In 1891 the country was named Rhodesia in honour of Cecil John Rhodes, the English imperialist and mining magnate who founded the country and sponsored its occupation. The country has had a few politically motivated name changes since then.
From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe
Rhodes’s British South Africa Company governed the colony until after the end of the First World War. The settlers expressed desire for self-government and freedom from Company rule. The British government offered them a choice between incorporation into the Union of South Africa or self rule as a reward for their contribution to the war effort. They chose the later.
Zambia to the north was also named after Rhodes, so the country was called Southern Rhodesia, Zambia was Northern Rhodesia. From 1895 both territories had been simply Rhodesia.
Between 1953 and 1963, Southern Rhodesia was a member of the Central African Federation which included Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. When Northern Rhodesia attained independence in 1963 it adopted the name Zambia, the Federation was dissolved and Southern Rhodesia simply became Rhodesia.
In 1979 Rhodesia became Zimbabwe-Rhodesia under the Smith-Muzorewa administartion to reflect the power arrangement between a black puppet government and a racist white minority.
Both name and government were short lived. Mugabe came into power in 1980. The country was named Zimbabwe, derived from the Shona words dzimba dzemabwe (houses of stone) in reference to the stone structures at Zimbabwe, Dhlodhlo and Khami.
The Majesty of Great Zimbabwe
There is controversy regarding who constructed the magnificent stone structures.One view is that because the greatest of the monuments is deep in Shona territory it was erected by the Shona, a Bantu tribe, at the time of the Rozvi dynasty that ruled over the plains before their kingdom was routed by the Portuguese and its scattered remnants razed by the Ndebele (Matebele). Others argue that the Phoenicians built it centuries before the Bantu migrated southward and crossed the Zambezi River.
19th century European travellers, missionaries, fortune seekers, adventurers, hunters and others who passed through what is now Zimbabwe were amazed by what they saw, huge and beautiful stone structures constructed without mortar, in the midst of the bush country among people they considered a primitive, backward race.
The Zimbabwe ruins awakened and fulfilled Western fantasies and easily fed into pre-existing myths. The ruins fired the imagination of poets and roused the lust of empire builders. Variously called the El Dorado, the site of King Solomon’s Mines or capital of the kingdom of Sheba,impressed European travellers considered Shona territory the origin of the legend of Ophir on their account.
The colonization of Zimbabwe was inevitable. However, the hype and expcetation that accompanied the takeover of Mashonaland was partly a result of the myths that surrounded the foundation of the Zimbabwe ruins despite its distance from the former. It was thought that only a mineral rich country with fertile land and plenty of rainfall could have sustained a great civilisation needed to contsruct the awe-inspiring monuments which would have required an organised, highly centralised system of government, skilled workmen and slave labour.
The Zimbabwe ruins were variously called Zimbabwe, Great Zimbabwe or Rhodesian ruins, but after independence the name Great Zimbabwe was firmly established. Before Zimbabwe became an international pariah, Great Zimbabwe was one of the country’s premier tourist destinations.
From Fort Victoria to Masvingo
Great Zimbabwe is situated near Masvingo, formerly Fort Victoria, named after Queen Victoria, the reigning English monarch at the time of Zimbabwe’s occupation in 1890.
The erection of this fort is in itself a curious fact. The man who signed away Mashonaland to Cecil John Rhodes, Lobengula king of the Matabele, had a habit of sending his murderous impis into Shona villages to plunder and pillage. To stop Lobengula from interfering with the imperialist project, the Pioneers arbitrarily marked the fort to demarcate the king’s territory and limit his raids.
In time Fort Victoria became the fifth largest urban centre in Rhodesia after then Salisbury, Bulawayo, Umtali and Gwelo.
It was situated in Fort Victoria Province which encompassed the south western portions of the country. The province and town prospered in the colonial era despite its limited economic potential relative to mineral rich and fertile Mashonaland.
After independence the government changed the names of most towns and cities. Fort Victoria town and province were renamed Masvingo (ruins) and Masvingo Province respectively, presumably after what was formerly the Zimbabwe ruins, now Great Zimbabwe.
Both province and town saw a marked decline in human and material potential to the point of abject poverty, perhaps in sympathy with the name Ruins.
Sources:
Tongkeh Joseph Fowale, Understanding Zimbabwe's Land Crisis in African Colonialism
Kristin Peoples, The People of Zimbabwe in African History
Darlene Vaillancourt, Queen Victoria in Monarchs
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