Abstract
The region around Great Zimbabwe was a theatre of considerable human traffic between c.1750-1850. This period coincided with the disintegration of the Rozvi empire, which resulted in the formation of dynasties that came to dominate the Karanga cluster. This process was still commonplace in the late nineteenth century and a few European visitors found a number of its prime role players still at work. Very few lived amongst the actors and become a part of the drama itself. Carl Mauch (1837-1875), however, lived in the region in 1871-1872. An even smaller number of literate Europeans recorded these events as meticulously as Mauch and thus his work has attracted the attention of historians. This paper offers a re-interpretation of Mauch's record of African society and politics in the communities around Great Zimbabwe. It argues that it must be appreciated in the wider context of its production, chiefly that his locations were determined on the basis of faulty readings of his geometric instruments, his unorthodox orthography of people and place names, while his account vacillated from fact to fiction depending on his mood or relations with the people around him. Drawing on this reassessment, the paper reconsiders the various historiographical interpretations made of Mauch's work in the history of the Karanga.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 337-364 |
Number of pages | 28 |
Journal | South African Historical Journal |
Volume | 65 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:*Email: [email protected] 1. I am grateful to a University of Stellenbosch Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant which enabled work for the preparation of this paper. I wish to thank Sandra Swart, my host, and the entire History Department at Stellenbosch for providing an enabling environment and engaging with the findings presented here in the staff seminar series. Sandra Swart, Munyaradzi Manyanga, Sarah Duff, Joseph Mujere and two anonymous reviewers of this journal gave useful comments. The maps shown in the text were drawn by Russel Kapumha and Seke Katsamudanga of the Archaeology Unit at the University of Zimbabwe. I, however, bear full responsibility for any weaknesses in the paper.
Keywords
- Carl Mauch
- explorers
- Great Zimbabwe
- Karanga
- maps
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- History