Great Zimbabwe's Royal Women and Political Power

Great Zimbabwe: The Lost African Kingdom of Stone — Fexingo History · Oct 23, 2026 · 7m · transcript

For centuries, colonial narratives dismissed Great Zimbabwe as a project built by outsiders, ignoring the indigenous Shona society that created it. This episode shifts focus from stone walls to the people who governed them, specifically the role of royal women in the Mwene Mutapa court. We explore how figures like the Queen Mother wielded significant political influence, managed kinship networks, and served as crucial intermediaries between the living and the ancestral spirits known as mhondoro. Through archaeological evidence of elite burials and oral traditions passed down through…