Trade, Globalisation and the Archaic State in Southern Africa

The earliest southern African state societies based in the middle Limpopo valley and the southern regions of the Zimbabwe plateau had extensive commercial links with eastern Africa and the continent of Asia from the late 1st millennium to the middle of the 2nd millennium of the common era (CE). These states witnessed phenomenal growth and expansion propelled by this trade. However, they also became victims of the changing patterns of the Indian Ocean trade, involving eastern Africa, the Persian Gulf, the Indian sub-continent and the Far East, and the auriferous Zimbabwean plateau hinterland and adjacent lowlands. It is argued here that while there are multiple reasons for the demise of Mapungubwe (1000–1300 CE) and Great Zimbabwe (1100–1550 CE), long-distance, regional and inter-continental trade involving precious commodities such as gold was perhaps the primary cause in triggering this. Thus the dynamics of ancient state development and decline associated with the archaic state cannot be completely dissociated from intensified interactions with societies in Asia and, later, Europe.