Rozvi Empire: A Visual History

The Rozvi Empire was founded around 1660 by Changamire Dombo, a Shona cattle-lord who broke from the Mutapa kingdom, defeated a Portuguese force at Maungwe in 1684 and expelled the Portuguese from the plateau's trading fairs in 1693-1695. From Danangombe (Dhlo-Dhlo) and Khami the Rozvi ('destroyers') ruled much of modern Zimbabwe, controlling gold and ivory trade with the coast through Portuguese intermediaries on their own terms. Nguni groups fleeing the Zulu Mfecane, the Ndebele and Ngoni, destroyed the Rozvi in the 1830s, and the last Changamire died in 1866.

When it existed: the era ribbon

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Rozvi territory

Timeline of the Rozvi Empire

1. 1660
   Changamire Dombo rises
2. 1684
   Battle of Maungwe
3. 1693
   Dambarare sacked
4. 1695
   Portuguese expelled from the plateauDombo dies.
5. 1700
   Rozvi at their peak
6. 1830
   Nguni invasions begin
7. 1838
   Ndebele settle in Rozvi lands
8. 1866
   Last Changamire dies

Dombo's revolt

The Mutapa kingdom, heir of Great Zimbabwe, had become a Portuguese client by the 1630s. Dombo, a Mutapa vassal (or a Torwa successor), built an army of his own, took the title Changamire and won a decisive battle over the Portuguese at Maungwe in 1684. In 1693 he sacked the fair at Dambarare and killed its Portuguese, and by 1695 had cleared them from the plateau, confining them to the Zambezi valley.

The Rozvi state

The Rozvi ruled through tributary chiefs and controlled trade routes to the coast, sending gold and ivory via Portuguese and Swahili traders at Zumbo and Sena and receiving cloth, beads and guns. Their capitals in the south-west used the dry-stone building tradition of Great Zimbabwe, with elaborately decorated walls at Naletale. The Changamire's power rested on cattle, tribute and a standing force of warriors.

The Mfecane

In the 1830s waves of Nguni migrants fleeing Shaka's wars crossed the Limpopo: Zwangendaba's Ngoni, Nxaba and Soshangane's followers raided the plateau, and Mzilikazi's Ndebele settled in the Rozvi heartland around Bulawayo in about 1838-1840. The Rozvi were scattered; a remnant under Tohwechipi held out until his death in 1866. The Ndebele kingdom took over until British conquest in 1893.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• First Portuguese Empire (1415 to 1663)
• Second Portuguese Empire (1663 to 1822)
• Zulu Kingdom (1816 to 1897)
• Third Portuguese Empire (1822 to 1999)
• British Empire (1583 to 1997)
• Dutch Empire (1602 to 1975)

8 surprising things about the Rozvi Empire

1. The Rozvi were among the few African states to defeat and expel a European power in the seventeenth century.
2. Their name means 'the destroyers' or 'plunderers', from the Shona verb kurozva.
3. Portuguese sources describe Dombo as a sorcerer who could turn a white ox black.
4. The Naletale ruin has the most elaborately decorated stone walls in southern Africa, with chevron, herringbone and check patterns.
5. The Rozvi kept the Portuguese confined to the Zambezi valley for over 150 years, until Rhodes's pioneers arrived from the south.
6. The Rozvi Changamires claimed the rain-making powers of the old Zimbabwe kings and controlled the Mwari cult shrines in the Matopos.
7. The Ndebele who displaced the Rozvi were themselves refugees from Shaka Zulu.
8. The Rozvi capital Danangombe is called Dhlo-Dhlo in Ndebele.

Sources

• Rozvi Empire Wikipedia
• Zimbabwe: The Rozwi Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Changamire dynasty Encyclopaedia Britannica
• David Beach, The Shona and Zimbabwe 900-1850 (1980) Heinemann

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