Shona empires

Abstract The Shona of Zimbabwe are a major people of south‐central Africa, inhabiting the plateau between the Rivers Limpopo and Zambezi as well as an area of northern South Africa, and parts of Mozambique, Zambia, and Botswana. They are invariably divided into various subgroups and speak a variety of dialects collectively known as the Shona language. They may have occupied this region since the 10th century ce . Their complex social structure, their religious beliefs, and their cattle‐keeping, agricultural, and trading economy survived into modern times and over the centuries they have interacted with the Muslims of the East African coast, the Portuguese from the 16th century, the Ndebele people in the early 19th, and the British who established their colonial power over them from 1890. Their claim to have been an indigenous “empire” derives from the extensive nature of the territory they covered, and evidence of their centralized state systems and of the incorporation of other peoples.