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Shrouded in mystery, the ruins of Great Zimbabwe rise from an unlikely spot in Africa's interior. Casely-Hayford traces an ancient gold-trading route and explores the city which served as its source.
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00:05Africa, where the human race began.
00:10Nearly a billion people live here.
00:14And it's a continent with an incredible diversity of communities and cultures.
00:20Yet we know less of its history than almost anywhere else on Earth.
00:28But that's beginning to change.
00:31In the last few decades, researchers and archaeologists have begun to uncover a range of histories as impressive and extraordinary
00:38as anywhere else on Earth.
00:43It's a history which has been neglected for years, and it's largely without written records.
00:50But it is preserved for us in the gold and statues, in the culture, art and legends of the people.
01:03My name is Gus Casely-Hayford.
01:05Over many years, I've studied the history and culture of Africa.
01:12As an art historian, I'm used to drawing stories from new objects from the past.
01:16I'm going to discover the history and find out what really happened to the lost kingdoms of Africa.
01:33In 1871, a German geologist exploring southern Africa stumbled across these extraordinary ruins.
01:41He was astonished by what he found.
01:43A vast stone city, stranded in the empty savannah.
01:49Great Zimbabwe.
01:51He had no idea who was responsible for this astounding feat of architecture.
01:56But he was sure of one thing.
01:58It was too sophisticated to have been built by Africans.
02:04Thankfully, these assumptions have been discredited today.
02:08But only now are we piecing together the fragments we know about this lost civilization.
02:13And its connections to other kingdoms of pre-colonial southern Africa.
02:18Could great Zimbabwe really have been an African Eldorado?
02:22A city built on gold?
02:24In this film, I'm going in search of the story of one of the most mysterious cities and societies in
02:30Africa.
02:31I don't think we can understand this kingdom without understanding the civilizations and kingdoms that grew up around it.
02:38It was part of a rich and fascinating history, largely unknown.
02:42A history of wealth, trade and gold.
02:46My journey to find out about great Zimbabwe would take me from the Swahili coast in modern day Tanzania,
02:53to Mozambique, South Africa, and hopefully to modern Zimbabwe itself,
02:58where no BBC crew has been allowed to film for eight years.
03:03My first stop is right here at the edge of the continent, where Africa meets the Indian Ocean.
03:18This is the ancient Swahili coast.
03:23For centuries, people have been drawn here from as far away as China, India and the Middle East.
03:32And they've been drawn here by trade.
03:35Trade in goods, but particularly trade in gold.
03:42For many years, Western scholars paid little attention to the history of this coast.
03:47They didn't think it fitted into the wider trade patterns of the ancient world,
03:51to Arabia in the north and India in the east.
03:55But recent research now suggests that this coast was central to an international trade in gold.
04:02Gold which originated in great Zimbabwe, 1500 kilometers inland.
04:07And I think this ancient trade route may lead to a better understanding of what great Zimbabwe actually represents
04:14in the untold history of this continent.
04:28There's evidence to suggest that traders were already coming to this coast from far afield as long ago as the
04:34first century AD.
04:38I've got my holiday reading with me, which is a bit more than holiday reading.
04:43This is the Periplus of the Eritrean Sea, which is a first century guide to the Indian Ocean.
04:52It talks about all the sorts of wonderful places that merchants and sailors could have traveled in that time to
05:00ply their trade.
05:02And it talks about this place called Raptor, which is supposed to be the most southerly port in Africa that
05:09you could then travel to.
05:10So, the Periplus is an ancient Greek text which describes the ports and cities which dot this coast all the
05:16way up to Arabia.
05:18According to the Periplus, Raptor was the place where traders from India and Arabia came to buy ivory, fine tortoiseshell
05:25and rhinoceros hall.
05:27In return, the people of Raptor imported spears, daggers and glass.
05:32But unfortunately, the Periplus is vague on the exact whereabouts of Raptor.
05:37And the stories of this trading city have been dismissed as legend.
05:43Now, however, Professor Felix Charmy of the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania thinks he might have found it.
05:52Are you Felix?
05:52How are you, man?
05:53Hi.
05:54Hi.
05:55I've heard a lot about you.
05:58I've been reading my Periplus in preparation for this.
06:00Good, man.
06:01Well, I know you're the man to show me around.
06:03You're welcome.
06:04Give me the legendary Raptor.
06:05I mean, if you found it, this is quite something, so I'm expecting a lot.
06:09You're welcome.
06:11You're welcome.
06:17Felix Charmy is a world-renowned archaeologist whose work has been instrumental in piecing together the ancient history of the
06:25Swahili coast.
06:26If he has indeed found Raptor, this will rank as his greatest discovery yet.
06:33It will also prove that this region is a vibrant part of the ancient world.
06:40Did you see a crocodile?
06:42Seriously?
06:43Yeah.
06:44Oh, that's it.
06:48It's a lizard, isn't it?
06:49Monitoring lizard.
06:51It's just amazing.
06:55Felix and I are on the Rafiji River, which flows to the Indian Ocean from deep within the African interior.
07:03You managed to do it and not get any mud on your shoes?
07:06Yeah.
07:07The other side was wet, I thought it.
07:12Felix believes that Raptor once stood near the banks of this river.
07:16But Felix's idea of Nia is a little different from mine.
07:21It's also dangerous.
07:22You can see there are snakes here.
07:23There are snakes?
07:24I wouldn't be a fan of snakes, Felix.
07:26The kind of snakes?
07:27All sorts.
07:29Pythons.
07:29Pythons?
07:30Pythons, yes.
07:35The Periplus talks of Raptor as a great trading centre.
07:39A cosmopolitan metropolis where traders from all over the ancient world would meet and barter and try to make a
07:47quick buck.
07:47But it's difficult to imagine such a vibrant place existing here in this riverside wilderness with crocodiles and snakes.
07:58I'm beginning to wonder if the charming Felix Charmy has made a mistake.
08:06Then, one hour later, in the dirt beneath our feet, fragments of an ancient world emerge.
08:15This is the beginning of what I call a raptor site.
08:21And actually, if you look down, the pottery of 2,000 years probably has been brought down from the settlement.
08:31And if you again move and see the ground, as you can see, for example, you can see this one?
08:37This is a piece of pottery. For sure, it is 2,000 years old.
08:41Once you get your eye in, they're everywhere, aren't they?
08:44Yeah, and actually, if you are able to clean this ground, you'll see more.
08:47You can see there's another piece there.
08:49Yes.
08:49And when we go up, I'll show you more.
08:53Buried beneath the dirt and foliage of this isolated wilderness, Felix thinks he's found something remarkable.
08:59There are two people, shards of pottery, tantalising evidence of an ancient settlement.
09:06So, somewhere under here may well be the remains of a raptor.
09:13Exactly.
09:15Felix thinks he's found raptor because of the age and variety of the pottery which lies hidden beneath the surface.
09:22I promise you that I'll show you some pot sheds.
09:28They are 2,000 years old.
09:302,000 years old.
09:31Actually, carbon-14 dating for this material is giving us a date of 200 to about 300 A.D.
09:36So, 200 A.D. is a common date here for this kind of pottery.
09:40Are these imported or are they made?
09:42They are local.
09:42They're local?
09:43They are local, yes.
09:44Have you found pottery that has come from beyond these shores?
09:49Yes, yes.
09:50We have found good amount of ceramics which are brought from different parts of the world.
09:57This pottery from Egypt was examined by a professor in Sweden and he confirmed this pottery is from the Nile
10:05Valley.
10:06You can see the texture of it.
10:08It's incredibly fine and light, isn't it?
10:10Exactly, exactly.
10:11You can even see the color of it, the pinkish color of it.
10:14Yes.
10:14No.
10:17It feels like we're in the middle of nowhere, but the evidence from the pottery, its age, its varied provenance
10:24and the sheer amount of shards suggest that Felix might be right.
10:28That in this empty place, a trading center once thrived, playing host to merchants from as far afield as ancient
10:36Egypt and India.
10:38Evidence that, from the earliest of times, this part of Africa had established trade routes with the wider world.
10:45Talking to Felix, I mean he's opened up a whole raft of possibilities of where to explore next.
10:54But more than anything, it's this idea that this was the hub of a whole network of ports that ran
11:06down this bit of the coast.
11:26According to the Periplus, raptor traded in goods from the African interior like ivory and rhinoceros horn, but there's no
11:34sign yet of the trade in gold which I'm looking for.
11:39But as I head back into town the next morning, toward the markets that bustle here today, I can hear
11:45the evidence of a legacy of trade, exchange and contact with the world beyond this coast in the language that
11:53people speak.
11:59Swahili is an African language, but one which has incorporated many words from around the world, like a linguistic melting
12:06pot.
12:07The word Swahili itself actually comes from the Arabic word for coast.
12:13And there are traces of Indian and even Portuguese too.
12:18In fact, Portuguese traders first passed through here in 1498 and described a spectacularly wealthy city on an island just
12:29off the coast.
12:29And that's where I'm headed next.
12:34And the Portuguese produced these absolutely beautiful maps and illustrations of this gorgeous place.
12:42And it just looks so deeply impressive.
12:45And if the place lives up to this, it's just going to be magnificent.
12:51The city was Kilwa Kisiwani, a city whose streets the Portuguese described as overflowing with gold and filled with black
13:00moors, the old European term for Africans.
13:04Colonial historians assume that Kilwa was an Arab outpost because of its Muslim heritage.
13:10But now we think that Kilwa was African, that these were black African Muslims.
13:16An interpretation backed up by the observations of the famous Arab traveller, Ibn Battuta, who came to Kilwa in 1331.
13:25He talks about Kilwa as one of the most beautiful cities.
13:28And he talks about the local population as being a very dark complexion.
13:35And he describes their ethnic scarifications.
13:40I mean, this really was an African city.
13:43And it was also a very profitable one.
13:48The reason I'm here is that a copper coin like this from 14th century Kilwa has been found at Great
13:55Zimbabwe,
13:551,500 kilometres inland.
14:00Evidence, perhaps, that Great Zimbabwe and Kilwa are two ends of what was a lucrative trade in goods.
14:14Those early Portuguese travellers described a city of fine coral-built houses,
14:20and the ruler's hundred-room palace full of gold, silver and precious stones.
14:26The site is still spectacular today.
14:33Among the ruins are the houses which would have accommodated the travelling foreign traders
14:38who regularly descended on Kilwa from across the ocean.
14:45Local guide, Athmani Abdullah, has agreed to show me around.
14:52So why, particularly Kilwa, why was it such an important post in terms of the trading network along the coast?
14:59Yeah, it was important because it was easier for the traders who used the sailing boats to come here.
15:09So it acts like a barrier.
15:11Because when you come in, you can anchor easily.
15:15Because these guys were travelling through the monsoon wind.
15:20The direction of the prevailing wind on the Swahili coast changes twice a year,
15:26allowing ships to cross the Indian Ocean and return again within 12 months.
15:32And that's why Kilwa was ideally placed to serve as East Africa's gateway to the trading networks of the ancient
15:39world.
15:43Lovely to meet you, Stephanie.
15:44Hi. Nice to meet you.
15:45Welcome to Kilwa.
15:46Oh, thank you.
15:48British archaeologist Stephanie Wynne-Jones of Bristol University is an expert on Kilwa's history
15:54and has studied how its fortunes have ebbed and flowed through the ages.
15:59One of the things that's really been demonstrated through the archaeology
16:02is that there's been a settlement here since at least the 9th century AD.
16:07They were really integrated into the Indian Ocean system, actually,
16:10and there were a lot of imports brought to the site, mainly from the Persian Gulf area, also from India,
16:15as sort of reaching this island at that date.
16:18So what was being traded through this port, exported, what sorts of goods were...
16:22Well, in general, from the Swahili coast, the products of the African hinterland were being traded,
16:27often in the form of raw materials.
16:30Kilwa was particularly famous for gold, and the source of Kilwa's wealth was based on the gold trade from the
16:36south,
16:36from the Zimbabwe Plateau.
16:39This was an island state made rich by gold.
16:42These merchants knew the international value of the precious metal and bargained hard.
16:49And as the gold flowed through Kilwa, by the 14th century, the city had become one of the most important
16:57and richest ports in Africa.
17:00And if you look closely enough, some of that wealth is still visible.
17:06Well, this is the Great Mosque of Kilwa, the Congregational Mosque, which would have served for the Friday prayer when
17:13the whole community would come together.
17:15And one of the things that's quite wonderful about this particular structure are the domes and vaults that you can
17:21see in the roof.
17:23And this is a very particularly Kilwa phenomenon to have this sort of quantity of domes and all the sort
17:32of arches and collars that you see here.
17:33And finding this incredible material, I mean, this is coral, isn't it?
17:37It is. And, I mean, this is one of the, this is the defining characteristic of Swahili architecture.
17:43We call these places stone towns and we refer to stone houses, but actually there's no natural, particularly good natural
17:50sources of stone on the coast.
17:52And instead this architectural style developed where they used the coral, which is found in abundance here, and the entire
17:59structures are built of coral.
18:02The blocks, like the one that you're looking at, were actually cut from the living coral.
18:08And because it was soft, they were able to use it for these carved features.
18:13And then how would it have been finished and what would it have looked like if I came in?
18:17Well, well, the entire thing would have been plastered also with lime plaster, which actually also comes from coral.
18:23So everything is from coral from start to finish.
18:28And it would have appeared, you know, totally smooth and totally white.
18:31And it would have been a very beautiful thing to look at actually.
18:40Beautiful and technically sophisticated.
18:44Many of the great buildings of Europe were built around the same time.
18:49The Piazza del Campo in Siena, the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.
18:54To my mind, this is surely a match for them.
19:04Kilwa was clearly a busy, confident trading centre.
19:08A city-state that was intimately linked with the wider world economy.
19:14But if Kilwa's wealth came from the gold it traded across this vast ocean, the source of this wealth, the
19:21precious commodity which formed the basis of this trade, is not found in Kilwa.
19:35Africa's gold comes from deep inland, from the high plateau of Zimbabwe, 1500 kilometres away.
19:44And I'm going to try and trace this gold route to its source.
19:51I'm travelling inland from the post, heading towards the ancient gold lands.
19:58And somewhere out here, I'm hoping to find an outpost of one of Africa's greatest kingdoms.
20:07We know that Great Zimbabwe was at its zenith in the 13th and 14th centuries, just when Kilwa II was
20:13at its height.
20:14But Great Zimbabwe is still two countries, one visa application and many days travelling away.
20:21I'm looking for outposts of this gold trading kingdom here in Mozambique.
20:28Tantalizingly, my guide tells me that there's a Zimbabwe type ruin, just 70 kilometres inland from here.
20:38This site, Manikini, is mentioned in the history books, but I can't find it on any map.
21:00These sandy roads are a bit of a challenge actually, but I'm a bit more used to acting in rush
21:07hour than this, but I'm loving it nevertheless.
21:21There's a welcome waiting for me, led by local historian Vicente Villanculos.
21:30And the villagers want to perform a small good luck ceremony for us.
21:36We have visitors here that want all things to go well, so that no snakes, no one can be beaten
21:44or something go wrong.
21:45Thank you. I particularly hate snakes, so I think that's really grateful to you. Thank you.
21:50The chief's son offers beer to the ancestors on our behalf.
22:01The ancestors have heard us and have welcomed us.
22:05Thank you very much. Thank you.
22:06With the blessings of his forebears, Vicente and I set off for the ruins of Manikini.
22:12And what was its relationship to the coast and also to Great Zimbabwe?
22:18Actually, Manikini was in between the coast and the Great Zimbabwe.
22:23People from the coast used to bring, like, things to trade here, and this was a trading place.
22:31Actually, Manikini means, it's a burnt word that means the place where people can give to each other.
22:38Really? Yes. That's what is the meaning of Manikini.
22:41The existence of Manikini was barely known to scholars until the 1970s.
22:47But when archaeologists did come to dig it up, they were rewarded with some clues about its past.
22:53They found things like gold, things like copper wires, things like blades, things like glass beads.
23:03But this is a lost history in more ways than one.
23:06The museum which housed most of Manikini's treasures was destroyed by fire.
23:15But while the artefacts have gone, the knowledge remains.
23:20We know that gold was found in the graves of Manikini's elders.
23:25And that there are some startling links to Great Zimbabwe.
23:30This grass here is typically from Great Zimbabwe.
23:35In Mozambique can be found just in this place.
23:38So this grass, this particular variety of grass, is only found...
23:43In Manikini. In Manikini. In Manikini.
23:45And Great Zimbabwe.
23:46So they brought this grass to feed their cattle?
23:49We don't find this kind of grass anywhere in Mozambique.
23:52So we believe that it was brought here mainly to feed the cattle.
23:59Great Zimbabwe means houses of stone.
24:03The walls of Manikini appear to have been built using a similar technique.
24:09Vicente is certain that the trading community at Manikini
24:13was once closely connected to the kingdom of Great Zimbabwe.
24:17So this is the walls, the walls of Manikini.
24:22They were built stone on stone.
24:25And it stood for many years and very strongly.
24:28And after doing business, people from the coast and people from Grand Zimbabwe,
24:32whatever they exchanged, like gold and beads and other things,
24:36they used to take this way to lead them to Grand Zimbabwe.
24:40Wow. So this is the gateway to Great Zimbabwe.
24:45Yes.
24:49Manikini seems to have been a crossing point in two senses.
24:53It seems likely that it was a place where gold was traded as a commodity,
24:57coming in from Great Zimbabwe, then going out toward the coast
25:00and by boat up to Kilwa.
25:03But it also seems to be a place where the attitude to the gold itself shifted.
25:09Grave findings at Manikini show that gold was not just a commodity.
25:13It was buried with the dead, very different from Kilwa.
25:19It's time to move further inland, but first a send-off from the ancestors.
25:27Manikini today is far from the bustling trading centre of the past.
25:32But it's a place where the past is remembered.
25:35And where the ancestors, who may once have formed an important cog
25:39in a larger global economy, are celebrated enthusiastically.
25:46This is sort of passing on to the future generations,
25:50because the old ones, they will be dying out,
25:53so they want their children to know how to dance.
25:56That's why they have to dance with the young ones.
25:59It seems a little bit easy, but it's not easy.
26:03It is believed the ancestors are dancing right now.
26:09And they're hearing it.
26:11They're happy that they have not been forgotten.
26:16The evidence that this place was once a link in the gold trade
26:20between Great Zimbabwe and the coast seems compelling.
26:24The architecture, the grass, the oral tradition,
26:27and the discoveries of gold all point that way.
26:30But before I head for Great Zimbabwe, I want to investigate stories
26:34of an even earlier kingdom, Mapangubwe.
26:40But to do that, I need to head for the modern city of Pretoria in South Africa.
26:47Mapangubwe is now part of South Africa's Limpopo province,
26:51and fate has been kinder to it than it has been to Manikini.
26:55The museum where Mapangubwe's glorious past is now stored is still standing,
27:00home to an astonishing collection of African gold.
27:05Curator Sian Tiley-Nell shows me the most famous piece,
27:09A Little Golden Rhino.
27:14Wow.
27:17The gold is so thin it almost glows, doesn't it?
27:21Yes, yes, the gold would have been hammered out on a stone anvil.
27:25What they would have done is they would have carved a wooden rhino
27:28and then formed the gold foil over the wood,
27:32and all the little holes you see are where minute tacks or nails
27:35would tack the gold sheeting to the wood, the wooden core.
27:39And, of course, the wood is disintegrated over 1,000 years.
27:42Almost 100% pure gold, so it's got a lovely, buttery shine to it.
27:46So they must have been a very powerful people.
27:48Yes, they were.
27:49In fact, there's many other gold artefacts that were found.
27:53The second perhaps most significant item is this gold sceptre or mace.
27:57It's the largest gold object that was recovered from the burial, also made of gold foil.
28:03Mabangubwe was a 12th century kingdom, only a short distance from the gold mines of the Zimbabwean plateau.
28:10Its people clearly developed great skill in gold smithing.
28:13This work is impressive by anyone's standards.
28:17As at Mani Keni, much of the treasure was found in the greys of the kings.
28:22And such burials imply a culture which valued gold for more than its commercial value.
28:30Gosh, this is a beautiful bowl, isn't it?
28:33Absolutely gorgeous.
28:34In fact, it's not a gold bowl, it's in fact a headdress.
28:38It was also found in one of the burials.
28:41For 75 years it's been interpreted as a bowl as such because it obviously just looks like a bowl.
28:46So I'm in good company.
28:48Whereas in fact it was found inverted near the cranium of the individual, near his head.
28:55Not as a crown, as if it would fit over the cranium, of course it's too small,
28:59but more a symbolic headdress of some sort.
29:01So Sian, who might have been buried with this?
29:04Well, the royalty buried with these gold objects, of course,
29:09were the ruling power of the Limpopo Valley at the time, or Southern Africa.
29:13So their wealth lay in not only the gold objects, but also their wealth in cattle,
29:18and trading right until the East Coast.
29:21The amount of trade glass beads that one finds at the site together with the gold,
29:25as well as the ivory, shows a very wealthy society.
29:30Time to visit Mapunggubwe for myself.
29:34Thanks to meet me.
29:35And for that, I need to get airborne.
29:39Local farmer Jacques Willemse has offered to give me a ride.
29:54From up here, things become a bit clearer.
29:58Below me is the mighty Limpopo, which flows to the coast.
30:03This huge river was for centuries a highway which carried people and goods from the interior to the coast.
30:23And there is what remains of the golden kingdom of Mapunggubwe.
30:34Today, Mapunggubwe is part of South Africa's national park system.
30:39The heart of the old kingdom is Mapunggubwe Hill.
30:46Park ranger Cedric Setlaco has agreed to show me around.
30:52This is the hill itself, Mapunggubwe Hill, where people lived about a thousand years ago.
30:59Wow.
31:00Archaeologists believe that Mapunggubwe's reach spread across Southern Africa from the 11th to the 13th centuries.
31:07And that after the kingdom collapsed, some of its people may have headed north and founded Great Zimbabwe.
31:14It was one of the most complex societies in Southern Africa, with a rigid division between the king, his ministers
31:21and his subjects.
31:24The king was buried here with a lot of artifacts.
31:28If you look at the hill itself, I mean, why the people would choose to live up here is because
31:33if you look around it, I mean, it's just sheer rock.
31:36I mean, there's no way that you can be able to access this hill.
31:39There's only one way up to the top.
31:44The kingdom's rulers kept the hill to themselves.
31:48Ordinary members of Mapunggubwe's society were not allowed in.
31:56Even in modern times, the hill still holds mystical powers to the people here.
32:02Most of the people long back used to believe that you wouldn't even look at the hill itself.
32:07They were even scared to look at the hill.
32:09I mean, even the person who brought the first people to discover the site.
32:15I mean, he had to turn his back and sort of, like, point it.
32:17There is the hill right behind me.
32:19And I'm not going there.
32:21Really?
32:21Yeah.
32:22So what might happen to you if you did look at the hill?
32:24I mean, some people believed that you would go blind or lose your life or die or something like that.
32:41It wasn't so bad, eh?
32:44Well, this view completely makes up for any tiredness I feel about that climb.
32:49It's just glorious.
32:50And suddenly you understand why you would want to build up here.
32:56Archaeologists have found remnants of the site of a grand stone enclosure here,
33:01with huts for servants and a wooden palisade built around the summit for privacy and defence.
33:07It was also where Mapunggubwe's rulers lived and died with their gold.
33:14This is exactly where that little green rhino came from.
33:24Just from around here.
33:26It's exactly where it was discovered.
33:28And also to indicate to you that from the bush back there up to here, this whole area, this was
33:36a burial site.
33:39These people were buried in a sitting position facing west,
33:42and each one of them was buried wearing these golden bracelets,
33:45and they were also buried with clay pots,
33:47which were filled with thousands and thousands of golden glass beads.
33:52So, Cedric, why was this site so important?
33:56Mapunggubwe is the first Southern African kingdom,
33:59meaning this is exactly where kingdomship started in Southern Africa.
34:03I mean, of all these kingdoms that are still in existence,
34:06I mean, today, I mean, this is exactly where it all started.
34:15The wooden and stone structures which would have stood here have long since disappeared.
34:20But the gold artefacts in Pretoria testify to this ancient kingdom's existence,
34:26its power and its wealth.
34:32But Cedric is keen to show me one aspect of Mapunggubwe life that still survives today.
34:39Now we have a game here.
34:44It was played by the Mapunggubwe people a thousand years ago.
34:47This is a game called Maruba Institute or Fuba In Venda.
34:52I think I recognise this, but please, tell me.
34:56Do you?
34:57Well, my family are from West Africa,
34:59and we have a game there which looks fairly similar, called Awari.
35:06Awari is an ancient game of strategy.
35:10Now, you see, the gloves are off. The gloves are off.
35:14I always thought that Awari was a West African tradition.
35:17But the fact that variations of it were played here in Mapunggubwe
35:21hints at connections which extend across the continent.
35:29So maybe this wasn't an isolated kingdom.
35:33Maybe it was connected with cultures across the continent.
35:43The outline of Mapunggubwe society may be faint today,
35:47but the kingdom's geography seems clear.
35:50The subjects and their families lived at the bottom of the hill,
35:54and at the top, protected by the forbidding stone enclosures,
35:59were the royal family and their retinue.
36:03And one of the things that has really struck me
36:06is how complex the sociology of this particular area is.
36:12I mean, if you imagine, the people came and they settled here,
36:16but they didn't just settle here,
36:18but they created a really complex social system.
36:23The support of all the people who would have lived down here,
36:26farming, trading, bringing the water up,
36:31all of that infrastructure to support the family,
36:36the elite that lived up there.
36:38And this was a real departure for this bit of Africa,
36:42a settled hierarchical society,
36:46and one that seemed to, at least for the period in which it was here,
36:53to really work as well.
36:58Mapenggubwe was once the most powerful kingdom in southern Africa.
37:03But by the 13th century, it seems to have collapsed.
37:06We don't know why.
37:08And there is much more we don't know about the life of the people here,
37:12like how power was handed down or what they believed in.
37:15But archaeologists now think that the people of Mapenggubwe
37:19may have travelled north to found an even bigger,
37:22more impressive kingdom, Great Zimbabwe.
37:33Good news!
37:35We've finally been granted permission to film in Great Zimbabwe,
37:39the greatest lost kingdom of southern Africa.
37:44I'm not going to pretend it's been easy getting permission to film in Zimbabwe.
37:49It's taken months of applications, persuasion,
37:53and at last it looks like we've got permission.
37:57But nothing is certain in Zimbabwe these days.
38:01Even with our permissions, there's still a border to cross.
38:11It took four hours, but eventually I'm in.
38:14A 16th century Portuguese captain described Great Zimbabwe
38:19as an almost mythical city.
38:22Among the gold mines of the inland plains
38:24is a fortress built of stones of marvellous size,
38:28and there appears to be no mortar joining them.
38:33Great Zimbabwe was Africa's El Dorado,
38:36a place of myth and mystery.
38:42I'm meeting Zimbabwe in archaeologists,
38:44Edward Mitenga, former curator of the entire site.
38:48Edward.
38:49Hello.
38:50Hello. It's Cass. Lovely to meet you.
38:51He tells me the ruins are so important to the people here
38:54that I must have the blessing of one of the site's spiritual guardians,
38:58Ambua Vazirira, before I can get in.
39:01Cass, what I'm saying is that you are welcome.
39:04He is a wonderful guest.
39:07So, now we are going to take you to the second entrance to the site.
39:13It's been a beautiful welcome.
39:16As well as curating this site,
39:19Edwin Mitenga has written extensively about Great Zimbabwe.
39:23He is recognised as one of the world's foremost authorities
39:26on this mysterious place.
39:28Before, say, 1890, this place was out of bounds.
39:32Really? To strangers?
39:34Yes.
39:34You are not a stranger anymore because you have now been accepted.
39:39I feel very honoured.
39:41So, basically, people would have to be initiated as it were
39:46and part of the initiation is passing through the entrance.
39:50I see.
39:57I see.
39:58I see.
39:58I see.
40:03So, she is the key to the site?
40:07Yes, she is the key.
40:09In her sort of responsibility, she has to open the entrance.
40:13Yes, she is the issue.
40:15She is, you'd have to stop here.
40:16Yes, stop here.
40:19Hey.
40:22A matter of who.
40:24There are a, there are a, there's a, there are a, there are a,
40:27there are a, there are an, there are a, there are a, there are...
40:28a, there are a, there are a, there are...
40:28Bola is one of several people who claim to be the spiritual
40:31guardians of this site.
40:33It certainly is an impressive performance.
40:41he's saying that now you can you can you can end at the site
41:12this is the great gold kingdom of great Zimbabwe
41:19for 200 years the rulers of this place controlled a massive empire between the
41:25Zambezi and Mimpopo rivers covering much of modern-day Zimbabwe and part of Mozambique
41:32this was their capital their palace and their bastion
41:44this is the cradle of a lot of people who live in this region the descendants of
41:50people who used to live here are now found in South Africa in Botswana in
41:56another another can I say
42:01from the 13th century to the 15 these people controlled the gold mines of the
42:07plateau here in stone is their expression of that wealth and power walls that soar
42:15out of the earth that curve and flow around the contours of the ground
42:19creating narrow passageways and forbidding enclosures
42:26this is a stunning feat of architecture there is nothing gluing these walls
42:32together just an extraordinary precision and craft this is the highest wall of the
42:49it is estimated that a about more than a million the bricks are picked into this into this wall
43:02at its height this place was a medieval city home to 25,000 people seemingly divided into social groups
43:16right now we are on the summit of the the Zimbabwe hill this is called the Zimbabwe hill complex
43:23there are three sort of a areas of the beginning of the site we were the hill complex we were
43:30the valley ruins of which the largest building the great enclosure is located there
43:37and then beyond the the the the the the the the the stone walls and least obvious of course to
43:43many visitors
43:44is the fact that there were a lot of housing units dense housing units that were located outside the enclosures
43:50and over an area of about 720 hectares
44:01the subjects and their king seem to have lived very separate lives
44:07it's likely that great Zimbabwe's immense stone walls ensured that the rich religious and the powerful were kept separate from
44:16everyone else
44:18yes
44:19yes
44:20yes
44:20yes the site in many ways is a matrix of passages
44:23yes
44:24and the way they build so many passages is anybody's guess
44:29but I want to believe that it might have something to do with the social protocols
44:35yes
44:35but the idea basically was to control the traffic of people
44:39some people were not supposed to be seen in certain places
44:44yes
44:44so they would have to follow designated passages
44:47so they might have been various passages for sort of various levels of I mean in terms of social organization
44:55of the community
44:56yes
44:56that okay the kings or the real wives they would follow these passages
45:00and then of course the plebeians the the lower sort of rank would follow these passages
45:09but for decades the significance of this place what it meant who built it has been fiercely debated
45:18the british who ran this part of the world in the late 19th century believed that a non-african people
45:25must have built this kingdom
45:28speculation as to who that might have been has ranged from the Phoenicians to the Queen of Sheba
45:34when this country was run by its white minority
45:37the idea that anyone but Africans built this city was actively and enthusiastically promoted
45:43but carbon dating technology has ruled out ancient foreign civilizations as being responsible for great Zimbabwe
45:51there's no evidence in this architecture to suggest that this place was built by anyone other than those who came
45:59from here
46:00and the evidence from earlier settlements like map and good way shows a continuity of southern African culture
46:06the settled view now is great Zimbabwe was built by Africans
46:15archaeologists are also sure that this place was a rich trading kingdom
46:19a wealth of trading goods beads bracelets porcelain and glass from China and the Middle East have been found here
46:26along with gold mined only 40 kilometers away
46:32gold was obviously very important and we know there was traffic between
46:35this place or the southern african hinterland in the east african coast linking with China with India with the Middle
46:45East
46:46and that was one factor that might have caused people to become wealth and build these structures as an expression
46:57of that wealth
47:00one artifact in particular shows the links between great Zimbabwe and the wider world
47:08it's a 14th century copper coin like this one from Kilwa Kisiwani the great trading city on the coast
47:18a place which derived its wealth by selling on the gold from great Zimbabwe to the rest of the world
47:25two ends the same trading route
47:29there's still so much that we don't know about great Zimbabwe
47:32the nature of its king or kings
47:35the full meaning of its narrow passageways
47:38and forbidding architecture
47:42but we do know that this vast city was one of Africa's richest and most sophisticated kingdoms
47:49and the starting point of a gigantic trading network
47:53that stretched from these high plateau across southern Africa to the Swahili coast
47:59and across the globe to Arabia India and China
48:07and when great Zimbabwe went into decline in the 15th century
48:11so too did Kilwa
48:13two kingdoms connected by gold
48:16and forgotten by historians for centuries
48:22today the ruins of great Zimbabwe have given their name to a modern African country
48:28they are a reminder that although ancient kingdoms can be forgotten
48:33they are rarely truly lost
48:35this remarkable kingdom high in the Zimbabwe highlands
48:40is an emblem of a continent remembering its past
48:45I began this journey
48:48some distance from here on the Swahili coast
48:50thinking
48:51that this was a journey
48:54about trade
48:55about gold
48:59but it's been about more than that
49:01it's been about recovering an African past
49:04from the ruins of lost civilizations
49:07there's still much we don't know about this history
49:10and these lost kingdoms
49:11but here in Africa
49:14their memory is still celebrated
49:16and rightly so
49:18the past is still very much alive here
49:22it's still a living breathing part
49:24of people's lives their culture
49:27and their identity
49:39you
49:39you
49:40you
49:40you
49:40you
49:40you
49:59Transcription by CastingWords
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