The Shona And Their Neighbours (The Peoples of Africa)

Foreword / David W. Phillipson -- 1. The Shona World And Its Origins. Structures And Environments. Languages And Their Frontiers. Dialects And Names. Theories Of Origins -- 2. Society And Economy. An Outline Of A Shona Village 1880s-1890s. The People Of The Village. Health And Demography. Village Farming. Local Politics. Village Industry. Comparisons Over Space And Time -- 3. The Early States Of The Shona C.1000-1700. Defining The Imprecise. The Origins Of A Third-world Economy. Different Trails To Great Zimbabwe. Great Zimbabwe. Torwa And Venda. The Origins Of The Mutapa State And The Eastern Shona. The Mutapa State In Close-up. The Coming Of The Portuguese. War And Politics In The East -- 4. Two Centuries Of Change C.1700-1890. Economic Decline And Change. Decline And Change In The Mutapa State. The Portuguese 'conquest'. The Changamire State. Local Shona Politics. The Nyanga Culture. The Mfecane Problem. The Ndebele State. The Gaza State. The Independent Shona In The Nineteenth Century -- 5. Beliefs And Political Thought. The Thought Of The Prehistoric Era. Theory And Practice: The Internal And The External. Forces Of The External. Forces Of The Internal. Political Thought: Theory. Political Thought: Practice. Foreign Thought -- 6. Conquest, Change And Challenge 1890-1990. The Road To Conquest. Conquest And Resistance. Colonial Rule. Nationalism, War And Transition. A Century Of Change. David Beach. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Africa's Shona people built the massively impressive fourteenth-century stone walls of Great Zimbabwe. In recent history they fought the white settlers who created Rhodesia; today they form the majority of the population of modern Zimbabwe. David Beach's unique study of the Shona and neighbouring Ndebele, Gaza Nguni and others links archaeology, anthropology and linguistics studies with oral traditions and later written evidence. The Shona peoples of Africa are known as the builders of Great Zimbabwe and creators of the Mutapa state encountered in the 16th century. This study of the Shona, the Ndebele, Gaza Nguni and others discusses their origins, geographical distribution, social structures and cultures.