Abstract:
The study of sacred leadership at Mapungubwe involves an analysis of
how the emerging elite centralised rainmaking and other public rituals.
These developments occurred in the Shashe-Limpopo basin between AD
1000 and AD 1300. Mapungubwe was the last in a sequence of capitals in
the basin. The first was Schroda (AD 900-1000), followed by K2 (AD 1000-
1220) and then Mapungubwe (AD 1220-1300). This sequence
corresponds to a series of cultural, socio-political and economic
transformations that led to class distinction and sacred leadership, two
distinctive features of the region’s early state system.
The development of Mapungubwe was a local indigenous accomplishment
that occurred in the prehistoric period but in the relatively recent past. This
offers possibilities for using current indigenous knowledge to develop
relevant ethnographic models.
Over a period of four years, I explored Venda, Sotho-Tswana and Shona
traditional agriculture strategies and belief systems through their oral
histories, cosmologies and practices. I identified three systems of
rainmaking practices. Practice A is associated with kin-based chiefdoms.
Practise B exists among class-based polities with sacred leadership.
Practice C represents the devolution of complexity after the disintegration
of the Zimbabwe culture. These data provide models to clarify the roles of
rainmaking and agriculture in the evolution of Mapungubwe.
