The Monomotapa was an empire that flourished from the 14th to the 17th century. The empire existed in southeastern Africa in what is now Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The empire was named after its ruling dynasty, which also was known as Mwene Matapa, or simply Matapa (or Mutapa).

People and culture

Most inhabitants of the Monomotapa empire were members of the Shona clan, a group of culturally similar Bantu-speaking peoples who began settling the Zimbabwean Plateau some 2,000 years ago. Historians believe that the Monomotapa empire arose from the Great Zimbabwe culture, which was a powerful trading empire that occupied much of present-day Zimbabwe from 1100 to 1500.

Economy

Much of the economic activity of Monomotapa centered on farming. However, the empire also participated in the trade of gold and ivory. The empire obtained the gold from its many mines and the ivory from elephant tusks. Beginning in the early 1500s, Monomotapa merchants traded with the Portuguese, who by this time had sailed around the southern tip of Africa and established trading outposts along the southeastern coast of the continent.

History

According to legend, the Monomotapa, or Mwene Matapa, dynasty was founded by Mbire, a ruler of the 14th century. His great-great-grandson Nyatsimba, who ruled in the late 15th century, was the actual creator of the empire and the first to bear the title Mwene Matapa. During his reign the center of the state shifted from Zimbabwe north to Mount Fura on the Zambezi River.

In the 16th century the Portuguese invaded Monomotapa. When the reigning Mwene Matapa attempted to expel them in 1629, the Portuguese overthrew him and forced his successor to grant them extensive trading and mining privileges. By the late 17th century, the power of the Mwene Matapa was overshadowed by the Rozwi kingdom of southwestern Zimbabwe.