The focus on the three prehistoric settlements of Toutswemogala, Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe is intended to show how important our past is, even to our future.
Although I am yet to visit the world acclaimed Great Zimbabwe Ruins, I am compelled by my personal knowledge of the other two prehistoric settlements to provide a discussion of this kind. The first time I ascended Toutswemogala Hill, I experienced a surge of spiritual accomplishment; some sort of a connection with a benevolent culture that flourished in the area around present day Maope some 1200 years ago. The vast panoramic landscape that unfolded before my eyes from the top of Toutswemogala Hill compared only to what I experienced the first time at the Copper Bracelet of the Kalahari- Tsodilo Hills. What mattered most to me at Toutswemogala was not the countless and spiritedly executed rock art of Tsodilo, but the affluence of the hill itself.
Countless pottery fragments and exceptional cattle kraals with vitrified cow dung, fire hardened remains of clay huts, glass beads- all within thick buffalo grass growing on the flattened top of this hill told a story of a rich and important Bantu culture that existed here in the distant past. Those who have visited before me have glorified Toutswemogala as a chiefdom, a mini-state or an organised settlement whose people lived in splendor, coupled by some degree of extravagance.
