Southern Africa 1500s to 1800s

Bantu

arrive and trade with Khoisan people, sometimes conflicting

Dzimba dza mabwe

house of stone in Great Zimbabwe

center for politics and trade

architecture demonstrates the power of the ruler

Mutapa State

successor to Zumbabwe

expands with gold tax

Portuguese in Southern Africa 1400s/1500s

want to get around middlemen (Berbers) by traveling up the Zambezi and creating trading forts

access gold more directly

Zambezi Valley

Portuguese decide to move plantation complex here

becomes failed colony

Prazeros

4-5 major family groups who are “Afro-Portuguese” and include Goan Indians, orphans, and prostitutes

speak Portuguese and African languages

Christianity and traditional religion

Mutapa

rise and fall is tied to guns and Portuguese influence

Africans flee Portuguese and ally with Changamire

Changamire and the Rozvi Empire expel the Portuguese

South Africa

seen as exceptionalist narrative

larger population of Europeans that implant over time

earliest European major settlement

see themselves as separate

Dutch East India Company

Dutch was to enter East Indies and use Portuguese knowledge to get around Arica

stop in Cape of Good Hope for provisions, and Cape Town is established for trade with Khoisan

Boers

Dutch farmers that replace the Khoisan pastoralists to trade with the Dutch

establish forts

Boers and Khoisan

conflict in 1659

Boers want more land and claim it is empty

Boers kill parents and claim “orphans” to work land

“Cape Coloureds” are mixed Dutch and Khoisan people

Trekboers

boers that expand in South Africa

pioneer culture develops, which is the foundational myth for South Africa

Khoisan

accommodate the Dutch for a time then try to repel them

smallpox leads to depopulation in the 1700s

Lowveld States

trade at Delagoa Bay

corn brings population growth, which leads to realignment

Zulu take over

Zulu

when they conquer, they kill off leadership and install royal officials and reorganize society

Shaka was the leader and a larger than life figure

create common identity through military and ethnic practices

expand from coast inland; sets up conflict with boers

The Mfecane

spreads through southern, central, and east Africa and centers in Zululand

transform politics and society through violence

Boers Move

move out of the cape to get away from the British and conflict with Zulu along the way

move up and form their own states