African History 3: Great Zimbabwe

Why did africans tend to dodge southern africa like the

plague Well maybe because there was a plague a deadly

disease called sleeping sickness which is carried by the tsetse

fly While it may sound like a good excuse if

you get caught napping in calculus sleeping sickness is no

joke And it's still killed several thousand people every year

To make matters worse especially for cows the sleeping sickness

parasite carried by the tsetse fly also kills livestock Oh

and on top of all that a lot of southern

africa is rocky and a hot making growing crops a

serious challenge This place makes tough mudder look easy Put

all that together and we've got a place where the

threat of death from disease and starvation was well more

than just a threat It was downright likely so it's

Pretty easy to see why southern africa wasn't the most

Sought after real estate even if the real estate brokers

did have free cookies at open house Still despite all

these challenges some medieval africans managed to carve really deal

kingdoms out of some of the toughest real estate around

Like how about a little place called great zimbabwe Okay

well maybe not so little by medieval standards it was

actually midsize with around eighteen thousand people Back then when

people saw great zimbabwe they were like look at that

big city with its eighteen thousand people We wonder if

it has a chinese restaurant Makita great zimbabwe's success was

location location and yes location His world city was built

way up high so the people in their animals were

safe from those pesky seats he flies proving once again

that it's easier to get things done when you're not

worried about sleeping death great zimbabwe had it all gold

mines soldiers gold markets gold and a big government Did

we mention gold had a lot of gold by the

fifteenth century great zimbabwe was actually one of the world's

major producers of gold And unlike some other cultures out

there they didn't squander it all on personal bling Nope

These guys used it for trade Archaeologists poking around in

the ruins of great zimbabwe have found stuff from all

over the world including persian bowls and chinese dishes And

what can we say They weren't into the bling but

they did like to dine in style Nobody knows exactly

why great zimbabwe eventually fell The biggest theory is that

the population just grew too big for the area But

even though the great city was eventually abandoned around fourteen

fifty eighty the ruins of its walls lasted through the

centuries When the english eventually colonized zimbabwe re dubbing it

rhodesia they didn't know what to make of the ruins

Evidence of sophisticated african civilizations blew all kinds of holes

in their theory that africans were primitive people who are

better off being colonized instead of going uh well maybe

because people are so primitive English made up stuff you

know like saying that the city was built by arabs

or phoenicians Zimbabweans didn't buy this hogwash which is good

because hogwash is gross The ruins were a major symbol

of national pride throughout the years and they still are

today great zimbabwe proves that zimbabweans have the ability to

build great nations in their genes which sounds a little 00:03:27.75 --> [endTime] uncomfortable We're surprised more zimbabweans don't wear baggy jeans