The Rozvi State Essay

The Rozvi State
Origins
Oral tradition has it that , the first person to hold   the Changamire title was Changa who briefly ruled the Rozvi in the 1490s Changa was the son of Matope after his death his son adopted the title Changamire, and moved to Guruuswa area South western of Zimbabwe. The Changamire appear to have disappeared for about 150 years and the appeared in the 1680s under Changamire Dombo who was a headman under Mutapa Makombwe

It is believed that the Rozvi state originated as Changamire chiefdom within the Mutapa state. However, Mutapa faced rebellion, a development that gave rise to the Rozvi State. Changamire Dombo defeated a Mutapa army after rebelling in 1684. It later on took control of the Mutapa state.
The Changamire Chiefdom became militarily powerful and rich in cattle. Its army became known as the Kurozva which means to destroy.   Varozvi (destroyers) under the leadership of Mambo Called Dombo or Chikura. The Rozvi of Dombo attacked the Portuguese traders on the edge of the Zambezi plateau in 1685.
Dombo managed to incorporate the Torwa and Kalanga commoners into his chiefdom and took over Danangombe to make it his capital. In 1693-5 the Rozvi moved to Manyika and declared the Zimbabwean plateau of Portuguese traders for more than a century.
It can how ever be observed that the other Historians see the Rozvi not as a recovering segment of the Mutapa people, but in fact a people in its own right emerging under the wing of the Mutapa. Once the administrative power of the Mutapa began to fail to control the whole empire, a leader of the people of Guruuswa who was given the title Changamire, who was known as Dombo, became independent from the Mutapa and when the Portuguese took over, led rebellions against European rule. The area of the Rozvi Empire fluctuated. Its influence extended over much of present-day Zimbabwe and westward into Botswana and southward into north eastern South Africa. This may however lead to a confusion since the...