Domboshaba

The site of Domboshaba was one of the most important administrative capitals of the Empire of the Great Zimbabwe during the reign of Mwenemutapa (alt. Munhumutapa). Now a shadow of its former glory, modern-day Domboshaba in north-eastern Botswana strikes most visitors as humble and perhaps a little run-down. However, its former status as a prominent administrative capital is evident in impressive dry-stone masonry featuring intricate designs, most of which are still standing today. Administration was not the only function of Domboshaba. The site sits on the periphery of the Makgadikgadi salt pans and served as an important locale in the Indian Ocean trade route.

Salt from Makgadikgadi, alongside gold from the Vumba Schist belt and copper mined near Matsitama, had great export value in a trade network that connected the interior of southern Africa with the east African coast and Indian Ocean. Exotic items of import included tobacco, glass beads and textiles from Portuguese and Swahili traders. It was with these profitable caravans that many Khami-era sites like Domboshaba flourished. The first reported excavations of the site took place in 1929, when a number of trade items in the form of Chinese celadon porcelain, glass beads and clay birds were recovered. The Kalanga state of Butua, which had dominated the Zimbabwe plateau for four centuries, collapsed in the 1830s due to repeated difaqane invasions, leading to the abandonment of Domboshaba.

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The spatial organisation of Domboshaba conforms to the Great Zimbabwe pattern with an emphasis on hilltop settlements, generally designated for royal kin, with the use of terraced slopes and valley bottoms as habitation spaces for the wider community.

Sources

1. Botswana Tourism Board. (n.d.). The greater Francistown heritage trail. Gaborone: Botswana Tourism Board.
2. Huffman, T. and Main, M. (2021). Zimbabwe Ruins in Botswana: Settlement Hierarchies, Political Boundaries and Symbolic Statements. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 32, 1-28 [Link]
3. Manyanga, M. (2005). Intangible cultural heritage and the empowerment of local communities: Manyanga (Ntabazi ka mambo) revisited. Proceedings of the 14th ICOMOS General Assembly (2003): October 2003, 387-392 [Link]
4. Matshetshe, K. (2001). Salt production and the salt trade in the Makgadikgadi Pans. Pula: Botswana Journal of African studies, 15(1), 75-90.
5. van Waarden, C. (2012). Butua and the End of an Era: The Effect of the Collapse of the Kalanga State on Ordinary Citizens; An Analysis of Behaviour under Stress. Oxford: Archaeopress.