mad we don't get to learn this in school, but then, time is limited I guess. I am floored by this highly sophisticated society but at the same time I really shouldn't be! People have traded for thousands of years, of course people will do trade in Africa too! I am very sorry about the racist Europeans ravaging this beautiful continent, denying the Zimbabwe people their history. So glad that this docu was made.
As a Zimbabwean who loved history, the more I learned textbook history about my own country and the more I looked around my own country, the quickly I realized I was being lied to. It is appalling that so called scholars argued that my fore fathers could not be smart enough to build Dzimba dzemabwe the Shona name for Great Zimbabwe. Pretty much they are too black , broad nosed to be smart enough to build such amazing architecture. What a shame that supremacy makes human beings so crooked & corrupt. I respect and admire whatever different cultures have build historically and have no need to see if their ethnicity and skin colors justifies what they did.
As a white South African born 1996, I am shocked that I was never thought any of this in school, But at the same time I am glad to discover a deeper history behind the land and people who inhabit it, And it makes me wonder what else I am unaware/ignorant of, There is probably an endless supply of history that is still waiting to be uncovered.
Talenda To me it looks like a cashel .Cashels were structures built in ireland,before the norman conquest who began construction of castles and later native irish began building them.Cashels were fine constructions for there time,but they weren't cities or examples of high civilisation .Irish society pre norman invasion would be considered sophisticated primative even though they were literate and as far as i can see the culture of great zimbabwe is no different. Its not in the class of the Incas ,aztecs or mayans or romans and greeks.
Same here my friend on our written history in Fiji in the South Pacific. Our history and curriculum written by the white men contradicts our oral history.
I've always been fascinated by the cities and cultures of ancient Africa. Everyone knows about the kingdom of Kush by their relationship to ancient Egypt, but there's so much more to Africa that's completely ignored by classical Western civilization. Thanks for revealing this intriguing and very important aspect of world history to a wider audience.
For those saying that Great Zimbabwe was inspired by foreign influence, this is not possible because we all know that the closest foreign influence they could get is from Swahili Coast. And Swahili architecture is totally different from Great Zimbabwe (Giant circular non-roofed strucures, conical towers built in hills using dry-stone techniques and well-cut blocks, while swahili used corals, built pillars only in tombs, mosques rectilinear buildings and they used mortar - not dry stone techniques - and the mosques were built using irregular-shaped blocks). They were totally different.
Not a concnlusive argument, Celtic Oppida were also pretty different building styles and urbanization patterns to the mediterranean but one still can make the argument that it was affected by contact and trade with the Greeks, Phoenicians and Italians.
@@g-rexsaurus794 And yet Great Zimbabwe had no true contact with the Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans at least not directly. The overwhelming evidence points to complete indigenous design. Are you willing to argue against a mountain of evidence?
@@g-rexsaurus794 You have basically ignore Occam's Razor at this point to came to those conclusions, which is something one does not usually do unless fueled by internal biases.
Zimbabwe is the Land of Gold. May the peace and blessings of The Ancient Days be upon the people of Zimbabwe. May it come to pass in the name of The Creator that Zimbabwe come out of economic downfall and rise to great glory. I m from Botswana. I say peace and one love to the people of Zimbabwe for we are family. Great Zimbabwe was built by ancient Bantu people.
Less did you know that Southern Africa is the biblical Holy land,,,those Zim ruins are biblical known as Ophir part of King Solomon's mines stretching to Botswana and S Africa. Our true history has been hidden till now. ancient Jerusalem is located in the Namibia desert,,,, why do you think you have places like Bethel, Bathsheeba, Gomorrah, Mamrie,Zoar in that part of the world....? Adam's calendar is in S Africa,,,why and how.....My people perish due to LACK OF KNOWLEDGE says SONINI NANINI the Most High...!
This is by far the best docu on African history I've ever seen. Most contain little real information and fill the gaps with racist propaganda toward either Africans or Europeans.
And the result is having a comment senction full of race nationalists not believing that blacks are people or that not all whites are bloodthirsty enslavers.
As a South African, I must say I appreciate this collaboration you guys are doing. Really learning a lot here. I'm also particularly amused by the comments here expressing bewilderment over the achievements of Africans. Good job.
I've heard about the Great Zimbabwe site several times, but because some believed it to be of foreign origin, and since I never heard anything about any other sites(in fact, all the wild documentaries about it praise it for being so bloody unique) - I assumed it existed in a state of vacuum, where it just appeared mysteriously without any similar sites anywhere close. But obviously that was wrong, and I'm glad you chose to focus a lot on all these other sites, they are the testimony of a great African civilisation, the wast complex of sites - and not just one site alone. We're talking about a wide-spread culture linked with other cultures in the region, forming an organic African society with a healthy trade with other continents. They lived in a society.
@@marciabryce8451 They sure did. But to be fair, that's exactly what everyone else have been doing too. India, China, Arabs. You'll find distorted history where-ever you go in this world, it's not unique to Europeans.
@@bluebird5173 I don't doubt the dravidians of their excellence but to say they built Zimbabwe is wrong and insulting. As African descendants and such we are entitled to be proud of our contributions to world history. You should check out Bamum architecture of Cameroon in Africa. Similar to some Asian pagodas.
Thimlich Ohinga in Kenya bears a striking resemblance. There are other fascinating sites like Adam's Calendar, Engaruka, Marrakwet and Pokot irrigation, konso stone enclosures and terraces, Sukur ruins, Loropeni, Bouar megaliths, Dhar Tichitt,...
Love this documentary. Always known that Southern Africa has a great history, but was puzzled as to what made it so supposedly unclear and overlooked. Thank you from South Africa.
For those interested: @ 50:33 the video discusses a commonly brought up question online which was the reasoning behind the Great Zimbabwe enclosure/walled design
It also reminds me of the Europeans who sadly came across these areas. Classic tale of "Europeans come across area where civilization has collapsed and assume there was never any civilization".
@Sənnız sakitləşməlisəniz certain events should be blamed on ancestral Europeans though. They traveled out and plunder when and where they saw fit. Countless histories lost because of them
No it was the whites who created the Wildlife Parks and Reserves .Mugabe destroyed it all.. In the 1860s this was the most prosperous country in Africa including any Arab state.
The earliest known written mention of the Great Zimbabwe ruins was in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala, on the coast of modern-day Mozambique, who recorded it as Symbaoe. Those 16th century Portuguese explorers were traveling everywhere, but I don't think anything was ever really "lost", so many nations from so many different parts of the world had knowledge of places like this. I think that the problem was how history has been recorded and taught especially since printing became available. In some way Rome's conquest of the Druids in Anglesey, Britain and subsequent dumbing down of the natives etc in the very one sided, limited history of pre Roman Britain is an example of what "I think" happened here. When one side controls the narrative, not only does truth become distorted, so too does the history. Aside from that though; what fascinates me are those ancient "eagle", or bird statues that Rhodes took from Great Zimbabwe, I've watched some Michael Tellinger videos about very similar artifacts being discovered in South Africa, I wonder what the connection was, if there was one.
This theorys is really weird, nobody was trying to hide this, you are really discrediting without a reason early historians that despite having all sorts of opinion are the very people that started the rigorous study of history.
I think selfishness also plays a part. Early traders would have kept knowledge to themselves to ensure primacy, unless they gained advantage from sharing. An example is how Vikings kept the Baltic source of their amber secret from the Greeks they traded with to ensure a trade monopoly.
The ruins in South Africa are called Mapungubwe. By the name alone you can see the relation. Its easy to detail these 2 cities where related, even the gold figurines found there are similar. There are many other ruins like them scattered across Zimbabwe.. The Shona thrived way before the arrival of Zulu of Nguni origin who came in their lands. A series of wars broke out so the landscape and people deplacement happened also. Southern Africa has a rich history. The Bantu people although different tribes have got many untold and told stories
I am zimbabwean aged 41 and sadly I wasnt aware of this history. I of course know of many mini-versions of great zimbabwe across zimbabwe but didnt really know the detailed history. I know more of european history than my own.
Unfortunately it seems it's still up to Europeans to research and build up knowledge of African history. I say **unfortunately**but I supposse we're lucky that someone is doing it. As long as the TRUTH is told and they're not afraid to go against what would be politically incorrect. Native African's are an immensely clever and resourceful people, they have to be to survive. Lots of unintended padding of the narrative here. I would have liked to see the evidence of the blacksmith residence. Usually very easy to find as all the black Slag and burnt fuel is shown in the soil. Lots of unanswered questions.
I know that you commented on this awhile ago but you should upload videos with your personal stories and stories that have been passed down to youof Zimbabwe. It would give a more personal and accurate depiction of the country than what most people are taught throughout their educational years And it would save a part of history
Sorry but this was taught our headmaster and avid historian Chigwe gives much detail about this history. The Rozvi and Munhumutapa empires. I have since found books and resources with greater details. Although we still disagree about a lot of things they is far more details to add to this documentary
Built by the Bantu during the Bantu migration. This was only one of many built by the Bantu. Some examples of such Bantu states include: in Central Africa, the Kingdom of Kongo, Lunda Empire, Luba Empire of Angola, the Buganda Kingdoms of Uganda and Tanzania; and in Southern Africa, the Mutapa Empire, the Danamombe, Khami, and Naletale Kingdoms of Zimbabwe and Mozambique and the Rozwi Empire.
al gonzález read my write up again, I mentioned to who built it there. So I don’t understand why are asking me this question even though I clearly stated it in my write up.
al gonzález An empire is a single polity that includes many different cultures and usually one dominant one. There are exceptions however but that’s the usual measure of an empire.
Very good doc, I especially appreciated the time taken to set the city in the context not only of the cultural inheritance from Mapungubwe, but also their relations with the greater Indian Ocean trade network via the Swahilis and Kilwa, which I would really like to learn more about as well. Hope you all explore more of this part of the world in future docs!
There is a wealth of videos on Africa. Start with Adam Tellinger. Keep in mind that the Portugese were on the east coast and the Arabs were also trading for slaves all over Africa.
Loving more African ancient history being uncovered (in many case recovered!) every year. Such a fascinating, diverse, creative continent. It's no surprise to find it's history is one rich with wealthy and civilised empires rising and falling, trading with faraway countries!
I thought it would take mamy years for someone to talk about southern african city-states. Great Zimbabwe and Mupungbwe are not news, swahili videos are scarce and almost zero about Southern african walled cities. And suddenly I found a video about swahili culture in the same day (not yours). Congrats.
The We Wuz Kings people never even talk about it. They have all this beautiful interesting history smacking them in the face and they just don't care. There's a lot of work to get done in researching and talking about this region and we're really only at the beginning considering how much time people have been studying Great Zimbabwe. There's surely much more to come.
@@hannah1943 Khoisan were Hunter gatheres. They would never reach this population size otherwise they would form empires before that. Not even Great Zimbabwe, that was an iron-age agricultural, pastoral and trade kingdom had this population, that were far from 100000.
@@HavanaSyndrome69 That's right. I think is stupid how many people keep hours on internet talking about how berbers were black. I prefer to read about this one, sometimes.
Exactly! Most of human history wasn't written down. I guess no one every asks themselves why people wouldn't write down history. The obvious answer being it wasn't history, it was just their lives. Hearing my mother tell me a story about my grandparents was always way more fun and interactive than reading one would ever be.
As a Shona guy and with love with the history of African and Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 as my country ....am very fascinated by this an amazing history...keep it up...travel Zimbabwe 🇿🇼💝.... visit Zimbabwe....make zimbabwe great again 🎉🎉🎉🎉
I'm fascinated by the African civilizations of West Africa (Benin, Ghana, etc.) and also by the great Bantu migration into Central and Southern Africa. The culture of the Zimbabwe plateau was probably at or near the southern limit of the Bantu expansion as well as being at the furthest limits of Indian ocean trade networks, so it was truly a frontier civilization. I'm intrigued that genetic testing shows that the aristocrats were of Koi-San ancestry. I suspect that the Bantu migrations occurred in waves, and that probably the earliest waves were by small bands of Bantu men who married local Koi-San women, and their descendants became the local aristocracy ruling over later waves of Bantu immigrants, that were perhaps larger and came with Bantu women. So you may have ended up with a ruling class that was culturally Bantu but of mixed Koi-San / Bantu ancestry ruling over a largely Bantu population.
@@muellerruski9708 neither did Europe you dimwit. The wheel was invented in the near-east, most likely central Asia, the only reason you western europeans are civilised in the first place is because rome slapped some sense into your empty skulls, it took Germans a while too. Have you read the roman accounts of what the Germans and the Gauls and the Britons would do to their hostages? ABSOLUTELY BARBARIC!!!
Born In Zim 1970, Living in lock down South Africa 2020. I learnt more history in this 61 minutes than I was ever allowed in the last 50 years of my life. Really impressive work. I have the strong urge to visit my homeland again. I lament for all that lost history though. Excellent research and detail.
With all due respect, why don't you learn the history from your people so that you can teach on the beutiful structure.....It's time to cut out other nations from teaching African History; remember "Until the lion learns to write the hunter will always tell the story"....
@@lisajackson1476 I am Zimbabwean and I completely agree with you. I was inspired by this video and making it a mandate to find people who know my history and tell it ourselves!
@@donovangumbo388 The largest African language in terms of its native speakers is Shona of Zimbabwe probably the only country with one native language for more than 90% of its population We the shona originally came from Mpungubwe and settled in Great Zimbabwe
I’m an Irish American from Brooklyn NY. There’s something about Africa, idk what it is, but I have always wanted to travel there. Hopefully I can get there one day.
@@111squire111 😂😂😂 this video was too complicated for you to understand i guess. On the other hand, you comment usually comes from a man who hasn't done anything for himself and thinks the achievements of other men his race are also his achievements.
@@111squire111 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂 says a man whose first comment in this thread starts with a small letter. You need to teach youself grammar first before you try to appear sophisticated in the comments section you dummy. Just scroll up a lil bit and see your first comment 😂🤣😂. Maybe you are just stupid... so many possibilities 🤔🤔🤔
My people. Proudly Zimbabweean wirh a beautiful mix of Manyika dad whose family travel origins to Swaziland to Swaziland as a Maphosa and a Nguni ndebele mom These stone ruins are all over Zimbabwe and Mozambique. There are some in Manicaland Rusape, there are many in Mash West near our farm and there is an ancient Portuguese burial ground near Trelawney and an old Zimbabwe ruin We need to preserve our heritage 🇿🇼🇿🇼
So awesome to see a video detailing cultures and histories from outside Europe :) this was so informative, I knew nothing of African history before this video
Remarkable! I had no idea urban development in Southern Africa was so extensive during the medieval era, nor that they were smelting iron. Thank you for such a wonderfully presented informative video
Beloved, I don't know you in person but God know you. God ministered to me in a revelation when I was on your profile to see things around you,I saw blessings but spiritual attacks holding onto them,in prayers,i saw a woman in the realm of the spirit monitoring and plotting delay in your life, with an evil mirror, and with motive to destroy. But as I speak to you now her time is up, Render hand of favour with Anything you can afford or give to these motherless foundation (TWINS ALIVE FOUNDATION) in Rivers state Nigeria before 2DAYS with faith, as I Rise my hands towards heaven and pray for you they shall serve as point of contact wherever you are, you will receive double portion of grace to excel and total restoration of breakthrough in your life and in the life of your family. Ask for their acct details and help them call the MD in charge of the orphanage to get their details on (WhatsApp or call them now on +2348157404923) tell him I sent you. For it is not by might nor by in power but of the spirit saith the lord (zechariah 4:6). You shall testify to the Glory of God in your life. God bless you in Jesus name.
You could spend your entire lifetime studying and visiting the continent of Africa, and you'd still be at the beginning. ASTOUNDING PRODUCTION. To the peoples of Tanzania and Kenya, THANK YOU FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY.
The largest African language in terms of its native speakers is Shona of Zimbabwe probably the only country with one native language for more than 90% of its population We the shona originally came from Mpungubwe and settled in Great Zimbabwe We the shonas built this
Beloved, I don't know you in person but God know you. God ministered to me in a revelation when I was on your profile to see things around you,I saw blessings but spiritual attacks holding onto them,in prayers,i saw a woman in the realm of the spirit monitoring and plotting delay in your life, with an evil mirror, and with motive to destroy. But as I speak to you now her time is up, Render hand of favour with Anything you can afford or give to these motherless foundation (TWINS ALIVE FOUNDATION) in Rivers state Nigeria before 2DAYS with faith, as I Rise my hands towards heaven and pray for you they shall serve as point of contact wherever you are, you will receive double portion of grace to excel and total restoration of breakthrough in your life and in the life of your family. Ask for their acct details and help them call the MD in charge of the orphanage to get their details on (WhatsApp or call them now on +2348157404923) tell him I sent you. For it is not by might nor by in power but of the spirit saith the lord (zechariah 4:6). You shall testify to the Glory of God in your life. God bless you in Jesus name.
Good research and width and depth. I would urge looking at the religious/ spiritual dimension which is much talked about in Shona oral tradition. It may be difficult though, to get much as it is often protected and treated with mysticism. But, I see it as a great contributor because you hardly find a Shona group without those mystics, of at all there is any. A good number of tribes in southern Africa Zambezi to Limpopo and a bit south had Matobo (Njelele) as a spiritual centre, I believe.
I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the interesting topics you guys cover and the impressive amount of research and dedication that goes into each video. As interesting as Eurasian history is, this is a really nice and enlightening change of pace. It worries me to see all the argument over the “politics” of this video and I think that is just ridiculous, this is history that is far removed from from today’s world and it is disgusting to see people trying to support claims made by those imperialists you mentioned in the beginning of the video, especially when it has been so thoroughly disproven by modern scholars. History is history, no matter where it is from. But enough of that, I just wanted to show my appreciation and support for you guys. Great job as always!
I'm a Southwestern United States archaeologist, and I've always wanted to learn about African archaeology. This was a great introduction: beautifully filmed, great narration, and absolutely fascinating. Thank you!
Jay Williams you dont know whole world history nor is everybody..some of world history and early civilization have not been know yet..we africa love to see not only africa but curious what other poeple were up to..its history.ok.no need to call fake. my tribe kikuyu immigrated from egypt settled in axum kingdom ethiopia with knowledge they had of stone building and working iron and other metal from egypt phyramid building and contributed to geting building jobs of kindoms along the way moving to kenya some remained other kept moving south.. poeple moved in africa exchanging not or trade but knowledge. these are were told to my poeple while coloniel distroyed or hid and stole artifacts to this day they are in western museum sold in christie for million dollars..we are not stupid we know it all who did that are dead to tell the truth but our history was paste to us. saying its fake show how tamahu sydrom has not been breeded out yet..google tamahu.
Maybe I'm just a ranch kid from Montana,, but at 46:56 in, The Great Enclosure looks like a sweet corral with chutes, pens, and gates.The tower would get you up high where you could count the animals coming in, and possibly direct. Those trees would offer nice shade, too. Why would the walls be so high? Keeps the big cats out, or makes it easier to kill them if they try. That tower kind of reminds me of Gobekli Tepe - I mean Jericho.
This channel is the last channel I'd expect such a massive outpouring of racists in the comments. The very idea that Africans could have made a city or civilizations must completely debunk their ideology, otherwise they wouldn't be so angry about the reporting of cut and dry facts.
What ideology do you think is "debunked" by the greatest monument in pre-colonial sub-saharan Africa being a relatively small compound with no architectural significance, constructed thousands of years after more advanced sites elsewhere in the world? If anything, this supports the view that we should not suppress Europeans to achieve equality across racial groups, which I suspect is the "ideology" (actually it's just basic anti-racism) you commented in opposition to! The only racism I see in the comments is anti-European.
African history is really something I know the least about. Excited to begin learning about the empires, and history of the land. I’m a few credits shy graduating RUclips university :)
Jack Chan yes it’s a real shame :/ Instead of writing the Incas used a knot system as a substitute for writing, and we never were able to decode it. I wonder if a lot of the sub Saharan African Kingdoms used something instead of writing for record keep; and what not. So much history lost in either translation, or lack of.
@Admire Kashiri the name was lost to history but my grandmother new about it. Don't get it confused with tsindi ruins. I heard it was twice as big as great Zimbabwe for the first time it's walls where uses for defence it was a fort.
@Admire Kashiri it was a fort made for defence. I heard the British where the ones who disembodied it. I tried to google using the national archives of Zimbabwe website to see if I could find more information but you now how the site wasn't even working properly that's ZIM for you. I think asking a Zimbabwean archaeologists get more answers I cannot get hold of one because I don't know where to look first. It seems a lot of people new this place i went to school at PHG in marondera a few teachers actually mentioned it's existence note they where not refering to tsindi ruins.
made my thesis on great Zimbabwe, good to see this historic site and other African sites get more recognition because they deserve it. history is a complex matter and sad to see vitriol and sheer ignorance stand in the way of learning and obvious historic facts. very good documentary.
@Jau Jo not been to one of your American universities, it's called folkhögskola where I am from and great Zimbabwe has a unique signature style compared to architecture from that time period. and to think that black people can't build something like that is pretty racist.
@SA Citizen that has nothing to do with 16th century history. but there are a lot of factors as an oppressive dictatorship, economic socialism that simply doesn't work and crippling debt towards China. it's not comparable to studies about 10th - 16 century history.
@SA Citizen Rhodesia was a military regime they gived the natives basically nothing in terms of formal education also India is In the same camp of failing to maintain what was given and yet you're not shiting on them.
@apextroll I always get a chuckle out of how insecure people can be over Africa. You can’t even make statements such as how much of the subsahara didn’t have the wheel until the 18th century AD without being called a racist. Everything is someone else’s fault isn’t it?
A similar place exists in Kenya. Your ancestors either came from Kenya or some of your people moved to Kenya. Perhaps my tribesmen, Abagusii, came from Zimbabwe. We live not far from Thimlich Ohinga which is built the same way as Old Zimbabwe. The current inhabitants know that it was built by a Bantu group that moved.
Welcome to a history I’ve always known and lived from day one. People need to learn that the world and history exists beyond and before the stories of the west. We are all human and have been here for eons.
Thank you for this lovely history of Great Zimbabwe. I have been watching a History of Africa by Zeinab Badawi and found it fascinating. Yours goes into more detail on this area and it helps because I know that when white European culture looks into native culture they always think that they are not capable of doing anything this fantastic so it had to be someone else who did this. It was this way in North and South America and Australia along with the Pacific Islands. The African people are a very lovely people who are much more forgiving of what has been done to them. They have had their lands exploited by Europeans who thought they were smarter and that nothing the native population did was noteworthy. Your show hopefully will open the eyes to others who are looking for information on Africa.
Q U who is diminishing „white culture“? No one here as far as I know has discredited anything Europeans have done. Europeans did many great things and have incredible cultures. Why not give other cultures a spot light as well and learn what they have done alongside Europeans?
As a Xhosa South African I can't help but feel that maybe there's a chance that my ancestral line had some connection to city/cities of Great Zimbabwe. Shona's are after all Bantu people's themselves and these were pre-colonial border times before we were forcefully bound to one geographical area.
They definitely were. The Xhosa were became a mix of the bantu and the Khoisan. That's why you would find that even though Xhosa has clicks in it and Shona does not, we still share quite a number of words. The bantu that moved further south during the great migration intermixed. I am thinking of doing a series on the documented and oral history of Africa especially south of the Sahara
Very cool documentary. Learned a lot about sub-Saharan African pre-colonial history that I didn't know. It's a shame that more of their oral history didn't survive over the ages, especially the names and histories of the people. I think the first video on your channel I saw was your epic on the Sea People, but I had seen a few of your brother's videos before. Y'all are awesome. Keep up the good work.
I've always wondered if there were great undiscovered ancient civilizations in more tropical areas. The main reason we know so much about Egypt and Mesopotamia is because they're in an environment that preserves things better than most parts of the world
This is a fantastic part of history that we don’t hear a lot about. I love learning about this, along with the Mali and Ghana Empire. During the Middle Ages subsaharan Africa was thriving just as much, if not more than Europe. Great cities and castles like these. Would love an ‘accurately’ made movie or something in the future showing off the glory of Africa during this time!
Rocky Fletch I’m not sure the entire total of either, but does it really matter? There are many of them dotted all around the continent and many deep in the wilderness so there’s little archeological digs around them. There’s no doubting how great these African civilisations were and what they built!
Rocky Fletch throughout Europe there was war after war, poverty and disease was incredibly prevailing, life and infant mortality was poor. In general if you weren’t royalty or a noble you wouldn’t live long or get out of it. While Africa’s kingdoms was based a lot on trade rather then war and expansion. For example Mansa Musa was the richest man in history from the Mali empire, he made pilgrimages across the Sahara to North Africa and traded gold for salt, which in turn caused inflation. The amount of goods like salt returned back brought very stable lives to common people in Africa during this era, there’s many more examples
Rocky Fletch that’s a stupid ignorant statement. I genuinely love history and from all parts of the world. If you were to research the evidence, it’s clear that the mass disease, poverty and constant wars were not present as much in Africa during medieval times, whereas kingdoms on Africa were building their cities, riches and economy through trade. Back then. In Africa there weren’t want you would call ‘peasants’. There were emperors, kings, soldiers, regular people, traders, nomadic tribes, hunter gatherers and each nobles had some slaves. Most European kingdoms had kings, nobles and a peasant society with many political issues alongside the low life expectancy and wars they had to fought and die in.
Rocky Fletch a lot of the stuff you mentioned are a result of post colonialism and issues that weren’t present before then. There is a few carvings from baboon bones that are moulded with quartz and show a numbered tally system in Southern Africa from 35,000 years ago (which is the oldest of its kind found) and it’s kind of stupid to assume African kingdoms got the idea of castles from Europe. What was Europe before Christianity? They had no castles and mostly restricted civilisations to the Mediterranean where they got Middle Eastern influence. Also the first dynasties of Egypt were black Africans, so were Egypt’s biggest rivals the Nubians in modern day Sudan who conquered Egypt several times! This is much earlier than any sort of civilised Europe
Love it! Only partways in and am super interested in learning about Kilwa. Any chance we can get Voices of the Past to find some of Ibn Battuta's words about this land?
@@michaelrowsell1160 What an insightful reply. I was thanking History Time for a video that explores a topic that gets almost no air time in English language sources. I see that, though you recognize the video as being in English, you don't understand English sentence structure OR how not to be a pratt. Thank you for you comment.
For a merit badge in Boy Scouts some of my troop went to a local educational digsite and one of the individuals helping us actually had experience working at Great Zimbabwe. I wrote my "paper" on this place so that got brought up. I was a middle schooler more interested in other things and didn't appreciate how incredibly cool that was.
Thanks for making this film. My friend's father was Peter Garlake and I had gone out there to hopefully work for him, but it didn't happen unfortunately. Got to Masvingo, Nalatale and Matopos caves and many other places. I heard the hum of the earth for the first time in Domboshava. I absolutely love Zimbabwe. My heart is still there I believe.
Thank you, I was drawn to this by your recent upload about the abhorrent comments. I’ve got to say I’m almost glad you got those comments so I could be recommended this, how sad though people want to dismiss a clearly important part of world history and culture. Thank you 🙏
This is a really interesting and intriguing series on the history of the African peoples and places! I've already got them all queued up to watch, one after the other, and am looking forward to them all! I love learning about the deep, rich history of places I will never get to visit, so this has been, is, and I expect will be such a perfect series of videos on just that thing! ❤ Thank all of you for coming together and doing this!
I think an important part of this history that was not mentioned in this documentary is that Great Zimbabwe was built over 400 years by successive kings, and it is 1000 years old. Some of the rulers are Nyatsimba Mutota, Changamire Dombo, Chaitezvi, (the king who thought he was powerful so he deserved to bring down the moon and keep it, killed lots of natives after the wooden trusses fell from great height), Munhumutapa 1 and Munhumutapa II (who had strong links with Portugal). The Portuguese have a portrait of Munhumutapa II.
@Dan C They did not go back to a nomadic "hunter-gatherer lifestyle". They were already too advanced for that. The Ndebele happened (1600-1800AD) and they had a deadly warrior force with more battle experience due to Tshaka Zulu's Mfecane wars (the annihilation of tribes). Before they could recover from the Ndebele, European colonization came knocking.This was now after 1800AD. The timeline is very precise and thanks to the Portuguese, historical records have a verification point
@Dan C Which people are you talking about?Remember, my comment is only on Great Zimbabwe. The Rozvi Empire was taken over by the Ndebele, most of the people in this tribe who now bear Shona related animal names as surnames (Nyathi---buffalo, Dube---zebra, Nkomo---cattle, Ndlovu---elephant, Sibanda---lion, Moyo---heart, Gumbo---leg etc) follow their lineage to this citadel. I don't like mixing things because every kingdom and country rose or fell due to many different reasons. War, famine, depletion of resources, epidemics, death of rulers, or a combination of them. Historical signatures can only give you pointers but are never definitive.
@Dan C Your question was very direct and I understood it, the rest is sticks and spanners. You wanted to know what happened, a record to justify the vanishing of the occupants of the Great Zimbabwe citadel. The Ndebele destroyed the Rozvi society as I mentioned earlier, after a century of Portuguese failure to colonize it. There is no record out there better than what Portugal and Britain have. The gold,beads, pottery, tools and images from the site were collected by the 2 countries through 18th century lootings and legally approved excavations after 1945. The Zimbabwe birds were all returned, except 1. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, so its untouchable for further exploration due to preservation regulations.
@IM HO Excellent analysis and excellent thought provoking questions. To answer some of your questions which are indeed a mystery here is my line of thought. I think those Great cities and Empires are much much older than the time frame mentioned in this documentary and all history books. I think the inhabitants of these people were very ancient and possible had a direct link or were part of the Nubian/Egyptian lineage. Judging from the architect of the buildings which is not as sophisticated as the Sphinx or the Pyramids of Giza, my best guess is that these earlier inhabitants possibly predated the Egyptians..... Or another hypothesis is that they are descendants of the Egyptians and Nubians after their civilisations have been destroyed and long forgotten way past their Golden age..... And yes you are absolutely right that for a very complex society with such complex buildings of great architecture, geometric mathematical precision, surely there must had been a complex standard of written knowledge, laws and civilised form of governance with organised law and order. I suspect there is more into this story than we are made to believe. And also remember almost 3000 years ago there was Great Northern to Southern migration of the Bantu people after the Sahara became inhabitable. Who were these Bantu people.... Could they had been the ancient Libyans / Egyptians???? Moreover also in Egypt Horus was also depicted almost the same as that Zimbabwean Bird that you see at Great Zimbabwe. Lastly, an archaeologist had recently found out that the Great Zimbabwe was built with geometrical and astrological alignment with the Orion Belt which once again was held sacred to Ancient Libya/ Egypt.
The history of Great Zimbabwe is inspiring! Am sure there are many such great stories in Sub-Saharan Africa lost in oral tradition that has not been documented. It is time for historians and scientists to regroup these great histories.
Thanks for putting so much hard work into giving us high quality history. I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart! Sending tons of love and warmth brother!
I'm Zimbabwean and when I visited Great Zimbabwe, I couldn't believe what lay before my eyes, I must confess , At one moment i was inclined to conclude that the natives did not build the city ..............................Its too beautiful, The Shona People of that were geniuses wowwww .The city , i mean it just needs you to see for yourself.
this is what is meant by institutionalized racism. How can you really treat a race equal if you think they are not capable of the same mental abilities as your own race?
The largest African language in terms of its native speakers is Shona of Zimbabwe probably the only country with one native language for more than 90% of its population We the shona originally came from Mpungubwe and settled in Great Zimbabwe We (shona) built these kingdoms and those that followed
Great to see some more Sub-Saharan African history on this channel! I was so impressed with your impartiality in the Mansa Musa video I was excited to see you cover more ! Despite what the “nathionalists” and “euro-centrics” are saying in the comments, this is a fascinating civilization. If their ancestors had to lie and claim Zimbabwe was made by Europeans or Middle Easterners, that’s how you know that it was a sophisticated place! Can’t wait to see more on Sub-Saharan Africa in the future, great work
It's not a lie to claim [Rhodesia] was created by Europeans. They bought the land, they created a civilization greater than anything the Africans created, and then it was stolen from them and destroyed. Why do people feel a need to undermine the achievements of any group of people?
Shaun Patrick O'Jameson it’s not like Rhodesia was gonna last 😒 the natives hated them from the start they were eventually gonna forcefully take it back.
Thank you for posting this. I came from a small town and my parents didn't have great resources for education so I grew up ignorant to a lot. I'm trying to do better so I can teach my kids the things I didn't know as well. They need to be more worldly.
Isn't it bizarre that upon all the trading that was done, the Africans knew nothing about writing? We all know that in the ancient past, writing was known only by a selected few in the palaces of kings. Could it be that is the case here in Africa such that when the Europeans invaded, they literary burn and destroy all such writings? Since not a lot of people knew how to write, the written part vanished forever? Examples are Timbuktu manuscripts, if it wasn't buried or hidden, it would have been lost to time, and nobody would believe these Africans could read or write in Arabic. Another example is the French banning the bamum alphabet. Many more other examples, now, let the hateful comments begin.
Oh my gosh! This is incredible. Thank you so much for sharing this inspirational story teaching us about the complex and beautiful history of Southern Africa. What a educational video, teaching us about new things that we were never taught in school. Thank you so much and please continue.
I am super excited for more content on Africa. There are few neutral documentaries, and a lot of essentially ethnocentric or "nationalist" (yes I know it's a continent) garbage.
Gavin Kisebach well said. Unfortunately we live in an age of egoism and identity politics. Both of which are toxic to the mind and spirit, and actually inhibit learning/personal development
Bull shit. Ethnocentricism doesnt occur anymore in the fields of history and archaeology. But right on for keeping the everything-is-racist bull shit alive
Cowafungus If telling history objectively is making certain nations look bad, perhaps instead of complaining you should examine and acknowledge the “bad” said nations had done...
The largest African language in terms of its native speakers is Shona of Zimbabwe probably the only country with one native language for more than 90% of its population We the shona originally came from Mpungubwe and settled in Great Zimbabwe We (shona) built these kingdoms and those that followed
This was wonderful. As a History grad student, I know shamefully little about African history. Thank you to you and everyone else who contributed to this collaboration! I was fascinated by these cities-I can imagine the history that we don't know in terms of their relationships to each other and their culture.
![Southern Kingdoms - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi [Episode 13]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GdSupLM4zAA/mqdefault.jpg)
Watch my latest full length history documentary:-
ruclips.net/video/c3Hq6UaFQqk/видео.html
Alright guys please keep the vitriol, lies and wild claims to a minimum. Thanks. This is a history channel and believe it or not history exists outside of Europe. Cheers and see you on the next one. Back to Early Medieval Britain next time.
Well said. Apparently being a regressive racialist bigot makes you "far left" now. These people don’t even know what left and right means ffs 😅
Thanks for going into so much detail in this video! Very interesting subject!
@@noneofyourbusiness5803 How is covering African history a far left thing to do? It's history...
I like history and find the human story fascinating. So thanks for a good video on a part of it that doesn't get a large amount of quality coverage.
I'm not a "White supremacist" just because I understand that race is a reality, and this era is governed by anti-White hatred. I still love your videos. You're a great video artist, narrator, and historian. What you do here is very much an art form.
The fact that this kind of unheard history is basically free online is astounding. Love learning this so much. As a black American who loves ancient/medieval history, its so cool to have a grand heritage of my own, yknow?
Facts
Heritage of your own? Because your skin color is similar to people in zimbabwe? So mongolian history is my heritage too since I got brown skin
Miguel Forster I don’t know my heritage, exactly. Most African-Americans don’t because of how jumbled up slavery leaves one’s lineage. But if Europeans who have the barest trace of Italian in them can be proud of Rome (I frickin love Rome), I see no issue with me, being descended from Africans, being excited about an African kingdom even if it weren’t where my ancestors are from.
@@jaredjohnson7960 I would also be confused at some random european being proud of Rome..
Miguel Forster These are confusing times
The crazy thing about Great Zimbabwe’s walls is that it was built with no mortar. Just friction and gravity. And yet it still stands incredibly strong.
Yeah dry stone wall - they're everywhere!
These stone structures in Great Zimbabwe have lasted almost a millennium, yet the American Interstate Freeway System was built in the early 1960's with a planned life expectancy of just 50 years. Think about it. ... jkulik919@gmail.com
yeah, just a pity it doesn't help the country from falling apart
Joe Kulik
I love boomer comments like these.
@@JosephKulik2016 stacking rocks or bricks on top of each other is one of the simplest form of building and the concept grasped by toddlers..... think about it.. Angkor wat, the great pyramids and this wall, not much comparison. I am amazed they could stop fighting long enough to build them
Proudly Zimbabwean. I've been patiently waiting for a modern documentary about great Zimbabwe
@Mike-Wayne Django II Theres a couple of more documentaries on RUclips.Sadly in America and Europe they basically teach people that nothing was build in the continent let alone Zimbabwe.Which is a remnant of the old racism that has served as a way to keep the people divided since the end of Bacons Rebellion.
Now that is a great and well-deserved
compliment!
@Deborah Meltrozo hurt people hurt people. i hope you stop hurting some day.
It's a wonderful story and history. I can understand why you are proud.
Much love from Denmark.
I am Swedish and this is the first time I am really introduced to this amazing history. I absolutely love it and I am a bit mad we don't get to learn this in school, but then, time is limited I guess. I am floored by this highly sophisticated society but at the same time I really shouldn't be! People have traded for thousands of years, of course people will do trade in Africa too! I am very sorry about the racist Europeans ravaging this beautiful continent, denying the Zimbabwe people their history. So glad that this docu was made.
As a Zimbabwean who loved history, the more I learned textbook history about my own country and the more I looked around my own country, the quickly I realized I was being lied to. It is appalling that so called scholars argued that my fore fathers could not be smart enough to build Dzimba dzemabwe the Shona name for Great Zimbabwe. Pretty much they are too black , broad nosed to be smart enough to build such amazing architecture. What a shame that supremacy makes human beings so crooked & corrupt. I respect and admire whatever different cultures have build historically and have no need to see if their ethnicity and skin colors justifies what they did.
It's not like difference in skin color matters either, Hutus and tutsi. Hate is Hate and it's ugly.
As a white South African born 1996, I am shocked that I was never thought any of this in school, But at the same time I am glad to discover a deeper history behind the land and people who inhabit it, And it makes me wonder what else I am unaware/ignorant of, There is probably an endless supply of history that is still waiting to be uncovered.
Bayeyisa - but the truth will prevail. This was built by the native people of Southern Africa
Talenda To me it looks like a cashel .Cashels were structures built in ireland,before the norman conquest who began construction of castles and later native irish began building them.Cashels were fine constructions for there time,but they weren't cities or examples of high civilisation .Irish society pre norman invasion would be considered sophisticated primative even though they were literate and as far as i can see the culture of great zimbabwe is no different. Its not in the class of the Incas ,aztecs or mayans or romans and greeks.
Same here my friend on our written history in Fiji in the South Pacific. Our history and curriculum written by the white men contradicts our oral history.
I've always been fascinated by the cities and cultures of ancient Africa. Everyone knows about the kingdom of Kush by their relationship to ancient Egypt, but there's so much more to Africa that's completely ignored by classical Western civilization. Thanks for revealing this intriguing and very important aspect of world history to a wider audience.
Why would you need western people to teach you about africa? They dont teach about the spanish empire in japan, because obvious reasons
@@algonzalez6853 oh fuck off
@@tompossessed1729 very normal not agressive black person
@Bill Myers what?
@@algonzalez6853 Very typical response go cry somewhere else if you don't like the content move on.
For those saying that Great Zimbabwe was inspired by foreign influence, this is not possible because we all know that the closest foreign influence they could get is from Swahili Coast. And Swahili architecture is totally different from Great Zimbabwe (Giant circular non-roofed strucures, conical towers built in hills using dry-stone techniques and well-cut blocks, while swahili used corals, built pillars only in tombs, mosques rectilinear buildings and they used mortar - not dry stone techniques - and the mosques were built using irregular-shaped blocks). They were totally different.
Not a concnlusive argument, Celtic Oppida were also pretty different building styles and urbanization patterns to the mediterranean but one still can make the argument that it was affected by contact and trade with the Greeks, Phoenicians and Italians.
@@g-rexsaurus794 And yet Great Zimbabwe had no true contact with the Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans at least not directly. The overwhelming evidence points to complete indigenous design. Are you willing to argue against a mountain of evidence?
@@g-rexsaurus794 You have basically ignore Occam's Razor at this point to came to those conclusions, which is something one does not usually do unless fueled by internal biases.
@@fighterck6241 Not really, using occam's razor leads to wrong conclusion when applied so precisely to single historical phenomenon.
Africans built Europe and America
Zimbabwe is the Land of Gold. May the peace and blessings of The Ancient Days be upon the people of Zimbabwe. May it come to pass in the name of The Creator that Zimbabwe come out of economic downfall and rise to great glory. I m from Botswana. I say peace and one love to the people of Zimbabwe for we are family.
Great Zimbabwe was built by ancient Bantu people.
Too late ,the ANC have stolen it all.
We are indeed family and I know we rise as we continue remove Saul's armor of mental colonialization and slay Goliaths with our slings and our God.
Less did you know that Southern Africa is the biblical Holy land,,,those Zim ruins are biblical known as Ophir part of King Solomon's mines stretching to Botswana and S Africa. Our true history has been hidden till now. ancient Jerusalem is located in the Namibia desert,,,, why do you think you have places like Bethel, Bathsheeba, Gomorrah, Mamrie,Zoar in that part of the world....? Adam's calendar is in S Africa,,,why and how.....My people perish due to LACK OF KNOWLEDGE says SONINI NANINI the Most High...!
@@philanisikwili8907 Very true indeed.
Thank you brother 🇿🇼🇧🇼
This is by far the best docu on African history I've ever seen. Most contain little real information and fill the gaps with racist propaganda toward either Africans or Europeans.
And the result is having a comment senction full of race nationalists not believing that blacks are people or that not all whites are bloodthirsty enslavers.
I like seeing like minded People Like myself in these comment sections reminds me there are
It would be inappropriate to write an African history without mentioning how and who tampered with it.
@The Truth about Africa hurts they didnt forget, they simply never knew it
So why do you feel the need too say that? Doesnt make you any different then these kids trying to get some attention online.
As a South African, I must say I appreciate this collaboration you guys are doing. Really learning a lot here. I'm also particularly amused by the comments here expressing bewilderment over the achievements of Africans. Good job.
As a South African, I must say I'm embarrassed by your lack of discernment.
@@greg_4201 You are not South African my friend, you are European
@Danny M "Achievements of Danny M. Mystery Man" -There I fixed it.
@@greg_4201 Sure thing Thor.
@@lindomthembu4017 why are you calling me Thor?
Haven't watched all of this yet but I'll be coming back to it. So glad you selected Great Zimbabwe for this collab. Such an interesting topic.
Useful Charts in da house!
Hey!!!!
You gonna try to do a Mwene Mutapa family tree?
@@admirekashiri9879 Wakanda foeva
@@safuwanfauzi5014 Get over yourself troll. You need to get a life instead of trolling every video associated with black people.
I've heard about the Great Zimbabwe site several times, but because some believed it to be of foreign origin, and since I never heard anything about any other sites(in fact, all the wild documentaries about it praise it for being so bloody unique) - I assumed it existed in a state of vacuum, where it just appeared mysteriously without any similar sites anywhere close.
But obviously that was wrong, and I'm glad you chose to focus a lot on all these other sites, they are the testimony of a great African civilisation, the wast complex of sites - and not just one site alone. We're talking about a wide-spread culture linked with other cultures in the region, forming an organic African society with a healthy trade with other continents.
They lived in a society.
European distorted the African history with false narrative.
@@marciabryce8451 They sure did.
But to be fair, that's exactly what everyone else have been doing too. India, China, Arabs. You'll find distorted history where-ever you go in this world, it's not unique to Europeans.
Nabium lol
Some whites went as far as saying the dravidians built Zimbabwe smh.
@@bluebird5173 I don't doubt the dravidians of their excellence but to say they built Zimbabwe is wrong and insulting. As African descendants and such we are entitled to be proud of our contributions to world history.
You should check out Bamum architecture of Cameroon in Africa. Similar to some Asian pagodas.
Thimlich Ohinga in Kenya bears a striking resemblance. There are other fascinating sites like Adam's Calendar, Engaruka, Marrakwet and Pokot irrigation, konso stone enclosures and terraces, Sukur ruins, Loropeni, Bouar megaliths, Dhar Tichitt,...
I had never heard of any of these, thanks
Never heard and Im Kenyan,thanks,lemne look into it.
Marrakwet sounds like marrakech or marrakesh, Morocco.
Also the Bakoni ruins all over South Africa.
Here it is....ruclips.net/video/CdKD4-fVnyE/видео.html
Love this documentary. Always known that Southern Africa has a great history, but was puzzled as to what made it so supposedly unclear and overlooked. Thank you from South Africa.
From the Zambezi right down to the Cape we were dojng great things mfo
Africans are lazy and don't record their history. White men have to do it for them.
Proudly Zimbabwean. Proud as proud gets! 🇿🇼
For the first time a documentary is made on an African topic without mentioning the country's poor economic condition. Kudos.
Which country?
For those interested:
@ 50:33 the video discusses a commonly brought up question online which was the reasoning behind the Great Zimbabwe enclosure/walled design
Great Zimbabwe reminds me a lot of the Mississippian culture, especially cities of those civilizations like Cahokia and Aztalan.
It also reminds me of the Europeans who sadly came across these areas. Classic tale of "Europeans come across area where civilization has collapsed and assume there was never any civilization".
@@kesorangutan6170 same! It seems fascinating
@Sənnız sakitləşməlisəniz certain events should be blamed on ancestral Europeans though. They traveled out and plunder when and where they saw fit. Countless histories lost because of them
@@jumpinglizards69As if only they did that....
Unfortunately, a large segment of Great Zimbabwe has been destroyed by trophy hunters and greedy explorers. What a crime.
No it was the whites who created the Wildlife Parks and Reserves .Mugabe destroyed it all.. In the 1860s this was the most prosperous country in Africa including any Arab state.
Michael Rowsell Mugabe was responsible for the partial destruction of
Great Zimbabwe?
@@michaelrowsell1160 yeah the great Mugabe took the land back from the children of the colonizers.😀
Oh yeah Great Zimbabwe was a thriving metropolis before them 😂. It's full of tribes that trophy hunt each other
Zimbabwe wurde von schwarzen Kommunisten zerstört. Die Menschen verhungern dort, während die korrupten Kommunisten Millionen auf dem Konto haben
Been looking for a good video on southern African history for ages, thanks for the great work you done here
History Time always delivers amazing documentaries, no matter the topic
The earliest known written mention of the Great Zimbabwe ruins was in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala, on the coast of modern-day Mozambique, who recorded it as Symbaoe. Those 16th century Portuguese explorers were traveling everywhere, but I don't think anything was ever really "lost", so many nations from so many different parts of the world had knowledge of places like this. I think that the problem was how history has been recorded and taught especially since printing became available.
In some way Rome's conquest of the Druids in Anglesey, Britain and subsequent dumbing down of the natives etc in the very one sided, limited history of pre Roman Britain is an example of what "I think" happened here. When one side controls the narrative, not only does truth become distorted, so too does the history.
Aside from that though; what fascinates me are those ancient "eagle", or bird statues that Rhodes took from Great Zimbabwe, I've watched some Michael Tellinger videos about very similar artifacts being discovered in South Africa, I wonder what the connection was, if there was one.
This theorys is really weird, nobody was trying to hide this, you are really discrediting without a reason early historians that despite having all sorts of opinion are the very people that started the rigorous study of history.
@@g-rexsaurus794 It's not that anything gets hidden, only forgotten. The information was not selected often enough for repetition and it disappeared.
I think selfishness also plays a part. Early traders would have kept knowledge to themselves to ensure primacy, unless they gained advantage from sharing. An example is how Vikings kept the Baltic source of their amber secret from the Greeks they traded with to ensure a trade monopoly.
@@andybeans5790 The Carthaginians not sharing their knowledge of Britain is another example.
The ruins in South Africa are called Mapungubwe. By the name alone you can see the relation. Its easy to detail these 2 cities where related, even the gold figurines found there are similar.
There are many other ruins like them scattered across Zimbabwe..
The Shona thrived way before the arrival of Zulu of Nguni origin who came in their lands. A series of wars broke out so the landscape and people deplacement happened also.
Southern Africa has a rich history. The Bantu people although different tribes have got many untold and told stories
African history is rich, from Egypt in the north all the way to the south.
I am zimbabwean aged 41 and sadly I wasnt aware of this history. I of course know of many mini-versions of great zimbabwe across zimbabwe but didnt really know the detailed history. I know more of european history than my own.
Unfortunately it seems it's still up to Europeans to research and build up knowledge of African history. I say **unfortunately**but I supposse we're lucky that someone is doing it. As long as the TRUTH is told and they're not afraid to go against what would be politically incorrect. Native African's are an immensely clever and resourceful people, they have to be to survive. Lots of unintended padding of the narrative here. I would have liked to see the evidence of the blacksmith residence. Usually very easy to find as all the black Slag and burnt fuel is shown in the soil. Lots of unanswered questions.
@@JohnSmith-qq8tx Thanks John smith for your objective analysis.
@Admire Kashiri thanks Admire
I know that you commented on this awhile ago but you should upload videos with your personal stories and stories that have been passed down to youof Zimbabwe. It would give a more personal and accurate depiction of the country than what most people are taught throughout their educational years
And it would save a part of history
Sorry but this was taught our headmaster and avid historian Chigwe gives much detail about this history. The Rozvi and Munhumutapa empires. I have since found books and resources with greater details. Although we still disagree about a lot of things they is far more details to add to this documentary
It's not the only one in Zimbabwe, there's a number of these ancient cities including Khami,Dlodlo ,Runde ruins etc.
Built by the Bantu during the Bantu migration. This was only one of many built by the Bantu. Some examples of such Bantu states include: in Central Africa, the Kingdom of Kongo, Lunda Empire, Luba Empire of Angola, the Buganda Kingdoms of Uganda and Tanzania; and in Southern Africa, the Mutapa Empire, the Danamombe, Khami, and Naletale Kingdoms of Zimbabwe and Mozambique and the Rozwi Empire.
Geria Wright What the fuck are you talking about you incoherent boomer
What makes those empires?
@@jojomojo508 they call those empires when they call societies like that "cultures" if its europe or asia
al gonzález read my write up again, I mentioned to who built it there. So I don’t understand why are asking me this question even though I clearly stated it in my write up.
al gonzález
An empire is a single polity that includes many different cultures and usually one dominant one. There are exceptions however but that’s the usual measure of an empire.
Very good doc, I especially appreciated the time taken to set the city in the context not only of the cultural inheritance from Mapungubwe, but also their relations with the greater Indian Ocean trade network via the Swahilis and Kilwa, which I would really like to learn more about as well. Hope you all explore more of this part of the world in future docs!
This is the most comprehensive and entertaining video thus far regarding Great Zimbabwe. I am in awe, definitely going to share this video online.
There is a wealth of videos on Africa.
Start with Adam Tellinger.
Keep in mind that the Portugese were on the east coast and the Arabs were also trading for slaves all over Africa.
Zimbabwe ruins are so beautiful and impressive. Thanks so much for posting. I have so much to learn about Sub Saharan African history.
Same we’ve been brainwashed to think they don’t have any
Loving more African ancient history being uncovered (in many case recovered!) every year. Such a fascinating, diverse, creative continent. It's no surprise to find it's history is one rich with wealthy and civilised empires rising and falling, trading with faraway countries!
Great documentary - thanks! African history is a real blind spot for mainstream history presentations, so great to see this!
I thought it would take mamy years for someone to talk about southern african city-states. Great Zimbabwe and Mupungbwe are not news, swahili videos are scarce and almost zero about Southern african walled cities. And suddenly I found a video about swahili culture in the same day (not yours). Congrats.
you mean the history of how the Bantu. invaded South Africa.
murder over three million people. the Khoisan original inhabitants stole their land,
The We Wuz Kings people never even talk about it. They have all this beautiful interesting history smacking them in the face and they just don't care. There's a lot of work to get done in researching and talking about this region and we're really only at the beginning considering how much time people have been studying Great Zimbabwe. There's surely much more to come.
@@hannah1943 Khoisan were Hunter gatheres. They would never reach this population size otherwise they would form empires before that. Not even Great Zimbabwe, that was an iron-age agricultural, pastoral and trade kingdom had this population, that were far from 100000.
@@HavanaSyndrome69 That's right. I think is stupid how many people keep hours on internet talking about how berbers were black. I prefer to read about this one, sometimes.
Check stefan milo's video on Swahili culture. It talks about their cities,boats,merchant hubs,ect.
Every place on earth has a human history a lot of it in non written form but handed down by oral history by untold generations
Exactly! Most of human history wasn't written down. I guess no one every asks themselves why people wouldn't write down history. The obvious answer being it wasn't history, it was just their lives. Hearing my mother tell me a story about my grandparents was always way more fun and interactive than reading one would ever be.
Yeah..only like 5000 years worth of human history was written
@@oluwadamilola6233 And that’s not even long, we been here that long and have only written down 5,000 years of it.
@@ladybluelotus the obvious answer is they had no written language
@@Byronic19134 Even then it can be lost. We learned of Mesopotamia from ruins, and Roman emperors from coins even.
I worked in Zimbabwe between 1985/1989 and visited there. Absolutely astounding.
As a Shona guy and with love with the history of African and Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 as my country ....am very fascinated by this an amazing history...keep it up...travel Zimbabwe 🇿🇼💝.... visit Zimbabwe....make zimbabwe great again 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Lets hope the oral History will be recorded so It is never lost again
@The Truth about Africa hurts proof?
@The Truth about Africa hurts dude chill
This is what I am doing my Masters in at the moment in Europe. Hope to use my skills in back home when I'm done
It has been recorded I know a guy who teaches it he has alot of written sources on it.
I'm fascinated by the African civilizations of West Africa (Benin, Ghana, etc.) and also by the great Bantu migration into Central and Southern Africa. The culture of the Zimbabwe plateau was probably at or near the southern limit of the Bantu expansion as well as being at the furthest limits of Indian ocean trade networks, so it was truly a frontier civilization. I'm intrigued that genetic testing shows that the aristocrats were of Koi-San ancestry. I suspect that the Bantu migrations occurred in waves, and that probably the earliest waves were by small bands of Bantu men who married local Koi-San women, and their descendants became the local aristocracy ruling over later waves of Bantu immigrants, that were perhaps larger and came with Bantu women. So you may have ended up with a ruling class that was culturally Bantu but of mixed Koi-San / Bantu ancestry ruling over a largely Bantu population.
@Javier Kútulas This comment is incredibly stupid.
Taj adil why? Because it’s true? Africans never invited the wheel....
@@muellerruski9708 So what? They learned how to smelt high-quality iron. Can you do that?
@@muellerruski9708 neither did Europe you dimwit. The wheel was invented in the near-east, most likely central Asia, the only reason you western europeans are civilised in the first place is because rome slapped some sense into your empty skulls, it took Germans a while too. Have you read the roman accounts of what the Germans and the Gauls and the Britons would do to their hostages? ABSOLUTELY BARBARIC!!!
@@muellerruski9708 but they had pottery, I'm sure you need a wheel to do that, no?
Born In Zim 1970, Living in lock down South Africa 2020.
I learnt more history in this 61 minutes than I was ever allowed in the last 50 years of my life.
Really impressive work. I have the strong urge to visit my homeland again.
I lament for all that lost history though.
Excellent research and detail.
This is amazing i love this whole series. Im both Zimbabwean and Tanzanian this is probably my fave . thank you for making this its pretty cool.
With all due respect, why don't you learn the history from your people so that you can teach on the beutiful structure.....It's time to cut out other nations from teaching African History; remember "Until the lion learns to write the hunter will always tell the story"....
@@lisajackson1476 I am Zimbabwean and I completely agree with you. I was inspired by this video and making it a mandate to find people who know my history and tell it ourselves!
Thats so silly to think history should not be a shared, multicultural system. That is how entire sections of history are lost to the ages
@@donovangumbo388 The largest African language in terms of its native speakers is Shona of Zimbabwe probably the only country with one native language for more than 90% of its population
We the shona originally came from Mpungubwe and settled in Great Zimbabwe
I’m an Irish American from Brooklyn NY. There’s something about Africa, idk what it is, but I have always wanted to travel there. Hopefully I can get there one day.
Well researched and thoughtful docs about African history are so needed for us in the West. This is so lovely. Thank you🙏🏾
its bullshit darlng, name one thing africans have built on their own?
@@111squire111 Great Zimbabwe...
@@111squire111 😂😂😂 this video was too complicated for you to understand i guess. On the other hand, you comment usually comes from a man who hasn't done anything for himself and thinks the achievements of other men his race are also his achievements.
@@vawsonsfurniture You should start any reply with a capital letter Sir! Henceforth I will ignore your poor grammar and any further comments!
@@111squire111 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂 says a man whose first comment in this thread starts with a small letter. You need to teach youself grammar first before you try to appear sophisticated in the comments section you dummy. Just scroll up a lil bit and see your first comment 😂🤣😂.
Maybe you are just stupid... so many possibilities 🤔🤔🤔
My people. Proudly Zimbabweean wirh a beautiful mix of Manyika dad whose family travel origins to Swaziland to Swaziland as a Maphosa and a Nguni ndebele mom
These stone ruins are all over Zimbabwe and Mozambique. There are some in Manicaland Rusape, there are many in Mash West near our farm and there is an ancient Portuguese burial ground near Trelawney and an old Zimbabwe ruin
We need to preserve our heritage 🇿🇼🇿🇼
It is not your history then if origins are in Eswatini
I wish I had been taught this stuff long ago in school.
Why ?! Educating yourself is the secret to success. School is a political indoctrination camp nothing more nothing less.
@@AT-wj5sw wishing for education reform is a bad thing??
So awesome to see a video detailing cultures and histories from outside Europe :) this was so informative, I knew nothing of African history before this video
Remarkable! I had no idea urban development in Southern Africa was so extensive during the medieval era, nor that they were smelting iron. Thank you for such a wonderfully presented informative video
Greetings. Thank you for covering this part of our human history.
Beloved, I don't know you in person but God know you. God ministered to me in a revelation when I was on your profile to see things around you,I saw blessings but spiritual attacks holding onto them,in prayers,i saw a woman in the realm of the spirit monitoring and plotting delay in your life, with an evil mirror, and with motive to destroy. But as I speak to you now her time is up, Render hand of favour with Anything you can afford or give to these motherless foundation (TWINS ALIVE FOUNDATION) in Rivers state Nigeria before 2DAYS with faith, as I Rise my hands towards heaven and pray for you they shall serve as point of contact wherever you are, you will receive double portion of grace to excel and total restoration of breakthrough in your life and in the life of your family. Ask for their acct details and help them call the MD in charge of the orphanage to get their details on (WhatsApp or call them now on +2348157404923) tell him I sent you. For it is not by might nor by in power but of the spirit saith the lord (zechariah 4:6). You shall testify to the Glory of God in your life. God bless you in Jesus name.
@@prophetpassionjava5933 i hope you're not a scammer. but amen
You could spend your entire lifetime studying and visiting the continent of Africa, and you'd still be at the beginning. ASTOUNDING PRODUCTION.
To the peoples of Tanzania and Kenya,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY.
Am proud that am from Zimbabwe Masvingo and I am Shona .Our ancestors we very Noble they had a great sense of beauty.
The largest African language in terms of its native speakers is Shona of Zimbabwe probably the only country with one native language for more than 90% of its population
We the shona originally came from Mpungubwe and settled in Great Zimbabwe
We the shonas built this
Thank you for your hard work. I knew a bit about iron age Africa, but this is truly an eye opener.
@U Toob you're a troll with a slow roll. Stfu moron
Found this extremely interesting. An area rarely touched upon. Hope to see more.
A history I knew absolutely nothing of. Still incredibly interesting and fascinating.
I would love the hear more of such unknown histories
Beloved, I don't know you in person but God know you. God ministered to me in a revelation when I was on your profile to see things around you,I saw blessings but spiritual attacks holding onto them,in prayers,i saw a woman in the realm of the spirit monitoring and plotting delay in your life, with an evil mirror, and with motive to destroy. But as I speak to you now her time is up, Render hand of favour with Anything you can afford or give to these motherless foundation (TWINS ALIVE FOUNDATION) in Rivers state Nigeria before 2DAYS with faith, as I Rise my hands towards heaven and pray for you they shall serve as point of contact wherever you are, you will receive double portion of grace to excel and total restoration of breakthrough in your life and in the life of your family. Ask for their acct details and help them call the MD in charge of the orphanage to get their details on (WhatsApp or call them now on +2348157404923) tell him I sent you. For it is not by might nor by in power but of the spirit saith the lord (zechariah 4:6). You shall testify to the Glory of God in your life. God bless you in Jesus name.
@@prophetpassionjava5933 I shall pray to Poseidon that he might wash you away.
May the old Gods curse your corrupt ways
There's the Khami Ruins, Thimlich Ohinga, Dar Tichitt, Lalibela Church, Tomb of Askia, Benin Bronzes and Ife statues, all worth checking out
😳
Good research and width and depth. I would urge looking at the religious/ spiritual dimension which is much talked about in Shona oral tradition. It may be difficult though, to get much as it is often protected and treated with mysticism. But, I see it as a great contributor because you hardly find a Shona group without those mystics, of at all there is any. A good number of tribes in southern Africa Zambezi to Limpopo and a bit south had Matobo (Njelele) as a spiritual centre, I believe.
I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the interesting topics you guys cover and the impressive amount of research and dedication that goes into each video. As interesting as Eurasian history is, this is a really nice and enlightening change of pace. It worries me to see all the argument over the “politics” of this video and I think that is just ridiculous, this is history that is far removed from from today’s world and it is disgusting to see people trying to support claims made by those imperialists you mentioned in the beginning of the video, especially when it has been so thoroughly disproven by modern scholars. History is history, no matter where it is from. But enough of that, I just wanted to show my appreciation and support for you guys. Great job as always!
In
Jcb FCC
I'm a Southwestern United States archaeologist, and I've always wanted to learn about African archaeology. This was a great introduction: beautifully filmed, great narration, and absolutely fascinating. Thank you!
What a fascinated assett of historical developement.
Thank you for starting my interest in african history!
Greetings from one happy german student :)
Hendrik Strauss
I highly recommend checking out the history of Sudan and the horn of Africa.
@SA Citizen Its only fake when I don't agree with it or like it
@@jaywilliams9294 You're either trolling or the most arrogant person who's ever lived.
@Tracy Sharp Why are you telling me this?
Jay Williams you dont know whole world history nor is everybody..some of world history and early civilization have not been know yet..we africa love to see not only africa but curious what other poeple were up to..its history.ok.no need to call fake.
my tribe kikuyu immigrated from egypt settled in axum kingdom ethiopia with knowledge they had of stone building and working iron and other metal from egypt phyramid building and contributed to geting building jobs of kindoms along the way moving to kenya some remained other kept moving south..
poeple moved in africa exchanging not or trade but knowledge.
these are were told to my poeple while coloniel distroyed or hid and stole artifacts to this day they are in western museum sold in christie for million dollars..we are not stupid we know it all
who did that are dead to tell the truth but our history was paste to us.
saying its fake show how tamahu sydrom has not been breeded out yet..google tamahu.
Very informative, thanks for taking the time to make this.
Maybe I'm just a ranch kid from Montana,, but at 46:56 in, The Great Enclosure looks like a sweet corral with chutes, pens, and gates.The tower would get you up high where you could count the animals coming in, and possibly direct. Those trees would offer nice shade, too. Why would the walls be so high? Keeps the big cats out, or makes it easier to kill them if they try. That tower kind of reminds me of Gobekli Tepe - I mean Jericho.
This channel is the last channel I'd expect such a massive outpouring of racists in the comments. The very idea that Africans could have made a city or civilizations must completely debunk their ideology, otherwise they wouldn't be so angry about the reporting of cut and dry facts.
Anything good is said about africans is "anti white racism" to them but they aren't racists.
Who are “them”?
Derek Adjei sovereignty =/= supremacy
And RUclips is retarded, bitchute and spreaker doesn’t hide truths
What ideology do you think is "debunked" by the greatest monument in pre-colonial sub-saharan Africa being a relatively small compound with no architectural significance, constructed thousands of years after more advanced sites elsewhere in the world? If anything, this supports the view that we should not suppress Europeans to achieve equality across racial groups, which I suspect is the "ideology" (actually it's just basic anti-racism) you commented in opposition to! The only racism I see in the comments is anti-European.
African history is really something I know the least about. Excited to begin learning about the empires, and history of the land. I’m a few credits shy graduating RUclips university :)
Jack Chan yes it’s a real shame :/ Instead of writing the Incas used a knot system as a substitute for writing, and we never were able to decode it. I wonder if a lot of the sub Saharan African Kingdoms used something instead of writing for record keep; and what not. So much history lost in either translation, or lack of.
Nsibidi, G'eez and Adrinka were the most common communication forms used
I'm british but Zimbabwe is my adopted country, and I love its history
There was a ruin that was destroyed in the 1920 near marondera that was twice as big as great Zimbabwe
@Admire Kashiri the name was lost to history but my grandmother new about it. Don't get it confused with tsindi ruins. I heard it was twice as big as great Zimbabwe for the first time it's walls where uses for defence it was a fort.
@Admire Kashiri it was a fort made for defence. I heard the British where the ones who disembodied it. I tried to google using the national archives of Zimbabwe website to see if I could find more information but you now how the site wasn't even working properly that's ZIM for you. I think asking a Zimbabwean archaeologists get more answers I cannot get hold of one because I don't know where to look first. It seems a lot of people new this place i went to school at PHG in marondera a few teachers actually mentioned it's existence note they where not refering to tsindi ruins.
@@shanewalkingdead8258 something like that cant just dissapear. Atleast there would be scattered stone everywhere lol
@@zdrug3676 exactly, in my country many things are destroyed everyday LMAO but we have evidence of it
made my thesis on great Zimbabwe, good to see this historic site and other African sites get more recognition because they deserve it.
history is a complex matter and sad to see vitriol and sheer ignorance stand in the way of learning and obvious historic facts.
very good documentary.
Spain in the 3rs cenury was just a Roman province
@Jau Jo not been to one of your American universities, it's called folkhögskola where I am from and great Zimbabwe has a unique signature style compared to architecture from that time period.
and to think that black people can't build something like that is pretty racist.
@SA Citizen this was in the early 90's when we all hated liberals.
it's not even from an American university, so stop whining.
@SA Citizen that has nothing to do with 16th century history.
but there are a lot of factors as an oppressive dictatorship, economic socialism that simply doesn't work and crippling debt towards China.
it's not comparable to studies about 10th - 16 century history.
@SA Citizen Rhodesia was a military regime they gived the natives basically nothing in terms of formal education also India is In the same camp of failing to maintain what was given and yet you're not shiting on them.
For once something positive and special about my country. I love Zimbabwe.
I always get a chuckle when racists refer to Zimbabweans living in mud huts, not realizing Zimbabwe means stone house. :-)
apextroll wow, stone houses...
It certainly doesn't mean "high crop yields" 😂
LOL..It amazes me that these people tend to claim they are not racist but they certainly know that I am referring to them.
@apextroll I always get a chuckle out of how insecure people can be over Africa. You can’t even make statements such as how much of the subsahara didn’t have the wheel until the 18th century AD without being called a racist. Everything is someone else’s fault isn’t it?
@@AVOIDAVOIDVOID On a wider note, those who claim the past, tend not to have a future.
Motherland
Zimbabwe 🇿🇼
Dzimba dzamahwe 🇿🇼
House of stones 💎 💍👑
Sounds so Swahili.... Mawe =stone
DZimba.. Sounds like nyumba =house
Nyumba za mawe.. In swahili
A similar place exists in Kenya. Your ancestors either came from Kenya or some of your people moved to Kenya. Perhaps my tribesmen, Abagusii, came from Zimbabwe. We live not far from Thimlich Ohinga which is built the same way as Old Zimbabwe. The current inhabitants know that it was built by a Bantu group that moved.
Welcome to a history I’ve always known and lived from day one. People need to learn that the world and history exists beyond and before the stories of the west. We are all human and have been here for eons.
It'd be more impressive if they were from like 2000BC instead of at Christopher Columbus' time, but yeah.
Thank you for this lovely history of Great Zimbabwe. I have been watching a History of Africa by Zeinab Badawi and found it fascinating. Yours goes into more detail on this area and it helps because I know that when white European culture looks into native culture they always think that they are not capable of doing anything this fantastic so it had to be someone else who did this. It was this way in North and South America and Australia along with the Pacific Islands. The African people are a very lovely people who are much more forgiving of what has been done to them. They have had their lands exploited by Europeans who thought they were smarter and that nothing the native population did was noteworthy. Your show hopefully will open the eyes to others who are looking for information on Africa.
We recently covered Great Zimbabwe in my class, so it was nice learning some more about that site! :)
@@dreamdiction What video did you watch?
Well done bro!
@@dreamdiction wow you are really arrogant. Facts don't change your mind
@Upgrayedd The biggest wall in human history was in west Africa 😊
@Upgrayedd it was 15,000km long
There's Thimlich Ohinga in Migori, Kenya. Definitely built by the same people. Same architecture despite being smaller.
By diminishing the works of other cultures we diminish our own.
Q U who is diminishing „white culture“? No one here as far as I know has discredited anything Europeans have done. Europeans did many great things and have incredible cultures. Why not give other cultures a spot light as well and learn what they have done alongside Europeans?
Q U - White culture is in no way being diminished by making a video about a black culture. That makes no sense.
Q U stfu
How so?
@Q U stop breathing bull shit. White cultrue is fine.
As a Xhosa South African I can't help but feel that maybe there's a chance that my ancestral line had some connection to city/cities of Great Zimbabwe. Shona's are after all Bantu people's themselves and these were pre-colonial border times before we were forcefully bound to one geographical area.
U never know since they say Khoisan intermarried with bantu s
That would be awesome!
I doubt that maybe via trade but Xhosa from what I know were not a part of the Mutapa empire.
They definitely were. The Xhosa were became a mix of the bantu and the Khoisan. That's why you would find that even though Xhosa has clicks in it and Shona does not, we still share quite a number of words. The bantu that moved further south during the great migration intermixed. I am thinking of doing a series on the documented and oral history of Africa especially south of the Sahara
Very cool documentary. Learned a lot about sub-Saharan African pre-colonial history that I didn't know. It's a shame that more of their oral history didn't survive over the ages, especially the names and histories of the people.
I think the first video on your channel I saw was your epic on the Sea People, but I had seen a few of your brother's videos before. Y'all are awesome. Keep up the good work.
I've always wondered if there were great undiscovered ancient civilizations in more tropical areas. The main reason we know so much about Egypt and Mesopotamia is because they're in an environment that preserves things better than most parts of the world
Thx for teaching my people’s history
Kaname Suzaku humans are one people
The people of Africa should be telling their own history
Critical Thinker I know
Finally a leftist in these comments, also a ml here
@@anonymousalias.5059 i feel your pain, when you look through history channels comments and its nothing but reactionaries
Proudly Matabele and Shona Iwill always be proud of Zimbabwe history....
Though temporarily setback.
Muchi.
This is a fantastic part of history that we don’t hear a lot about. I love learning about this, along with the Mali and Ghana Empire. During the Middle Ages subsaharan Africa was thriving just as much, if not more than Europe. Great cities and castles like these. Would love an ‘accurately’ made movie or something in the future showing off the glory of Africa during this time!
Rocky Fletch I’m not sure the entire total of either, but does it really matter? There are many of them dotted all around the continent and many deep in the wilderness so there’s little archeological digs around them. There’s no doubting how great these African civilisations were and what they built!
Rocky Fletch throughout Europe there was war after war, poverty and disease was incredibly prevailing, life and infant mortality was poor. In general if you weren’t royalty or a noble you wouldn’t live long or get out of it. While Africa’s kingdoms was based a lot on trade rather then war and expansion. For example Mansa Musa was the richest man in history from the Mali empire, he made pilgrimages across the Sahara to North Africa and traded gold for salt, which in turn caused inflation. The amount of goods like salt returned back brought very stable lives to common people in Africa during this era, there’s many more examples
Rocky Fletch my points clear now?...
Rocky Fletch that’s a stupid ignorant statement. I genuinely love history and from all parts of the world. If you were to research the evidence, it’s clear that the mass disease, poverty and constant wars were not present as much in Africa during medieval times, whereas kingdoms on Africa were building their cities, riches and economy through trade. Back then. In Africa there weren’t want you would call ‘peasants’. There were emperors, kings, soldiers, regular people, traders, nomadic tribes, hunter gatherers and each nobles had some slaves. Most European kingdoms had kings, nobles and a peasant society with many political issues alongside the low life expectancy and wars they had to fought and die in.
Rocky Fletch a lot of the stuff you mentioned are a result of post colonialism and issues that weren’t present before then. There is a few carvings from baboon bones that are moulded with quartz and show a numbered tally system in Southern Africa from 35,000 years ago (which is the oldest of its kind found) and it’s kind of stupid to assume African kingdoms got the idea of castles from Europe. What was Europe before Christianity? They had no castles and mostly restricted civilisations to the Mediterranean where they got Middle Eastern influence. Also the first dynasties of Egypt were black Africans, so were Egypt’s biggest rivals the Nubians in modern day Sudan who conquered Egypt several times! This is much earlier than any sort of civilised Europe
Love it! Only partways in and am super interested in learning about Kilwa. Any chance we can get Voices of the Past to find some of Ibn Battuta's words about this land?
@Derek Adjei thanks I will absolutely be checking this out. This is part of Africa I am super interested in.
We will definitely cover Ibn Battuta. He’s one of the greatest historical sources of all time fo sho.
Check out PBS' African Civilizations with Henry Louis Gates Jnr. Great source of info, with commentry from contributors
This is fantastic! Thanks for exploring history that's so neglected in the west and in the English language. Great work!
The video is in English dummy.
@@michaelrowsell1160 What an insightful reply. I was thanking History Time for a video that explores a topic that gets almost no air time in English language sources. I see that, though you recognize the video as being in English, you don't understand English sentence structure OR how not to be a pratt. Thank you for you comment.
Thank you, this documentary was uploaded just in time for my history project on Zimbabwe. It's very interesting!
All the best on your assignment. From Zimbabwe
For a merit badge in Boy Scouts some of my troop went to a local educational digsite and one of the individuals helping us actually had experience working at Great Zimbabwe. I wrote my "paper" on this place so that got brought up. I was a middle schooler more interested in other things and didn't appreciate how incredibly cool that was.
Thanks for making this film. My friend's father was Peter Garlake and I had gone out there to hopefully work for him, but it didn't happen unfortunately. Got to Masvingo, Nalatale and Matopos caves and many other places. I heard the hum of the earth for the first time in Domboshava. I absolutely love Zimbabwe. My heart is still there I believe.
Thank you, I was drawn to this by your recent upload about the abhorrent comments. I’ve got to say I’m almost glad you got those comments so I could be recommended this, how sad though people want to dismiss a clearly important part of world history and culture. Thank you 🙏
This is a really interesting and intriguing series on the history of the African peoples and places! I've already got them all queued up to watch, one after the other, and am looking forward to them all! I love learning about the deep, rich history of places I will never get to visit, so this has been, is, and I expect will be such a perfect series of videos on just that thing! ❤ Thank all of you for coming together and doing this!
I absolutely love learning about Africa, it’s history, cultures, tribes, and archaeology. It’s so fascinating
Just fascinating !!! THANK ALL YOU GUYS FOR THIS SERIES !!! It's about time the Story of Africa is told to the whole world.
I think an important part of this history that was not mentioned in this documentary is that Great Zimbabwe was built over 400 years by successive kings, and it is 1000 years old. Some of the rulers are Nyatsimba Mutota, Changamire Dombo, Chaitezvi, (the king who thought he was powerful so he deserved to bring down the moon and keep it, killed lots of natives after the wooden trusses fell from great height), Munhumutapa 1 and Munhumutapa II (who had strong links with Portugal). The Portuguese have a portrait of Munhumutapa II.
@Dan C They did not go back to a nomadic "hunter-gatherer lifestyle". They were already too advanced for that. The Ndebele happened (1600-1800AD) and they had a deadly warrior force with more battle experience due to Tshaka Zulu's Mfecane wars (the annihilation of tribes). Before they could recover from the Ndebele, European colonization came knocking.This was now after 1800AD. The timeline is very precise and thanks to the Portuguese, historical records have a verification point
@Dan C Which people are you talking about?Remember, my comment is only on Great Zimbabwe. The Rozvi Empire was taken over by the Ndebele, most of the people in this tribe who now bear Shona related animal names as surnames (Nyathi---buffalo, Dube---zebra, Nkomo---cattle, Ndlovu---elephant, Sibanda---lion, Moyo---heart, Gumbo---leg etc) follow their lineage to this citadel. I don't like mixing things because every kingdom and country rose or fell due to many different reasons. War, famine, depletion of resources, epidemics, death of rulers, or a combination of them. Historical signatures can only give you pointers but are never definitive.
@Dan C Your question was very direct and I understood it, the rest is sticks and spanners. You wanted to know what happened, a record to justify the vanishing of the occupants of the Great Zimbabwe citadel. The Ndebele destroyed the Rozvi society as I mentioned earlier, after a century of Portuguese failure to colonize it. There is no record out there better than what Portugal and Britain have. The gold,beads, pottery, tools and images from the site were collected by the 2 countries through 18th century lootings and legally approved excavations after 1945. The Zimbabwe birds were all returned, except 1. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, so its untouchable for further exploration due to preservation regulations.
@IM HO Excellent analysis and excellent thought provoking questions. To answer some of your questions which are indeed a mystery here is my line of thought. I think those Great cities and Empires are much much older than the time frame mentioned in this documentary and all history books. I think the inhabitants of these people were very ancient and possible had a direct link or were part of the Nubian/Egyptian lineage. Judging from the architect of the buildings which is not as sophisticated as the Sphinx or the Pyramids of Giza, my best guess is that these earlier inhabitants possibly predated the Egyptians..... Or another hypothesis is that they are descendants of the Egyptians and Nubians after their civilisations have been destroyed and long forgotten way past their Golden age..... And yes you are absolutely right that for a very complex society with such complex buildings of great architecture, geometric mathematical precision, surely there must had been a complex standard of written knowledge, laws and civilised form of governance with organised law and order. I suspect there is more into this story than we are made to believe. And also remember almost 3000 years ago there was Great Northern to Southern migration of the Bantu people after the Sahara became inhabitable. Who were these Bantu people.... Could they had been the ancient Libyans / Egyptians???? Moreover also in Egypt Horus was also depicted almost the same as that Zimbabwean Bird that you see at Great Zimbabwe. Lastly, an archaeologist had recently found out that the Great Zimbabwe was built with geometrical and astrological alignment with the Orion Belt which once again was held sacred to Ancient Libya/ Egypt.
@@metaphysicalacademym.a2580 If they were from Egypt why didn't they bring written language?
The history of Great Zimbabwe is inspiring! Am sure there are many such great stories in Sub-Saharan Africa lost in oral tradition that has not been documented. It is time for historians and scientists to regroup these great histories.
The oral accounts have been documented. You can find some online.
Thanks for putting so much hard work into giving us high quality history.
I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart!
Sending tons of love and warmth brother!
Congratulations . Great documentary. Thank You!
I'm Zimbabwean and when I visited Great Zimbabwe, I couldn't believe what lay before my eyes, I must confess , At one moment i was inclined to conclude that the natives did not build the city ..............................Its too beautiful, The Shona People of that were geniuses wowwww .The city , i mean it just needs you to see for yourself.
this is what is meant by institutionalized racism. How can you really treat a race equal if you think they are not capable of the same mental abilities as your own race?
The largest African language in terms of its native speakers is Shona of Zimbabwe probably the only country with one native language for more than 90% of its population
We the shona originally came from Mpungubwe and settled in Great Zimbabwe
We (shona) built these kingdoms and those that followed
22:24 That is a depiction of the Plains Nilotic Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania. Not the captioned Shona.
True I noticed that too
Great to see some more Sub-Saharan African history on this channel! I was so impressed with your impartiality in the Mansa Musa video I was excited to see you cover more !
Despite what the “nathionalists” and “euro-centrics” are saying in the comments, this is a fascinating civilization. If their ancestors had to lie and claim Zimbabwe was made by Europeans or Middle Easterners, that’s how you know that it was a sophisticated place!
Can’t wait to see more on Sub-Saharan Africa in the future, great work
Great! Thanks for watching.. more African history on the way for sure.
It's not a lie to claim [Rhodesia] was created by Europeans. They bought the land, they created a civilization greater than anything the Africans created, and then it was stolen from them and destroyed. Why do people feel a need to undermine the achievements of any group of people?
@@shaunpatrick8345 They 'bought the land'
@@sunnya2203 if you've got a problem with that, take it up with the descendants of king Lobengula.
Shaun Patrick O'Jameson it’s not like Rhodesia was gonna last 😒 the natives hated them from the start they were eventually gonna forcefully take it back.
Thanks!
Thank you for posting this. I came from a small town and my parents didn't have great resources for education so I grew up ignorant to a lot. I'm trying to do better so I can teach my kids the things I didn't know as well. They need to be more worldly.
This is professional quality! Thank you!
Isn't it bizarre that upon all the trading that was done, the Africans knew nothing about writing? We all know that in the ancient past, writing was known only by a selected few in the palaces of kings. Could it be that is the case here in Africa such that when the Europeans invaded, they literary burn and destroy all such writings? Since not a lot of people knew how to write, the written part vanished forever? Examples are Timbuktu manuscripts, if it wasn't buried or hidden, it would have been lost to time, and nobody would believe these Africans could read or write in Arabic. Another example is the French banning the bamum alphabet. Many more other examples, now, let the hateful comments begin.
Oh my gosh! This is incredible. Thank you so much for sharing this inspirational story teaching us about the complex and beautiful history of Southern Africa. What a educational video, teaching us about new things that we were never taught in school. Thank you so much and please continue.
Proudly 🇿🇼🇿🇼🇿🇼
I am super excited for more content on Africa. There are few neutral documentaries, and a lot of essentially ethnocentric or "nationalist" (yes I know it's a continent) garbage.
Gavin Kisebach well said. Unfortunately we live in an age of egoism and identity politics. Both of which are toxic to the mind and spirit, and actually inhibit learning/personal development
What do you mean? People making the documentaries are .....making certain countries look bad and others good? I'm just not sure what you mean.
Bull shit. Ethnocentricism doesnt occur anymore in the fields of history and archaeology. But right on for keeping the everything-is-racist bull shit alive
@@alexanderlittle9786 Although most intellectuals today may frown apon those people, they still do exist. Don't lie to yourself.
Cowafungus If telling history objectively is making certain nations look bad, perhaps instead of complaining you should examine and acknowledge the “bad” said nations had done...
The God worshiped by the people of Great Zimbabwe was named Musika Vanhu (creator of man), the single God of the Shona people.
Its Mwari actually the Musika Vanhu is likely a title.
The largest African language in terms of its native speakers is Shona of Zimbabwe probably the only country with one native language for more than 90% of its population
We the shona originally came from Mpungubwe and settled in Great Zimbabwe
We (shona) built these kingdoms and those that followed
I love how he’s not only bringing up Great Zimbabwe but also nearby city states and trading post.
This was wonderful. As a History grad student, I know shamefully little about African history. Thank you to you and everyone else who contributed to this collaboration! I was fascinated by these cities-I can imagine the history that we don't know in terms of their relationships to each other and their culture.