How The Zimbabwean History was Distorted

Distortion of any history is mainly done by the historians, the people who write it and who tell it. People as a whole really have to be careful of the people who tell their history or that of any nation and watch out for the information they are provided with.  

Oral tradition is one form that was used by historians to try telling the history of Zimbabwe. There is very little information or written documents we get from our Shona and Ndebele historians and /or ancestors because they did not manage to record any history. There was no effective form of transitioning history by our ancestors. Due to that, other people start writing our own history for us and by so doing, incorrect information is passed on from generation to generation.

 

Misinformation of history by some of these historians is done unintentionally mainly because they know nothing much about the history they are writing. On the other hand, some of these historians write or record incorrect information intentionally in order to mislead the people of their own history. The first European to visit Great Zimbabwe was a German geologist called Carl Mauch in 1871. He was skeptical that the Africans alone had the architectural ability to build the magnificent Great Zimbabwe walls. He thought Africans at that time were not civilized enough to the extent of building such monuments with wonderful coordination.

 

Carl Mauch concluded that Great Zimbabwe was not built by the Africans but rather by the Arabs who came from the Eastern side of Africa during the 14^th century at the time of the rise of the Great Zimbabwe state. This misinformation could be on a basis of racism. These white European settlers like Carl Mauch and Cecil John Rhodes were ignorant towards the works of the Africans and they wanted people to believe that they were the ones who brought in civilization to Africa. Professor Manu, A stated that “a European scientist by the name Theodore Bent was sent by Cecil J. Rhodes to analyze the ruins of Great Zimbabwe and Bent concluded that “the Africans were not yet civilized at that time to be able to build such articulate stone walls”. They were clearly distorting the native Zimbabwean history, resulting in fellow Zimbabwean scholars of today not being sure of their own history.

The media mirrors the way we live in our societies but it does not always do so. People actually learn to be what they are through what they read, listen to and see in the media. However, media can be used as a way of misinforming people and make people believe what is actually not true because of other peoples interest.  One scholar stated that “some sources of history are not always accurate; information passed on can be changed by people from generation to generation”. For example, the true fact about Great Zimbabwe is that the stone walls were built by the Shona people, but some forms of media were used by the Europeans so as to assimilate the minds of the Africans and make them believe that the stone walls were not built by these Shona people.

A journalist by the name Gregory, E once wrote ““Those of us exposed regularly to the international, especially British media, found it hard to match what we heard on the TV and radio and read in the newspapers with what we were finding on the ground”. The Europeans plant in the minds of the uneducated Africans that they brought education and civilization to Africa hence them being the ones that would have constituted to the architectural ideologies of the stone walls.

Africans now simply believe that the historical information that they obtain from the Western archaeologists is true because they do not have proper sources of information about their own history. History can also be distorted due to misinterpretation. For instance, the Europeans who came and settled in Africa could have written the actual facts about the Zimbabwean history but that information could have been misinterpreted into the Shona or the Ndebele language. The form of language used to inform people about their history can be very distracting because other people may not understand and end up having their own assumptions as to the events that took place in the past.

Preservation of any history in a country is very important for it entails what the future of a nation may become without repeating its old misconceptions.History is distorted by twisting a story and it being written falsely. In order for that not to occur, events need to be taken note of, recorded and archived. This information can be used to teach and tell people the true facts without letting any information being wrongly misinterpreted or result in distortion.

Media can play a huge role in preserving historical facts and events of a nation that would have taken place. Traditions and cultures of a society and the meaning to these traditions need to be applied to school curriculum education systems. This in a way helps in preserving our history. It is very difficult for history to be distorted at this stage when people are educated about traditions and the culture is often practiced.

Now with the incredible expansion of technology, it is easy to store some documents containing information about a county’s history. Tanya Lewis, a blogger stated that “Protecting artifacts against degradation is one of the Library's primary jobs. Most paper documents are digitized, but the Library works hard to preserve the originals”.Not mush history can be distorted at this stage of time in this century and correct information can be passed on.

Picture Courtesy of www.zimmail.co.zw