Origins and Decline of Mutapa State

The Kingdom of Mutapa State was a medieval kingdom which stretched between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers of Southern Africa in the modern states of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

It is the Kingdom that came after Great Zimbabwe. Its founders are culturally and politically related to the builders who constructed Great Zimbabwe. It was comprised of a Karanga majority speaking people, which is a type of Shona language- an official language of present day Zimbabwe.

Mwene Mutapa is Shona for Ravager of the Lands and was also the title held by the dynasty of kings who ruled Mutapa empire.

Origins

Around 1425, Nyatsimba Mutota, the first Mwene, embarked on a conquest of the inland plateau. Matope, the son of Mutota completed the conquest and expansion started by his father. The empire was the most powerful political entities for most of the 1470s

In the early seventeenth century, the Portuguese arrived in the area eventually colonizing what is now Mozambique. After gaining control of the Monomotapa in the early years of the century they were later driven out after a defeat in 1693.

The Mutapa State gave a stable government to many people across a large territory for a century and a half. It represents a pre-colonial African polity that flourished before the coming of European rule. Written sources dating from 1502 make a study of this Empire an important but neglected field.

The Mutapa State may not have been the equal of contemporary European empires in technology but its craftsmen produced high-quality artifacts while trade was carefully regulated with set measurements and standards to ensure fairness. Knowledge of this empire, built up through commerce more so than conquest, can help to construct a balanced story of where, when and how human societies have flourished.

Expansion

Mutota’s successor, Matope, extended this new kingdom into a great empire encompassing most of the lands between Tavara and the Indian Ocean. The Mwenemutapa became very wealthy by exploiting copper from Chidzurgwe and ivory from the middle Zambezi.

This expansion weakened the Torwa kingdom, the southern Shona state from which Mutota and his dynasty originated. Mwenemutapa Matope’s armies overran the kingdom of the Manyika as well as the coastal kingdoms of Kiteve and Madanda. By the time the Portuguese arrived on the coast of Mozambique, the Mutapa Kingdom was the premier Shona state in the region.

Political organization

The empire was ruled by the Munhumutapa (Mwanamutapa, Monomotapa), who was considered divine. Mutapa continued the stone building traditions of Great Zimbabwe. Zvongombe was one of the early capitals and contains some of the elaborate stone structures seen in Great Zimbabwe. Conquest was solidified by land distribution. A type of feudal system developed.

The empire was ruled on the capital, provincial, and village levels. Initially, it was only kins of the munhumutapa were assigned to provinces and villages. Individuals called nevanje controlled provinces.

Economy

Gold mining was an important economic activity, more for international export via the Swahili town of Sofala and later Portuguese ports. The empire held a monopoly on gold and was a major commodity of trade.

It was forbidden by law to reveal the location of gold mines. Transgression of this law held a death sentence. The state-owned all gold in the empire.

Ivory was another important commodity for international trade and was much sought after by the Swahili and the Portuguese. International trade stimulated the growth of an African merchant class called the Vashambadzi. They were middlemen between African laborers providing goods and Swahili and Portuguese traders. Africans mainly purchase cloth, beads, and other exotic goods from the Portuguese.

Local trade

Iron was also mined. Iron was more important for the local trade, which was used for making hoes. Salt, especially in the Middle Save region, was very important to local trade. The empire grew cotton and produced cotton cloth. They even made cloth from the bark of the baobab tree.

The decline

In 1561, Goncalo da Silveria, Portuguese Jesuit missionary managed to make his way into the Mwenemutapa’s court and convert him into Christianity. This didn’t go too well with the Muslim merchants in the capital and the persuaded the king to kill the missionary only a few days after the baptism.

This was the only excuse the Portuguese needed to take over the gold mines and Ivory routes. Matope used the Portuguese to his advantage to help him fight off other factions because the state didn’t have a strong military.

By 1629 the Mwene Mutapa tried to throw out the Portuguese but he failed and instead, he himself was overthrown.

Another problem was that Mutapa State’s tributaries such as Kiteve, Madanda and Manyka ceased paying tribute. At the same time, a new kingdom called Barwe was the rise. All of this was hastened by Portugal retaining a presence on the coast and in the capital. At least one part of the 1629 treaty that was acted on was the provision allowing Portuguese settlement within Mutapa. It also allowed the praezeros to establish fortified settlements across the kingdom. In 1663, the praezeros were able to depose a sitting mwenemutapa and put their own nominee on the throne.

Butwa invasion

By the 1600s, a dynasty of Rozvi pastoralist under the leadership a Changamire (king) were leading transforming the Butwa kingdom into new regional power. The Rozvi not only originated from the Great Zimbabwe area, but still resided there and built their capital towns in stone. They were also importing goods from the Portuguese without any regard for the mwenemutapa.

By the late seventeenth century, Changamire Dombo was actively challenging Mutapa. In 1684, his forces encountered and decisively defeated those of Mwenemutapa Mukombwe just south of Mutapa’s metro district. When Mukombwe died in 1693, a succession crisis erupted. The Portuguese backed one successor and Dombo another. In an act which effectively made Mutapa a Butwa vassal, Changamire Dombo razed the fair-town of Dembarare next to the Mutapa capital and slaughtered the Portuguese traders and their entire following.

In 1695, Changamire Dombo over-ran the gold-producing kingdom of Manyika and took his army east and destroyed the Portuguese fair-town of Masikwesi. This allowed him complete control of all gold-producing territory from Butwa to Manyika, supplanting Mutapa as the premier Shona kingdom in the region. The reign of the last Mwenemutapa to rule from the rump state ended in 1698, and his position was never filled. Remnants of the government established another Mutapa kingdom in Mozambique that is sometimes referred to as Karanga. The Karanga kings styled themselves Mambos (singular Mambo) and reigned in the region until 1902. This is referred to as the Second Mutapa State.

Legacy

For several centuries, this trading empire enabled people across a large territory to live in peace and security under a stable government and succession of rulers. With primary records dating back to 1502, the empire is a “prime testing ground for theories … concerning economic, political and religious development” in pre-colonial Africa. Beach comments that the Mutapa was one of only four Shona states that was not entirely “uprooted by new settlements of people” and the only one “close to Portuguese centers” thus providing important data on contact and relationships between this and other Shona states as well as with Europeans. The Mutapa Empire is an example of a working system of government in Africa and of a flourishing civilization, both of which are often assumed to have been absent before the coming of the Europeans.