Latest / Great Zimbabwe: The Lost African Kingdom of Stone — Fexingo History / Farming the Stone City: Agriculture at Great Zimbabwe
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've spent a lot of time on Great Zimbabwe's politics and trade, but one thing we haven't really talked about is how they actually fed all those people. I mean, at its height in the 1300s and 1400s, the city probably had around 18,000 inhabitants — that's a lot of mouths. Luna: And they weren't near a major river, right? How did they manage? Lucas: Exactly — the city sits on a granite ridge, about a thousand metres above sea level, with decent but not abundant rainfall, around 600 to 800 millimetres a year. The key was a combination of clever land use and diverse crops. Archaeologists have found evidence of sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, cowpeas, and groundnuts — all drought-resistant crops that could handle the variability. And then, of course, cattle. Luna: Cattle were huge. We've talked about the cattle howdah in the Rozvi episodes — they were clearly central. Lucas: Right. Cattle weren't just food — they were wealth, status, and part of the spiritual world. The mutupo — the clan totem system — often involved animals like the Shoko or Mhofu, but cattle were a practical and symbolic cornerstone. The Zimbabwe bird, we should note, is actually a raptor, not a cattle symbol, but cattle appear in the soapstone carvings too. The large open spaces inside the Great Enclosure might have been used for cattle assemblies or rituals. And the surrounding countryside was dotted with smaller stone enclosures that were likely cattle kraals. Luna: But growing crops on that granite soil... wasn't it thin? Lucas: It was. That's where the ingenuity comes in. The vaShona farmers who built Great Zimbabwe developed a system of terracing on the hillsides, using stone lines to slow runoff and trap fertile silt. They also practiced a form of shifting cultivation: they'd clear a field, farm it for a few years, then let it fallow while moving to another plot. This worked well when population was low, but as the city grew, the land around it came under intense pressure. Luna: So they started to degrade the soil? Lucas: Exactly. Pollen cores from nearby wetlands show that deforestation increased sharply around 1400. The trees — especially valuable timber like hardwood for construction and firewood for smelting iron — were being cut faster than they could regenerate. And without tree cover, the topsoil eroded. Archaeologists have found that by the mid-1400s, sediment layers in the valley contain less organic matter, indicating exhausted soils. That's one of the factors that likely pushed the ruling elite to relocate to places like Khami and Danamombe. Luna: And the climate didn't help either. Lucas: No. Around the same time, the Little Ice Age was starting to affect the Southern Hemisphere. There's evidence of prolonged droughts in the region from about 1450 onward. The combination of drier conditions and degraded farmland would have made it harder to support the city's population. There's even a tradition among the vaShona that the Mwari oracle — the svikiro, the spirit medium — warned of a coming famine, and that the Rozvi leader Chikura Wadyambeu used that as part of his justification for the military takeover we've discussed in earlier episodes. Luna: So the Mwari cult was tied to agricultural cycles. Was there a kind of ritual calendar? Lucas: Definitely. The mhondoro — the ancestral spirits — and the svikiro mediums played a key role in timing planting and harvesting. The Mwari shrine at Njelele in the Matopo Hills was a major pilgrimage site where people would ask for rain. And within Great Zimbabwe itself, the Hill Complex might have been used for astronomical observations to mark the seasons. Some researchers think the alignment of certain stone walls with solstices supports that idea, though it's speculative. But the connection between spirituality and agriculture was deep. Luna: It's fascinating how these systems — spiritual, political, agricultural — were all intertwined. And I guess it's a lesson for us too: no city can survive if it outstrips its resource base. Lucas: That's a good point. And you know, in a way, this podcast is like a little ecosystem too. We rely on listeners who find value in these conversations — people who, episode by episode, help keep this project alive. If you've been enjoying these deep dives into Southern Africa, and you'd like to support the show, there's a simple way: buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's it — no obligations, but it makes a real difference in keeping things ad-free. Luna: Yeah, it's a small thing that adds up. Just like those terraces — small stones holding back the soil. Lucas: Exactly. So back to the farming: we also have physical evidence of their daily agricultural life. Grinding stones — used to process sorghum and millet into flour — have been found in almost every household. They're usually granite, worn smooth from use. And storage pits lined with dhaka — that's the dolerite clay plaster — were used to keep grain dry and pest-free. The vavaki, the builders, often incorporated such pits into the stone structures. Luna: Were there any tools for farming? I mean, iron hoes? Lucas: Yes, iron hoes were common. Great Zimbabwe was a major producer of iron — they had abundant ore in the surrounding hills, and the trees to make charcoal for smelting. Iron hoes, axes, and spears were traded widely. In fact, one of the reasons the city became wealthy was its control over both agricultural surplus and metal goods. They could feed themselves and trade the rest for luxury imports like glass beads and Chinese porcelain from Sofala on the coast. Luna: So the agriculture wasn't just subsistence — it funded the stone city. Lucas: Absolutely. And when the agricultural base faltered — due to soil exhaustion, drought, or both — the whole system wobbled. The elite moved their capitals to areas with better land, like the Danamombe region, and the old city gradually lost its political importance. But it wasn't an overnight collapse; it was a slow decline over decades, maybe a century. People drifted away. The stone walls stood empty, but the land continued to be used for farming by local communities. In fact, the mutupo system — the clan identities tied to the land — persisted long after the kingdom was gone. Luna: So the land itself carries that history. The Zimbabwe bird might be the famous symbol, but the real foundation was the dirt, the rain, and the people who worked it. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why understanding how they farmed gives us a more complete picture of Great Zimbabwe — not just a city of stone and gold, but a living, breathing community that had to eat. Every civilization, no matter how grand, stands on its agriculture.