HISTORY LESSON

The archaeological site can be attributed to the BuKalanga, which compromised the Kalanga people from northeast Bostwana and western/central southern Zimbabwe, the Nambiya south of the Zambezi Valley, and the Vha Venda in the northeast of South Africa. There is a controversy regarding the origin and meaning of the name “Mapungubwe”. Generally it is believed that mapungubwe means “place of jackals,” or “place where jackals eat,” thavha ya dzi phunguhwe, Fouché – one of the earliest excavators of the place called it “hill of jackals”. The name was taken from the hill which was on the southern side of the Limpopo River. In the Pedi, Sotho, Tsonga, Venda and Kalanga ethnicities it means “place of wisdom” and “the place where rock turns into liquid.

Spatial organisation in the kingdom of Mapungubwe involved the use of stone walls to demarcate important areas for the first time. There was a stone walled residency likely occupied by the principal chief. Stone and wood were used together.

Mapungubwean society is thought by archaeologists to be the first-class based social system in southern Africa; it leaders were separated from and higher in rank than its inhabitants. The architecture and spatial arrangement also provide “the earliest evidence of sacred leadership in Southern Africa.

Life was centred on family and farming. Special sites were created for social functions. Cattle lived in Kraals located to the residents’ houses, signifying their value. Since there is no written record by Mapungubwe people, most speculation about society continues to be based upon the remains of buildings.

The kingdom was likely divided into a thre-tiered hierarchy with the commoners inhabiting low-lying sites, district leaders occupying small hilltops, and the capital at Mapungubwe Hill as the supreme authority. Elites within the kingdom were buried in hills. Royal wives lived in their own area away from the king. Important men maintained prestigious homes on the outskirts of the capital. The growth in the population of Mapungubwe may have led to full-time specialists in ceramics (pottery). Gold objects were uncovered in elite burials on the royal hill.