BY DR. TONY M MONDA
Historically and linguistically traditional Shona orature, diction and ethnology in Zimbabwe is replete with words that make references to horses, which gives evidence to African indigenous familiarity and knowledge of horses and is a basis for acknowledging our African horse heritage.
The words Mahachi and Mabhiza, (both mean horses), are common Shona African totems and surnames also prove a Shona equestrian historicity and heritage.
In the old Korekore Shona dialect the word for bicycle is Bhizahutare derived from the horse which means ‘steel-horse’. Likewise a stable is known as dangarebhiza. A stallion, an uncastrated male horse especially one used for breeding is known as hono re bhiza. Such expressions lend weight to Africa’s horse heritage and prove indigenous peoples’ familiarity with horses and horse breeding.
In southern Africa, a significant change took place in the Stone Age sequence about thirty thousand years ago, leading to what is known as the Later Stone Age. This cultural phase, though not closely similar to the European Upper Palaeolithic, is nevertheless similarly associated with painting and engraving on rock. Where this art can be linked to particular groups of people, it is almost always to Khoisan hunter-gatherers.
The antecedent horse breeds seen on select pre-historic cave paintings are often mistaken for unmarked zebra or eland. But ethnographic research by Frobenius amongst the San and Khoi people of Tsodilo shed light on the fact that the equus-like images on some caves in Zimbabwe and the Ghanze region of Botswana and other parts Southern Africa, do in fact, represent a wild indigenous horse breed – the Equus Capensis or Equus Bambata horse.
Archaeological studies carried out in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s revealed skull fragments, phalanges, tooth fragments and bone shafts of indigenous horse breeds at several Iron Age stone sites.
These include Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, Domboshava, Harava, Khame, Murewa, Mutoko, Nyanga, Zvimba Hills, Chinhoyi, Mutare Altar Site, Epworth, Amathobo (Matopo), areas near southern Matabeleland and north-eastern Botswana.
Studies of excavations at Bambata Caves reveal indisputable evidence that the Later Stone Age started in the Matobo Hills some 13 000 years ago. Pre-historic rock art visualizations in the Matopo Hills depict equestrian images referred to in archaeo-zoology as Equus Capensis – the Giant Cape Horse. Believed extinct for at least 9000 years; these ancient horses are said to share the same pool gene. Indeed, evident in many Iron Age rock art friezes are dominant depictions of thick-set savannah horses, often portrayed in isolation from the main imagery; a notable example being the Giant Cape Horse.
Other unexamined rock art sites that may contain more equestrian imagery include the Gulumahwe Cave, Nanke Cave, Njerere, Amadzimba and Buhwe caves in the Amathobo Hills. All the images in these caves prove that horses were part of indigenous ethnography in the pre-historic rock art of Zimbabwe.
Further visual testimony lie in the artistic images of hornless bovine depicted in profile with forward- facing erect ears typical of horses; the extended mandibles, large nostrils and distinctive tail and mane, which differ anatomically from other hornless animals such as zebra, donkeys and polled cattle, are also in evidence.
In the medieval oral history of Nyashanu, Neharawa and Zvimba peoples, who were the rulers of the Five Hills around Mbire, present day Harare and its surrounding environs, including Mashonaland west and north, were known to have owned and reared horses and travelled on horseback.
Similarly, the Matemayi, Mahachi, Mabhiza, Goto, Gushungo, Moyo, Save and Shava peoples were also known to be familiar with horses.
In fact, my own great grand-grandfather was renowned for keeping and breeding horses, long before the Columbian Exchange of human, animal, plant and microbe populations between the 15th -19th centuries and the arrival of European colonial settlers in Zimbabwe in the early 19th Century.
In Zimbabwe, whilst we can speculate about oral narrative and historical evidence of indigenous horse breeds in the land of the Mwenwemutapa, the imagery in pre-historic rock art, the familiarity of the indigenous people with horses is quite revealing. In reality, rock art reveals the horse as an image of power and place in Shona archaeo-history.
Dr. Tony M. Monda holds a PhD, DVM as well as a DBA in Post-Colonial Heritage Studies. E-mail tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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