When white people first came across the great Zimbabwe, they quickly ruled out any possibility that the dzimba dze mabwe (houses of stone) could have been constructed by Africans. The African race was not considered sophisticated enough to embark on an engineering program of that magnitude.
A 16th century Portuguese explorer postulated than the great Zimbabwe was in the “land of Ophir”, in reference to a Biblical site believed to be the source of King Solomon’s gold. Later, other European historians and theologians speculated that that the stone structures had been constructed by Phoenicians or Egyptians or other non-African people. To them the black African was incapable of building such an incredible edifice as the spectacular houses of stone surrounded by a 15 metre high wall with a conical tower at one end (within the enclosure).
In 1538, Portuguese Joao de Barros wrote:
“When and by whom, these edifices were raised, as the people of the land are ignorant of the art of writing, there is no record, but they say they are the work of the devil, for in comparison with their power and knowledge it does not seem possible to them that they should be the work of man.”
The truth of the matter is that there are about two hundred similar sites in Africa, albeit smaller, such as the one at Bumbusi in Zimbabwe and Manyikeni in Mozambaque. Of all these, the great Zimbabwe, located near Masvingo town, is by far the largest. The Karanga speaking Shona people constructed the Zimbabwe structures between the 11th and 15th century AD. The site was an ancient city which was home to some 18,000 people at its peak.
The Lemba people, Africans who are believed to have some Jewish ancestry, claim to have constructed the great Zimbabwe but that claim lacks convincing evidence.
At home, we had our own Msyamboza at Chibanzi in Dowa. He initiated a number of projects that brought distinction to his village. Apart from being a skilful marksman with his gun, he embarked on irrigation which aided his farming of wheat, onions and other crops. He introduced bread baking and soap making, among other pursuits, at Chibanzi. In the 1800s it was strange to see people wearing clothes made from cloth but the people of Chibanzi were wearing such clothing. Msyamboza insisted that the Chibanzi villagers own and use pit latrines. What the Ministry of Health now champions as a “no to open defecation” was already in place more than a hundred years ago at Chibanzi.
Visitors who came to Chibanzi wondered whether the occupants of the village had lived in South Africa and had consequently been influenced by European culture. A Malawian writer, Samuel Josiah Nthara, published a chiNyanja book on Msyamboza’s life in 1945. The book was translated into English by a former missionary to Nyasaland, Cullen Young, who published it in London in 1948. He titled it “Headman’s Enterprise: An Unexpected Page in the History of Central Africa” (Emphasis mine). Indeed whatever Msyamboza did was unexpected in the African hinterland at that time, just like the building of the great Zimbabwe had been unexpected in the middle of nowhere, deep in Africa.
Iron smelting has been taking place in Africa since prehistoric times. Archaeology reveals that it was rampant in West and Central Africa several hundred years before Christ and that it spread to the rest of Africa with the migration of people. The Bantu brought the technology to East and Southern Africa. The founders of the Maravi state, after which the present state of Malawi is named, were great iron smelters. The word Malawi itself is a testimony to this. It means flames, and was derived from the many flames in the territory, which were from the countless kilns that were being used for iron smelting.
Smelting of iron in Africa has been presumed to have had an external origin, meaning that the Africans acquired the skill from non Africans. However, recent research has shown conclusively that African iron smelting was invented and developed in Africa.
Says French researcher, Gerard Quechon, quoted in an article by Stanley B. Apern published by the Cambridge University Press in an online journal in 2014, “indisputably, in the present state of knowledge, the hypothesis of autochthonous [indigenous] invention is convincing. The same author quotes American archaeologist, Peter Schmidt, as having said, “The hypothesis for independent invention is currently the most viable among the multitude of diffusionist hypotheses.”
Innovators, never get discouraged by anybody who may be belittling you and your abilities just because you are African. Search within your arsenal of possible innovations and release them to the unsuspecting audience.