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THE ROZVI STATE

The Rise and Impact

-The Rozvi Confederacy dates back to the 15th century and coexisted with the Mutapa for a
while with a complex relationship between them.

-The state arose from plundered wealth by the Rozvi under Changamire Dombo who is
believed to having been a powerful ruler.

-He was very wealthy and claimed that his father was a mwari and his mother a virgin.

-The Rozvi leader Changamire Dombo was originally a herdsmen in the Mutapa state, yet
managed to drive away the Portuguese, earning himself support and followers, thereby
enabling him to break away from the legendary Mutapa empire.

-Changamire Dombo, according to oral tradition, is believed to have possessed supernatural

powers.

-He was said to be able to turn a white cow into a red one, and more. His magical ability
made him feared by people and earned him respect and even more followers.

-The name Changamire became the honour name of all the kings who followed after him

-The Rozvi Empire (1684–1889) was established on the Zimbabwean Plateau by Changamire
Dombo.

-The term "Rozvi" refers to their legacy as a warrior nation, taken from the Shona term
Kurozva or to plunder.

-In 1683, Portuguese militia tried to take control of the gold trade in the interior of Africa by
invading the Rozvi empire.

-The Rozvi, armed with the traditional spears and shields, were able to successfully defeat
these attacks and maintain their control of the gold mines until their empire collapsed.

-The Rozvi were led by Changamire Dombo , and his son Kambgun Dombo whose power
was based in Butua in the southwest of Africa.
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-The Rozvi were formed from several Shona states that dominated the plateau of present-day
Zimbabwe at the time.

-They drove the Portuguese off the central plateau, and the Europeans retained only a
nominal presence at one of the fair-towns in the eastern highlands.

-Changamire brought the whole of present-day Zimbabwe under his control, forming a polity
that became known as the Rozvi Empire.

-This powerful kingdom of warriors was to be known as the Rozvi or baLozwi people.

-It was centred in what later became Matebeleland and western Mashonaland where was
located its capital, the great assemblage of stone enclosures and walls now known as Great
Zimbabwe.

-They established their capital at Thabazikamambo near Bulawayo.

-Many sources see the Rozvi not as a recovering segment of the Mutapa people, but in fact a
people in its own right emerging under the wing of the Mutapa.

-The administrative power of the Mutapa began to fail in its control of the whole empire, and
tributaries began to exert more independence.

-A leader of the people of Guruuswa, given the title Changamire and known as Dombo,
became independent from the Mutapa.

-When the Portuguese tried to colonize them, Changamire Dombo led rebellions against their
rule.

-The area of the Rozvi Empire fluctuated. Its influence extended over much of present-day
Zimbabwe, westward into Botswana, and southward into northeastern South Africa.

-It became very powerful in mid-17th to 18th centuries when it “wrested control of external
trade from the declining Mutapas and emerged as the only strong state in the Shona speaking
area.”

-By 1680 he was at his peak and his state was spread between the Zambezi and Limpopo
rivers and even into areas like Mozambique e.g. Sena.

-The Rozvi Changamire received tribute from smaller chiefs.

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-The Rozvi at Danangombe reunited the Torwa area in the late-seventeenth century, and
although much smaller, the state was built upon the foundations laid by its predecessor.

-The polity is best remembered for its campaigns against the Portuguese under its leader
Changamire Dombolakonachingwango.

-The Portuguese, learning of Changamire’s power, planned to combine forces with Mutapa
Mukombwe and destroy him.

-Mukombwe invaded the Rozvi area but was easily dispersed by Changamire, and died
shortly after in 1692.

-According to Conceição’s Treatise on the Rivers of Cuama, the best source on the Rozvi,
Changamire supported the claims of Nyakunembire as Mutapa ruler, while the Portuguese
had groomed a different son of Mukombwe named Dom Pedro.

-Nyakunembire enlisted the help of the Rozvi to enforce his rule, and Changamire’s army
thereafter destroyed the feira of Dambarare in 1693, which caused the Portuguese in
Mukaranga to flee to the Zambezi towns upon hearing the news.

-Changamire thereafter pursued a policy of the total expulsion of the Portuguese from the
interior, and it was probably only his death in 1696 that prevented the Rozvi from marching
on Sena (Newitt 2009).

-The Rozvi state itself continued into the early nineteenth century with an economy primarily
based on agriculture and Chapter 2: The second millennium in the pre-colonial period The
consequences

-It was only the major Changamire Rozvi group of the 1690s-1830s that migrated to settle in
south-central and western parts of Zimbabwe that had significant influence, otherwise the rest
were simply fragmented small groups (Beach 1994b).

-Thus the south-western Rozvi became the hub of political power in the Rozvi confederacy,
which was a decentralised state system controlling certain territories governed by Rozvi
chiefs from around 1695 up to the 1830s (Beach 1980; Mazarire 2003, 2009).

-These Rozvi alliances survived for quite some time due to manipulation of certain elements
of tradition until the Nguni groups arrived in the 1830s.
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Economic Organisation

-Gold production was a major activity.

-The state monopolised its production.

-The Portuguese were banned from entering the kingdom. The economic mainstay was cattle,
agriculture, and hunting.

-The economy was not interdependent on outside trade.

Tribute

The Kind received tribute from the chiefs in the region as a form of tax. These included cloth,
beads, hoes, axes, gold, ivory, cattle, skins grain, tobacco and salt.

Trade

-The Rozvi citizens practiced internal with the locals and external trade with the Portuguese.

- The Portuguese were not allowed to advance too far into the interior of the country. African
traders called Vashambadi moved across the country and acted as a middleman between the
Rozvi and Portuguese.

-The traders paid taxes as they moved from village to village with their goods.

-There were no special market days or market places except on the borders where the
Portuguese arrived.

Agriculture

The Rozvi depended much on Subsistence farming and other farming activities.

Each Family grew enough food to feed itself.

They grew rice, pumpkins, watermelons beans and other vegetables

Their main tools were axes and hoes. Axes were used to till the land, plant seeds and for
weeding.

They practiced shifting cultivation. The royal family benefited from the labour of its subjects
under a system called Zunde Ramambo.
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In this system, the subjects would prepare the Chief’s land, plant, wed an harvest for the royal
family.

Wealth

-The Rozvi was also a cattle ranching community.

-Having a lot of cattle, goats and sheep was a sign of wealth. Important people and chiefs
owned cattle.

-The citizens of the Rozvi were also Hunters.

-They used spears, bows and arrows, wooden stuff and axes were the tools used for hunting.

-Pangolins were a royal game and were surrendered to the chief. Ivory was exchanged for
guns.

Mining

Mining was a major source of wealth for the community.

-All gold and minerals were surrendered to the chief. The chief then rewarded the miner for
surrendering the minerals to him.

-The kind distributed most of what the received to the members of his lineage. It was also
used to pay tribute as a sign of loyalty.

Political Organization

-Hierarchy of the political organization began at home with the family head, the
neighborhood head, village, region, sub-chief and chiefdom.

-At the top is the chief and the king and his court. The king ruled with the help of the council
called Dare.

-The King was the distributor of land and holder of other properties like state-prisoners of
war, cattle taken from people accused of various crimes.

-He was the head of the legal system, he had the power to declare war.

-The Empire maintained power and order by its Rozwi regiments.

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-The regiments collected tribute from other Shona satellites.

-They guarded the king’s herds of thousands of cattle.

-Rozwi regiments continually toured the empire with administrators called Banyami.
Banyami collected tribute, made decisions of succession for local Shona chiefs.

-Tribute was paid in ivory, skins, food, and most important cattle.

Decline and Collapse of the State

-The second strong Shona Empire that of the Rozvi Mambos or the Rozvi Confederacy came
to an end in the 1830s.

-Collapse of the Rozvi state was as a result of Mfecane 1860 the state exisor time of trouble
caused by Nguni tribes who had fled from Tshaka or broken away from the Zulu state in
present day Natal

-Zwangendaba crossed the Limpopo with his group and fought the Rozvi ruler Chirisamhuru.

-The Ngonis invaded the Rozvi Empire under Zwangendaba and fired and ransacked their
zimbabwes, looting and destroying them as they went.

-The reigning Mambo chose to commit suicide in the most dramatic manner, rather than be
taken alive.

-The state was further weakened when Kololo Sebitwane in 1836 fought and defeated the
Rozvi.

-Mzilikazi turned west into Gaza and then north with his group and finished the remnants of
the Rozvi state between 1837 caused by Nguni tri 1840.

After Zwangendaba, came the Ndebele who were running away from Boer harassment in the
south.

-By 1830s to 1860 the state existed in name only.

-The Shona attempts to revive the Rozvi Empire were frustrated by the Ndebeles.

-However, the Rozvi influence lived on well into the 1890s.

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-The Ndebele military state developed after they had scattered the Rozvi around the country
and destroyed their zimbabwes, though the provincial units of the Rozvi remained and were
heavily involved in the uprising of 1896-97.