RIlUDESJAN RL'INS. ^O/ 



The inhal)itants of tlie district have no si)ecial Semitic or 

 Hamitic characteristics that 1 coiikl see. 11ie qolcl iiKhistry was 

 rather crude, and the amount extracted from the ground much 

 exaggerated. Zimljabwe is not in tlie gold 'belt, and so if it had 

 to be stored there was brought from a consideral)le distance. 

 The same apjdies to 'l"hal)a"s ka Alambo and Khami. Zimbabwe 

 being the residence of tlie chief, woukl naturah) l)e ilie dei)0t 

 for gokk tusks and ostrich feathers. 



The foreign inliuence theory nuist be given uj). Zim1)al)\ve 

 was buik by natives, inliabited b_\- natives, and recenth- al)an- 

 doneck ])rol)al)l}- not more tlian _:^oo voars a<2"o. These waU> are 

 so badly built that the\' would have fallen in ruins if the\' had 

 been 1,000 years old or anvtliing apjjroaching tliat, not to speak 

 of being ujnvards of 3,000 years. The}- were i)m'lt l)y natives, 

 whose descendants mav still live in the countrv. or who were 

 recentl}' " wij^ed out."" Confirmation of these notes \\ill Ije 

 forthcoming in ihe following pages. As I am dealing nKistly 

 with native tradition, i shall now give three statements made to 

 me at different times by intelligent natives regarding the origin 

 and use of these buildings. They are tyi)ical of man}' others that 

 I have heard, bni I give theui because the}- were made hy men 

 who were unkn')wn to each other, and who came from widely 

 separated localities, and belonged to different triljes. k^very 

 effort was made to test their truth at the time and subsecjuentl}'. 

 I shall also give some corroborati\'e e\'idence from otlier sources 

 bearing on the subject matter of the statements. 



My hrst informant is named Chapa, and resides at ln\-ati. 

 about 50 miles from Bulawayo, lie was chaml>erlain lu Loben- 

 gula, and came u\) from the Transvaal v.ith L'mzilikazi in 1839 

 or 1840. He was a small boy at the time, and thus, when he 

 gave me the information in i()ii, was an old man of u])wards of 

 80 years. His faculties were c|uite unimpaired, and he was, 

 moreover, intelligent and fpiite clear as to ^vhat he saw with his 

 own eyes, lie even drew a plan of Zimljalnve in the sand for 

 me, to ex])lain some of his statements. 1dn's was ver}' close to 

 the real thing, wonderfully so for a man \\-ho had not seen the 

 l)lace for over 40 years. Here is his statement: — 



" \Mien the Amaswazi arrived in Rhodesia ( the first wave 

 of Zulu inunigration ) the Alambo* was living in his castle at 

 Thaba"s ka Alambo. Thus we were not the first to destro}- these 

 fortifications. The}- were ruins l)efore we arrived. ( The Ama- 

 swazi destroyed them. The Amasv\azi came here and remained 

 about two years). They were here to eat one corn and to see 

 another corn in the gardens. They came immediatel}- ])efore 

 us, about two or three years. That is why we got such an easy 

 conquest, because the Amaswazi had killed the Maml)o'> ]ieoi)le. 

 The Mambo went U]) our river (the Inkwesi), where he Inu'lt 

 another fort, which still exists, about eight miles from here 

 (Inyati). They had not the trimmed stones u]) there; the\- liad 



* Maiubo is the Karan.u'a or Shnna word for cliicf. 



