The evolution and apex of the Bakalanga State of Butua

ABEL ABEDNICO MABUSE
Correspondent | Friday March 9, 2012 00:00

The most common understanding is biased towards insufficient, erroneous and biased historical accounts, which date back to around the 19th Century.  Many people do not know, for example, that the ancestors of the original Bakalanga people occupied much of the same area that is known as Bukalanga since AD 1000.  In this edition I offer a brief chronicle of the origins of the Bakalanga culture, utilising existing archaeological evidence to highlight the evolution of the Bakalanga State of Butua. Since historical accounts blur the history of these people, I turn to the enormous archaeological evidence recovered in prehistoric Bakalanga villages over the last 60 years to demystify this conundrum.

The ancestors of the Bakalanga are linked archaeologically with Leopards Kopje farmers who lived in the Shashe-Limpopo valley. These people led a cattle herding and crop farming lifestyle. They also traded in ivory, furs and feathers with the east coast for glass beads, cotton and other ornaments. The majority of their villages have been recovered in Botswana in areas close to major rivers like the Shashe, Motloutse and the Tati rivers. They built their villages on terraced hilltops such as the ones found at Nyangabwe Hill and Selolwe Hill in Francistown and Ridinpitwe Hills, south-west of Tobane.  Research conducted in these ruins shows that they built round houses from red hardened clay, wooden poles and thatch. Their villages had large granaries and a centralised cattle kraal on which Cenchrus ciliaris grass locally known as mosekangwetsi grows.  By AD 1000 some of these people had become rich in cattle and had more political control in the area. This led to the formation of a small chiefdom that controlled trade in the Shashe-Limpopo region.  This early 'Bakalanga' chiefdom monopolised trade until around AD 1220 when a powerful kingdom developed around Mapungubwe Hill to the east. It is generally believed that some of the Leopards Kopje people living in the Shashe-Limpopo valley moved towards or became part of this newly formed kingdom.

Mapungubwe managed to usurp trading control of the hinterland linked to the Shashe-Limpopo rivers from the Leopards Kopje chiefdom due to two reasons.  Firstly, its strategic location on the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers linked it with the east coast and the hinterland from where gold from the Vumba schist near Francistown was obtained. Copper was brought in from around Thakadu; iron from the Tswapong Hills while ivory, furs and salt came from the Makgadikgadi Pans.  The second reason is linked to centralised political organisation, which made trading much more easily in Mapungubwe than at the Leopards Kopje chiefdoms.  Due to its cetralised location, which linked it with the east coast, Mapungubwe flourished quickly.  This allowed the development of profitable trade by powerful and ruling families, which then created inequality in political power and indeed wealth.

Within a short time of about 10 years or so, Mapungubwe had gained control over an area measuring over 30, 000km.

Thomas Huffman, one of the leading archaeologists on state formation in Southern Africa, suggests that the ruler of Mapungubwe lived on top of Mapungubwe Hill.  About 5,000 elites surrounded his ruling class while a further 4,000 commoners occupied the valley to form a large and obviously powerful capital. Mapungubwe's supremacy was shortened by loss of trade control to a contemporaneous and emerging centre of Great Zimbabwe to the north.  Climatic data from the area suggests that a disastrous drought struck Mapungubwe at around the same time and forced people to scatter in pursuit of wetter areas to grow crops and graze their livestock.  Mapungubwe had become a ghost town by AD 1290. Its golden days lasted for only 50 years. Although it is commonly understood that the majority of the population from Mapungubwe moved to Great Zimbabwe, research done by Dr Catrien Van Waarden in stone walled ruins located in the Tati area, casts doubt into this.  So who built the Great Zimbabwe Ruins then?

Dr Catrien Van Waarden, a Francistown-based archaeologist and authority on Bakalanga prehistory, suggests that the Zimbabwe stone walling tradition probably started around the Tati River basin in Botswana.  Interesting indeed.  During the Mapungubwe period, a farming village of the Gumanye people lived on the hill in which Great Zimbabwe was later on built.  The Gumanye people did not build any stone walls on the site at those early times.  The only stone walls were found in Mapungubwe and some Leopards Kopje villages around the Tati River Basin.  It is important to notice that when some of the ancestors of the Bakalanga (belonging to the Leopards Kopje population in the lower Shashe valley) were usurped by Mapungubwe Kingdom, those staying in the interiors remained politically autonomous and developed in parallel with the developments occurring at Mapungubwe.  The Tati River basin Leopards Kopje people produced large quantities of gold for trade, continued rearing cattle and lived in reasonably sized settlements that allowed sustainable utilisation of natural resources in the area.

Radiocarbon dates from ruins found at Tholo Hill, Mupane and Mupanipani shows that the typical Zimbabwe stone walling tradition began in the Tati River Basin among the ancestors of the Bakalanga.  This tradition became fashionable over time and was improved until reaching its apex at Great Zimbabwe, which had become a powerful capital controlling trade with the east coast.  Sacred leadership practised in the site allowed building of the large prestigious walls.  Great Zimbabwe then became a large powerful state from around AD 1250 and lasted 200 years.  During this period, many satellite sites with stone walling tradition similar to the style expressed at Great Zimbabwe were built in modern day Botswana.  Such ruins are found at Domboshaba, Vukwi, Schermer's Ruin at Sebina and Mothudi near Selebi-Phikwe.

Great Zimbabwe collapsed in AD 1450 as two new competing states were formed. Munumutapa State developed around the Zambezi valley while another one known as Butua developed southwest of Great Zimbabwe. The capital of the newly formed state of Butua was built at Khami, just northeast of Great Zimbabwe. The citizens of Butua became known as the Bakalanga. It is highly likely that during the Great Zimbabwe state some important centres like Domboshaba were occupied by some descendants of the Leopards Kopje who later became known as Bakalanga.

These people were probably master stone mansons and built the majority of stone walled sites in the area today.

Studies of Leopards Kopje people suggests to me that since they had lived for many centuries in terraced hilltop settlements they became the provincial rulers controlling trade in furs, ivory and salt at Domboshaba. They also produced gold in the Tati area at centres such as Old Tati, Selolwe and Vukwi. Copper was brought to Domboshaba from Thakadu Mine near Matsitama. All these goods were then taken to the paramount leader of the Bakalanga known as Mambo who lived in a large capital of over 5,000 people at Khami.  Between AD 1450 and 1685, Butua was ruled by Mambos, known as Sipundule or Chibundule.  The Sipundule Mambos were successful in building a prosperous state of Bakalanga ushering in a time of peace, stability and prosperity where harvests were good. Cattle herds flourished among the Bakalanga farmers. The Bakalanga of Butua State were so rich that even ordinary people afforded luxurious trade goods such as glass beads, bracelets and cotton.

During the 400 prosperous years of the Bakalanga state of Butua, Mambo ruled through the control of trade from the large state.  The Chibundule Mambos ruled through provincial leaders who lived in relatively small towns of about 1,000 people at the most. In the peripheries of these centres, ordinary Bakalanga reared their livestock and grew sorghum, melons and cowpeas in sparsely populated settlements quite similar to modern Bakalanga farms. Peace, stability, good harvests and economic prosperity made the Bakalanga of Butua the most powerful state at that time in Southern Africa.