This documentary explains the growth of African east coast trading civilizations starting in 30 BC, including the “Great Zimbabwe” civilization in south-central Africa that dates between 1,000 and 1,400 AD.

Following are points from the video:

— The Great Zimbabwe civilization in south-central Africa was home to as many as 20 thousand people at its height, and it was a part of a large international trading network that included China, Persia, and areas all over the Indian Ocean.  They smelted iron and created pottery, and they built large stone fortifications.

— At 30 BC the Romans controlled Egypt, and they came into contact with the eastern coast of Africa as well as the areas across the Indian Ocean such as India and beyond, where they established a vast trading network, relying on the seasonal winds for easy travel.

— A Greek sea captain wrote about the ports in the vast region ranging from South-Central Africa to eastern India in a book called “The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.”  The book describes the southern-most African port of Rapta as a source of ivory, tortoise shell, and rhino horn.  The location of Rapta was thought to be lost, but archeologists now identify Tanzania as being its location due to discoveries of large amounts of Roman and Egyptian coins dating from the first few centuries AD.

— East Africa largely disappeared from the historical record after Rome declined.

— With the birth of Islam in the 7th century, Islam began to dominate the coastal routes along Africa, with the Swahili people first being mentioned in the historical record.

— By the 9th century, urbanized Islamic centers began to form along the eastern African coast, mostly being built from stone and corral.

— The ruined port city of Kilwa Kisiwani (which dates between the 9th and 19th century) exists on a remote Tanzanian island.  Its architecture was built from sea coral rather than stone, and it traded in goods that were acquired from far in the interior of Africa, such as ivory and gold.

— In the cities in the Tanzania region, gold was buried with their dead in a local non-Islamic tradition.

— Native written language didn’t exist in much of Africa, but oral history along with archeological studies have helped to gain an to understanding of the history of the continent.

— From 1,000 BC to 1,000 AD, many people migrated south from the Sahara Desert due to the changing climate in a period known as “The Bantu Migrations,” prompting a transition to the use of domestication of animals and Iron Age technology in 300 AD.

— A 900 AD settlement was discovered in Zimbabwe called “Leopard’s Kopje” that showed evidence of metalworking, pottery, building in stone, and trade.  People in that region commonly ate sorghum, millet, beans, and squash, and cattle raising became widespread.  People in many parts of Africa still measure wealth by the amount of cattle that they own.

— A site called Schroda contains evidence of the first example of a change from pastoralized farmers to a centralized state where trading became the focus starting at around 900 AD.  Gold mining began at that time as well.

— At 1,000 AD, a new group moved in and conquered the Tanzania area, being attracted to its wealth.  The site was called K2.  As more gold was found, more and more people moved to the area.  Courts and laws were established.

— By 1,075 AD, the local ruling elite at K2 made a conscious decision to separate themselves from their subjects, and they relocated permanently to a nearby hilltop which is known as Mapungubwe Hill, being Central Africa’s first verifiable kingdom.  At the time, structures were built with stone and wood, with some evidence still existing.  Such separation based on social distinction was also later found to be replicated in many other sites, up until the 19th century.

— Gold working became popular in the area, with it even taking on a spiritual aspect and being buried with the rulers.  Gold drew foreigners to the area in the 1800’s and 1900’s, where they engaged in widespread looting.

— DNA studies of exhumed burials of royal people in the area show them to be descended from a local tribe of Khoi San Non Bantu people, and all of the bodies were laid to rest in the traditional burial position for that culture.

— People eventually migrated to the north of the K2 region to Great Zimbabwe starting at about 1,000 AD, where large stone-walled buildings were constructed.

— In the early 1900’s, European looters in a company called “Rhodesian Ancient Ruins Company” made a fortune by melting down as much as 50 kilos (110 lbs) of priceless gold artifacts into ingots.

— The Archeologist David Randall-MacIver was the first to conduct a proper study of Great Zimbabwe, having no preconceived notion of what he was looking for, which revealed that it indeed originated from local cultures.  In 1929, a different dig by a woman named Gertrude Canton Thompson came to the same conclusion as Randall-MacIver, and in the 1950’s carbon dating by an archaeologist Peter Garlake gave definitive proof.

— The large “Great Enclosure” stone-walled structure at Great Zimbabwe is explained, where it was built from many stones and constructed in curves rather than straight lines.  The purpose of the structure is not certain, however.

— More than 80 sites similar to Great Zimbabwe are known in that region of Africa that have elite enclosures, but few have been adequately examined, and many have been looted at the end of the 19th century.

— Evidence shows that a new kingdom of Mutapa became powerful and dominated that region due to trading with the Portuguese starting around 1430, which lasted until 1760.

— In the early 17th century, the Portuguese then attempted to monopolize and dominate that area on their own, leading to a series of wars that caused the collapse of the previous kingdoms and the rise of the Rozvi Empire in the 1660’s which was led by a militant warlord named Changamire Dondo who was able to expel the Portuguese from the interior region.  However, since the Portuguese still controlled the coasts, it hampered trade and lead to widespread raiding and looting of neighboring areas.

— By the early 1800’s the new culture of war had spread, leading to the rise of the most famous yet least understood of African leaders in history, named Shaka Zulu.  Shaka Zulu went on a campaign of genocide in Southern Africa for 25 years known as the “Mfecane” (“The Crushing and Scattering”) between 1815 and 1840, resulting in the deaths of many millions of people.  By the Mid-1830’s descendants of the white Dutch settlers on the southern tip of Africa began moving inland to escape British rule, and they found that the regions were mostly empty due to the previous conflict.

— Starting in the late 1800’s, European powers laid claim to the regions in Africa and colonized it for the next 90 years.