Empire of the South: Mutapa

Mutapa

When the Portuguese settled in Sofala, they hoped to easily control all the gold trade between the Zimbabwean & Mozambican plateau to their Indian Ocean commerce. With the port of Sofala closed to the Arabs, the Portuguese quickly resumed contact with the interior natives on the coast north of the Zambezi delta. From there, Arab merchants traveled up the great river in small boats called zambuks. The Portuguese had heard of this inland route, their attempts to “discover” the path were in vain. They then considered building a wooden fort at the Zambezi river’s mouth, in order to block access to Arab boats, but the project was abandoned.

The Arabs had long succeeded in hiding the existence of the Mutapa state from the Portuguese. It was in the centuries that followed Sofala's importance steadily declined between the 15th -17th century. Toward the end of that period, a witness wrote:

“the fort of Sofala is no longer of any profit, except for a bit of ivory bought in the surrounding area”.

Sofala’s decline under Portuguese rule was not solely due to competition from the different Zambezi route. The Portuguese initial ignorance of African commercial customs (which the Arabs had quickly understood and adapted to), their excessive haste in business dealings, the heavy fixed costs undermining the profitability of the trading post, and the growing power of a proud local chief near Sofala, who acted as a barrier between the fort and the plateau societies, all contributed to this decline. Having expelled the Arabs from the trading post, the Portuguese expected the Africans to flock there immediately. They did not realize that the Arabs as merchants who were accustomed to traveling inland with their goods, thus meeting buyers directly. The Portuguese by contrast were left to deal only with those who remained in the region and acted as intermediaries.

The failure on the coast led the Portuguese to explore the course of the Zambezi and then to take interest in the civilizations of the plateau. The gold found in Sofala, originates from a Kingdom called "Ucalanga": It is very vast and includes many large cities, not to mention numerous villages. The Portuguese studied the areas' economy, religion, social structure and systems.

Santos (1609): “No one comes to speak to the king or his wife without bringing something. The Portuguese bring him clothing, a cow, a goat or other valuable items. When villagers are so poor that they have nothing to give, they bring him a sack of earth as a token of homage and a bundle of straw to cover his house."

According to Barros (1552): commoners wore locally made fabrics, while nobles dressed in silks “trimmed with gold" imported from India.

Contrary to a widespread belief, gold itself held little intrinsic interest for the African population. They valued cattle far more, as its meat allowed them to eat lavishly. As for textiles, they only appealed to those who already had enough to eat.

Luís Fróis noted in 1561 "that cattle are worth as much as gold itself.”

The "Monomotapa" vassals, Balthasar da Costa wrote: "for a certain portion of beef, they give the Monomotapa(~King) an equal portion of gold.”

Cattle thus served, in a way, as payment for gold extracted on behalf of the ruler. In 1552, Barros wrote that the Monomotapa: "when he wants to obtain something, sends his men to the mines where gold is extracted, and distributes one or two cows, depending on the number of miners, as a gesture of goodwill; in return for this gift, each gives a little gold, up to 4 grams."

Alcáçova wrote as early as 1506: "and no man may extract gold without the king’s permission, under penalty of death.”

According to João dos Santos: “Every Black man who discovers a significant mine and extracts gold from it is condemned to death then the goods acquired are confiscated by the king”

António Gomes (1648) adds that, according to custom, the local clan leader or chief must receive a portion of the extracted gold: “A Black man who wishes to open a mine must request permission from the king or local chief and give him, in compensation, a portion of the first gold recovered.

Africans clearly understood the importance of limiting production to preserve the purchasing power of gold and above all to prevent the Portuguese from seizing their lands. 

Santos says :“If a Black man, accidentally discovers a rich mine while digging, he must shout loudly to call another Black man, who can testify that he found a large vein by chance and left it untouched. The Monomotapa (~King) is so strict because he does not want the Portuguese to know that such rich gold mines exist on his land, to avoid them waging war out of greed for the gold and the kingdom."

"The gold percentage owed to the Portuguese appears to have declined, miners in the chiefdoms paid half of their yield." 

According to Alcáçova, "there was a famous war that raged in the interior that supposedly dried up the gold supply which lasted twelve or thirteen years". 

A rebellion between the Ne-Mbire and the Humbe/Wumbe clans on the plateau had stopped trade around the Great Zimbabwe plateau.

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*Video: Empire of the South: Mutapa.

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