History Summarized: Great Zimbabwe
History Summarized: Great Zimbabwe
The existence of Great Zimbabwe implies, somewhere, the existence of Evil Zimbabwe. Evil Zimbabwe uses way too much mortar in their stone architecture, and they didn’t play a major role in the medieval world’s largest trade network either. This is why we at OSP prefer Great Zimbabwe, they played the Trade game like a champ and didn’t need any…
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Prior to contact with Arabs and Egyptians there is NO anthropological or archeological evidence that any Sub-Saharan African people had advanced beyond a stone age hunter gather cultural with no written word, a system of measurement, a calender, weaved a cloth, domesticated any animals, the plow or the ability to irrigate field's, and the vast majority lived in mud huts with the construction complexity of a muskrat dwelling
and the only academics who are still debating are indoctrinated historical distortionists desperate to change Africa's true history which on to its self is still fascinating, and all to placate their woke ideology!
Most advanced construction in african history: a slum
Thank you for the respect and truth.
I could have done without the blue eyed boy! It makes the documentary appeal to 12 year olds, perhaps, but I thought it cheapened the message of the video.
What makes a pile of rocks great?
These is same art found in Kemet.
Bantu are not kush or nubians.
Bantu are the real deal.
Racists: 'Wow a wall in 12nd century, how could anyone think it is impressive?'
Meanwhile Europeans at 16th century that build cathedrals: "Wow, those walls are impressive"
Rhodesians on a industrial world: "Wow, those walls are impressive, they did not built it"
20th and 21th century archaeologists: "Wow, those walls are impressive"
Literally many racists today: "Wow, they could not have built those impressive walls"
All of those credited arabs or west asians had built it. And then I have to hear from a random guy on comments saying it is not impressive. So simple and basic that they did everything to deny indigenous origins.
Build by the Romans, discovered by Africans after the Romans left.
There is not one chance in one million that the Shona people built Great Zimbabwe. ZERO.
The early African history was well documented and I liked the fact you did not fall into the trap of outlandish (alien) and extreme origins. I do think you should have mentioned the slave trade which was probably the most lucrative trade in the continent at the time. This might flavour one's interpretation of the stone works.
My master's thesis was how nationalism affects archaeological sites and museums. I used Great Zimbabwe as an example of how nationalism (in this case, white nationalism) distorts history and sometimes is downright hostile to academics (historians and archaeologists were banned by the Rhodesian government from studying Great Zimbabwe) to keep their nationalist narrative.
In this case, that (according to white supremacists) Black people were so intellectually inferior to white people that they must be ruled by them. If Black Africans were able to build such marble like Great Zimbabwe, then this meant that the White Rhodesians didn't have an intrinsic right to govern over Black Rhodesians.
So Great Zimbabwe's true nature needed to be suppressed to maintain white supremacy.
Lmao. There were hundreds of advanced cities scattered across the amazom and andes hundreds of years before any of this was built. Muh cradle of humanity.
The narrator is dressing this up no end
A mud hut city. Wtf.
My favorite thing about the European interpretation of Great Zimbabwe is that at the same certain people were denying it was the work of Africans, the Olmec heads were discovered in Mexico and sopme people decided that they must have been made to honor Africans who sailed across the Atlantic and started civilization there. So you had these parallel narratives where on the one hand Africans couldn't have built a sophisticated civilization in their own country, but coulld have sailed en masse across the Atlantic before Columbus and built a sophisticated civilization in Mesoamerica. That might be the point at which to rexamine your priors.
Not gonna lie it actually looks good.
The Vikings were black too
Ansestors of the shona arrived in the limpompo region around 400BC can be proven by X mitochondrial haplogroup.
Blue I like your content but could you try to jerk this place off any harder? Using the landscape in ways we barely understand today? Oh and Rhodesia being cleansed so everyone could starve isn't a good thing
"Let's. Do. Some. History."
No thanks, I've been told if I get caught doing history one more time I will be history.
Zimbabwean-South African here 👋🏽 (born in South Africa to Shona Zimbabwean parents)
I recently discovered your channel (Spider-Man vids = instant subscribe 😋) and it's a pleasant surprise to see you talking about Zim and my people's history 😁 Thanks!
Those ruins predate the shona people by a long shot. Its was a trade city built by Phoenicians. Yes the Phoenicians were black people.
Ah yes, stacking stones on top of each other. A concept so advanced only the Europeans figured it out or something.
The lost tribes are most likely in Russia and China/Mongolia. I hate it when people corupt the word for their own agenda, those imbeciles are the reason Christians are having a hard time actually listening to the doctrine of love that the big man wants us to actually know.
They are STILL trying to say that the original Kemites were not black people, those blue eye 👿😈
Please do more African history and mythology
Nyika yeMadzibaba Dzimbahwe 🇿🇼 hoye!!
So tribes from the north invaded toward the south and set up kingdoms. What happened to the people already living there? Can you say slave trading? It is a shame what has happen to the people of Rhodesia. They went communist removed all those mean whites and give all their power to one black dictator who butchered a competing tribe by the thousands. Then he and his thugs stole everything they could and what they couldn't steal they $hite on. Now the country can't even feed it's self. Pray for the people of Rhodesia.
Learning about Great Zimbabwe, and a lot of the other unexplained ruins of the world, has really improved my worldbuilding if nothing else.
Also, I LOVE the sarcastic streak that Blue has developed. It's just… chef's kiss
often i listen at 1.25 speed but with this i played back at .75 %
I had a really great moment with my five-year-old son this morning as I was watching this video. He loves building things, so I replayed the parts about the big stone structures for him. We talked about how it was built hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and they built it so well, it's still standing! He was fascinated! And immediately convinced that it was for the game "marble run" and wanted to go there and play it XD
I told him that we don't actually know for sure what the intended purpose was, so…maybe it was a sports or gaming arena? Either way, it was really cool to watch him engage with this piece of ancient history and see the potential for fun and games! Thanks, Blue, for your succinct and entertaining take. Who knows, you might have a little fan growing up to share your passion for architecture!
I first learned about Great Zimbabwe in my 10th grade world history class back in ahem the mid-80s. I was enthralled, and vowed to one day visit it. I did indeed get to visit it in the late 90s, and it was even more magnificent than I'd imagined. However, the racist denial is still alive. I met a White Zimbabwean (I think of him as a Rhodesian) who assured me that Great Zimbabwe could not possibly have been built by Africans. My favorite parts of the complex were that narrow passageway into the big compound – definitely meant to intimidate! – and that amazing building built right into the boulders on top of the hill. The skill and artistry were breathtaking!
This is so cool! Some of the walls kinda remind me of giant snakes, just with the flowing forms and impressive stonework. They fit tightly like they grew there! Super cool y’all
* edit – obviously they did NOT grow there and were built by impressive craftspeople, but it mimics nature in multiple forms, which I think is very awe inspiring *
Can we get more sub-saharan African history? Like outside of black history month. It's a big disappointment that there is not more out there and 2 weeks a year just doesn't seem like enough to delve into it properly
Any civilization of a certain complexity needs written records; the fact that Greater Zimbabwe only had some 10.000-18.000 people at its peak, while Rome had a million a millennium before, puts things into perspective. There is no need to shower the naïve viewer with superlatives over something so mediocre.
Love seeing this stuff be covered!
The intro started off with such derisive nonsense didn't go any further. "thumbs down" !!!
Zimbabwe is a part of Ancient Israel… in fact Bantu translates to “People of The Father”
I'm here from the podcast, and while I've enjoyed both your and Red's videos, I had yet to subscribe. Ty for providing water to my sadly neglected, probably due to the friggin education system friggin WW2-, history field! especially concerning areas you usually don't hear about in the (North-) Western world
Down with euro-centric culture & history!!!
This… counts as a civilization? One small castle?
The myth I had heard was that Zimbabwe was named after Islamic slave trade posts, but this video made me research and it seems it’s just their economy was majorly based on slave trade with the Muslim and then European world. It really is interesting how much the worlds history was based on slavery and oppressing of your own people. Wether it be the Roman’s, Russians serfs, Aztec‘s neighbor or Benin slave trade.
nice to see this – I had a very pleasant quiet walk around Khami, best part of 30 years ago. I took a bunch of photos. I also think it is really necessary to call out egregious cultural arrogance, which remains in the libraries of Western institutions.
So Rhodesia?
It’s neigh impossible to talk about history of a nation when no writing was used, it’s even harder when the things that were written down was very very biased.
Then there are the Mississippians who have all 3 plus being missing by the time the Europeans appeared