Europeans credited the ancient city to everyone from wandering Phoenicians to the biblical Queen of Sheba. In so doing, they began a long insidious European tradition of willful misinterpretation of Africa's past, until, in the ultimate irony, the place where human history began would become a place with no history of its own.
"Cloaked in darkness since medieval times, the spectacular ruins of the once dazzling, southern African kingdom of Great Zimbabwe posed a thorny dilemma for white settlers who claimed to have 'discovered' the region a mere hundred years before. Refusing to believe the massive, finely hewn walls could be the product of native culture, white "experts" eager to claim the land for Europeans credited the ancient city to everyone from wandering Phoenicians to the biblical Queen of Sheba.
In so doing, they began a long insidious European tradition of willful misinterpretation of Africa's past, until, in the ultimate irony, the place where human history began would become a place with no history of its own.
Now, trek inland to the remote site of Great Zimbabwe, a fabulous "lost city," which reached its glory in the 14th century. Then, sift the sands of time to uncover the equally splendid culture of Africa's Swahili Coast. The fabulously wealthy center of the thriving gold and ivory trades until the 16th century, its cities now lie all but forgotten, buried under centuries of indifference. Reclaiming their past from a long tradition of racial prejudice and neglect, the descendants of these lost cultures are only now discovering the extraordinary achievements of Africa's indigenous civilizations.
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