The stone-carved Zimbabwe Bird is the national emblem of Zimbabwe, appearing on the national flags and coats of arms of both Zimbabwe and former Rhodesia, as well as on banknotes and coins (first on the Rhodesian pound and then on the Rhodesian dollar). It probably represents the bateleur eagle (Terathopius ecaudatus) or the African fish eagle (Haliaeetus vocifer).[1][2] The bird's design is derived from a number of soapstone sculptures found in the ruins of the medieval city of Great Zimbabwe.
It is now the definitive icon of independent Zimbabwe, with Matenga (2001)[3] listing over 100 organizations which now incorporate the Bird in their logo.
Origins
The original carved birds are from the ruined city of Great Zimbabwe, which was built by the ancestors of the Shona, starting in the 11th century and inhabited for over 300 years.[4] The ruins, after which modern Zimbabwe was named, cover some 730 hectares (1,800 acres) and are the largest ancient stone construction in sub-Saharan Africa. Among its notable elements are the soapstone bird sculptures, about 40 centimetres (16 inches) tall and standing on columns more than 90cm (3ft) tall, which were originally installed on walls and monoliths within the city.[4] They are unique to Great Zimbabwe; nothing like them has been discovered elsewhere.[5]
Various explanations have been advanced to explain the symbolic meaning of the birds. One suggestion is that each bird was erected in turn to represent a new king, but this would have required improbably long reigns.[6] More probably, the Zimbabwe birds represent sacred or totemic animals of the Shona – the bateleur eagle (Shona: chapungu), which was held to be a messenger from Mwari (God) and the ancestors, or the fish eagle (hungwe) which it has been suggested was the original totem of the Shona.[7]
Colonial acquisition and return to Zimbabwe
Three of the Zimbabwe Birds, photographed around 1891
In 1889 a European hunter, Willi Posselt, travelled to Great Zimbabwe after hearing about it from another European explorer, Karl Mauch. He climbed to the highest point of the ruins despite being told that it was a sacred site where he should not trespass, and found the birds positioned in the centre of an enclosure around an apparent altar. He later wrote:
Each one, including its plinth, had been hewn out of a solid block of stone and measured 4 feet 6 inches in height; and each was set firmly into the ground. There was also a stone shaped like a millstone and about 18 inches in diameter, with a number of figures carved in the border.
I selected the best specimen of the bird stones, the beaks of the remainder being damaged, and decided to dig it out. But while doing so, Andizibi [a local tribesman] and his followers became very excited and rushed around with their guns and assegais. I fully expected them to attack us. However, I went on with my work but told Klass, who had loaded two rifles, to shoot the first man he saw aiming at either of us.[8]
Posselt compensated Andizibi with a payment of blankets and "some other articles". As the bird on its pedestal was too heavy for him to carry, he hacked it off and hid the pedestal with the intention of returning later to retrieve it.[8] He subsequently sold his bird to Cecil Rhodes, who mounted it in the library of his Cape Town house, Groote Schuur, and decorated the house's stairway with wooden replicas. Rhodes also had stone replicas made, three times the size of the original, to decorate the gates of his house in England near Cambridge.[9] A German missionary came to own the pedestal of one bird, which he sold to the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in 1907.[10]
Rhodes' acquisition of Posselt's bird prompted him to commission an investigation of the Great Zimbabwe ruins by James Theodore Bent, which took place in 1891 following the British South Africa Company's invasion of Mashonaland.[11] Bent recorded that there were eight birds, six large and two small, and that there had probably originally been more as there were several additional stone pedestals of which the tops had been broken off.[12]
The colonists erroneously attributed Great Zimbabwe to ancient Mediterranean builders, believing native Africans to be incapable of constructing such a complex structure; thus in Rhodes' mind, as a 1932 guidebook put it, it was "a favourite symbol of the link between the order civilisation derived from the North or the East and the savage barbarism of Southern and Central Africa before the advent of the European."[13] Bent attributed the birds, wholly erroneously, to the Phoenicians.[14]
In 1981, a year after the attainment of independence in Zimbabwe, the South African government returned four of the sculptures to the country in exchange for a world-renowned collection of Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants) housed in Harare; the fifth remains at Groote Schuur.[6] In 2003, the German museum returned its portion of the bird's pedestal to Zimbabwe.[10] The birds were displayed for a while in the Natural History Museum in Bulawayo and the Museum of Human Sciences in Harare,[15] but are now housed in a small museum on the Great Zimbabwe site.[6]
Cultural depictions
The Zimbabwe bird has been a symbol of Zimbabwe and its predecessor states since 1924. The crest of Southern Rhodesia's coat of arms incorporated the Zimbabwe bird, and over time the bird became a widespread symbol of the colony. The paper money and coins of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, issued by the Bank of Rhodesia and Nyasaland also displayed the bird, as did the Flag of Rhodesia. The flag and state symbols of modern Zimbabwe continue to feature the Zimbabwe Bird.[16] It is now the definitive icon of independent Zimbabwe with Matenga (2001)[3] listing over 100 state, corporate and sporting organisations which incorporate the Bird in their emblems and logos.
↑ Thomas N. Huffman (1985). "The Soapstone Birds from Great Zimbabwe". African Arts. 18 (3): 68–73, 99–100. doi:10.2307/3336358. JSTOR3336358.
↑ Paul Sinclair (2001). "Review: The Soapstone Birds of Great Zimbabwe Symbols of a Nation by Edward Matenga". The South African Archaeological Bulletin. 56 (173/174): 105–106. doi:10.2307/3889033. JSTOR3889033.
1 2 Edward Matenga (2001). "The Soapstone Birds of Great Zimbabwe". Studies in Global Archaeology. 16: 1–261.
Great Zimbabwe is a medieval city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Lake Mutirikwe and the town of Masvingo. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe from the 13th century, having been settled in the 4th century AD. Construction on the city began in the 11th century and continued until it was abandoned in the 15th century. The edifices were erected by ancestors of the Shona people, currently located in Zimbabwe and nearby countries. The stone city spans an area of 7.22 square kilometres (2.79 sq mi) and could have housed up to 18,000 people at its peak, giving it a population density of approximately 2,500 inhabitants per square kilometre (6,500/sq mi). It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The national flag of Zimbabwe consists of seven even horizontal stripes of green, gold, red and black with a white triangle containing a red five-pointed star with a Zimbabwe Bird. The present design was adopted on 18 April 1980.
Chimurenga is a word in Shona. The Ndebele equivalent is not as widely used since most Zimbabweans speak Shona; it is Umvukela, meaning "revolutionary struggle" or uprising. In specific historical terms, it also refers to the Ndebele and the Shona insurrections against administration of the British South Africa Company during the late 1890s, the First Chimurenga—and the war fought between African nationalist guerrillas and the predominantly-white Rhodesian government during the 1960s and the 1970s, the Rhodesian Bush War, or the Second Chimurenga/Imvukela.
The coat of arms of Zimbabwe was adopted on 21 September 1981, one year and five months after the national flag was adopted. Previously the coat of arms of Zimbabwe was identical to the former coat of arms of Rhodesia.
Zimbabwe has many different cultures, which may include beliefs and ceremonies, one of them being Shona. Zimbabwe's largest ethnic group is Shona.
The eagle is used in heraldry as a charge, as a supporter, and as a crest. Heraldic eagles can be found throughout world history like in the Achaemenid Empire or in the present Republic of Indonesia. The European post-classical symbolism of the heraldic eagle is connected with the Roman Empire on one hand, and with Saint John the Evangelist on the other.
The Rhodesian Air Force (RhAF) was an air force based in Salisbury which represented several entities under various names between 1935 and 1980: originally serving the British self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia, it was the air arm of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland between 1953 and 31 December 1963; of Southern Rhodesia once again from 1 January 1964; and of the unrecognised nation of Rhodesia following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain on 11 November 1965.
Nicholas Mukomberanwa, was a Zimbabwean sculptor and art teacher. He was among the most famous protégés of the Workshop School at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. He was a mentor to the Mukomberanwa Family of sculptors. Mukomberanwa married his first wife, sculptor Grace, in 1965 and they had eight children. In 1965, he decided to end his career with the police to become a sculptor full-time. He continued to hone his skills over the following decade, developing one of the most distinctive personal styles found in his generation of Zimbabwean stone sculptors. The gambit paid off, and by the late 1970s and in the 1980s his work was being shown in many venues. His work has been exhibited in galleries around the world. He also became mentor to many artists in Zimbabwe, including his children Anderson Mukomberanwa, Ennica Mukomberanwa, Lawrence Mukomberanwa, Netsai Mukomberanwa, Taguma Mukomberanwa,Tendai Mukomberanwa and nephew, Nesbert Mukomberanwa who are also sculptors. He remains one of Zimbabwe's most famous artists.
Joram Mariga has been called the “Father of Zimbabwean Sculpture” because of his influence on the local artistic community starting in the 1950s and continuing until his death in 2000. The sculptural movement of which he was part is usually referred to as “Shona sculpture”, although some of its recognised members are not ethnically Shona.
John Takawira, was a Zimbabwean sculptor. The background to the sculptural movement of which he was a leading member is given in the article on Shona art.
The military history of Zimbabwe chronicles a vast time period and complex events from the dawn of history until the present time. It covers invasions of native peoples of Africa, encroachment by Europeans, and civil conflict.
The pre-colonial history of Zimbabwe lasted until the British government granted colonial status to Southern Rhodesia in 1923.
Zimbabwean art includes decorative esthetics applied to many aspects of life, including art objects as such, utilitarian objects, objects used in religion, warfare, in propaganda, and in many other spheres. Within this broad arena, Zimbabwe has several identifiable categories of art. It is a hallmark of African cultures in general that art touches many aspects of life, and most tribes have a vigorous and often recognisable canon of styles and a great range of art-worked objects. These can include masks, drums, textile decoration, beadwork, carving, sculpture, ceramic in various forms, housing and the person themselves. Decoration of the body in permanent ways such as scarification or tattoo or impermanently as in painting the body for a ceremony is a common feature of African cultures.
Many languages are spoken, or historically have been spoken, in Zimbabwe. Since the adoption of its 2013 Constitution, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, namely Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, sign language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa. The country's main languages are Shona, spoken by over 70% of the population, and Ndebele, spoken by roughly 20%. English is the country's lingua franca, used in government and business and as the main medium of instruction in schools. English is the first language of most white Zimbabweans, and is the second language of a majority of black Zimbabweans. Historically, a minority of white Zimbabweans spoke Afrikaans, Greek, Italian, Polish, and Portuguese, among other languages, while Gujarati and Hindi could be found amongst the country's Indian population. Deaf Zimbabweans commonly use one of several varieties of Zimbabwean Sign Language, with some using American Sign Language. Zimbabwean language data is based on estimates, as Zimbabwe has never conducted a census that enumerated people by language.
Sculpture and in particular stone sculpture is an art for which Zimbabwe is well known around the world.
Adam Stanley Renders was a German-American hunter, prospector and trader in southern Africa who is generally recorded as the first European to see the medieval city of Great Zimbabwe, having inadvertently come across the ruins while hunting big game in 1867. He subsequently guided the explorer and geographer Karl Mauch during the first archaeological expedition to the site in 1871, and also discovered prehistoric gold mines in the region.
Edward J. Matenga is a Zimbabwean archaeologist and the former director of the Great Zimbabwe World Heritage Site 1998 – 2004. He was a curator at the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences in Harare from 1988 to 1994. He is now an independent heritage management consultant based in Pretoria, South Africa. He is a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
The Lion and Tusk was the main logo of the British South Africa Company (BSAC) and later as a state symbol of Rhodesia. The logo was used following the Company being set up during the scramble for Africa and was used as they governed Rhodesia. Following the company relinquishing control of Northern and Southern Rhodesia, the symbol fell out of favour with the Rhodesian public. However, following the Rhodesian republic being declared in 1970, the Lion and Tusk symbol was adopted as a state symbol to replace the British Empire's Royal crown until the establishment of Zimbabwe in 1980.
Colin Style was a British-Zimbabwean poet and writer. He was awarded the Ingrid Jonker Prize for best published collection in English in Southern Africa, 1977 with Baobab Street (1977).
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