The African Conservancy Gallery

The Civilized Shona

Around 1420 A.D., the Shona people were the first tribe to inhabit Zimbabwe and establish the empire of Chief Mutota, a.k.a. Mwene Mutapa or "Lord of the Plundered Lands" by the local Tonga and the Tavara people. Known today as great artisans, these creative and peaceful people now reside in southern and northern/central Zimbabwe, and have become renown for their highly stylized and easily identifiable carvings and sculptures.

Shona men have been creating their art for centuries, but the world is just now coming to realize its distinct character. While performing their daily tasks of farming the land, the men collect various stones. These pieces are then carved into intricate sculptures that supposedly set the spirit within the rock free. Shona ancestors created the Great Zimbabwe archaeological ruins that date back to 600 A.D. The Shona of that era had established a wealthy, complex society. The site was established as a center of trade with foreign places and peoples. By this time, the Shona had mastered the art of mining gold, copper and other precious metals as well as employing advanced methods of cutting and splitting stone for building houses.

Great Zimbabwe flourished until 1450, after which some historians have speculated that the valuable resources of the land had been depleted. Along with the ruins left behind, the Shona also passed along a unique religion that is still practiced by many of their ancestors today. Their religion is based on Mwari - the one supreme being. Mwari communicates with the people through spirits and mediums called masvikiro. A masvikiro is a person possessed by a spirit during ceremonies that utilize music, dancing and clapping to call forth the spirits of persons who were once influential members of the tribe.

In the Shona religion, there are two main types of spirits: good spirits (vadzimu) who are associated with recent ancestors and all that is ideal; and a variety of benevolent and malevolent wandering or shave spirits, associated with the spirits of neighboring people, Europeans or even animals. Just like their ancestors of ancient Great Zimbabwe, today's Shona are generally agricultural people living in dispersed settlements. Most decisions are made within the family unit. In organized political Shona states, power is centralized in a paramount chief who inherits his position through birth much in the same manner as a king.