Great Zimbabwe: The City Rhodesia Said Africans Couldn't Have Built

In 1889 a hunter took a soapstone bird from Great Zimbabwe for a few blankets and sold it to Cecil Rhodes. In April 2026 the last of the eight birds came home. The answer to who built the city it came from was published in 1906. So why did Rhodesia's government still order, in 1970, that no official publication state unequivocally that Great Zimbabwe was an African creation? This is the story of three men and a bird: Adam Render, who found the ruins and left no account; Karl Mauch, who got it wrong; and Willie Posselt, who carried the bird away. And of the company, the novel and the state that found a use for the mistake. Where the evidence is argued and not proved, the video says so. The page for every claim is listed below. If you spot a mistake, tell us in the comments and we will pin the correction. Tell us which story you want next. If a story moves you: like it, share it with one person, and subscribe for a new African history story every week. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cape Town, April 2026: the bird 1:23 The city of gold 2:45 Adam Render: the man who found it 3:37 Karl Mauch: the man who was wrong 5:34 The mistake finds buyers 7:48 The answer, 1906 8:33 Who benefited? 10:20 The bird comes home 11:09 What if? 11:49 Your turn SOURCES (page numbers to be checked against the books before publishing; see the note in the upload sheet) The 1970 instruction ("no official publication may state unequivocally that Great Zimbabwe was an African creation"), cited to Garlake 1982a p. 64 and 1973 p. 204; Garlake allowed home only after independence; Silberberg 1978 ("Zimbabwe Ruins - a Mystery Solved", Arts Rhodesia no. 1); Rhodes and the Company supporting the myth for two reasons; Rhodesia Ancient Ruins Ltd (1895 to 1900); the Company's secret that Rhodesia was no "second Witwatersrand" (Phimister 1988, pp. 10 to 12); Randall-MacIver 1906 and Caton-Thompson 1931; the 1890 invasion and the risings of 1896 to 97; Haggard's King Solomon's Mines as the most famous presentation of the myth; the bird on nationalist banners from the 1970s; Mauch's own words on Phoenicians and Israelites (Mauch 1969 p. 226): Preben Kaarsholm, "The past as battlefield in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe: the struggle of competing nationalisms over history from colonization to independence" Karl Mauch: born 7 May 1837 at Stetten im Remstal, son of the carpenter Joseph Mauch; teacher training; private tutor in Styria until 1863; sailed in 1863 with a Hamburg shipping company; reached Durban in 1865; met Henry Hartley in 1866; two goldfields in 1867; hosted by Adam Render in 1871; later doubted his Ophir theory; managed a cement factory from 1874; fell from a window on the night of Good Friday 1875 and died on 4 April 1875 in Stuttgart, aged 37; accident or suicide unclear: German Wikipedia "Carl Mauch" and English Wikipedia "Karl Mauch" (to be checked against a printed biography) Images (credits): The Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe · Todinirunganga, CC BY-SA 4.0 [G01] Great Zimbabwe from the air, looking west · Janice Bell, CC BY-SA 4.0 [G02] The Hill Complex, Great Zimbabwe · Fanny Schertzer, CC BY 3.0 [G05] Western entrance to the Great Enclosure · Andrew Moore from Johannesburg, South Af, CC BY-SA 2.0 [G06] The Great Enclosure wall, Great Zimbabwe · Fanny Schertzer, CC BY 3.0 [G07] View over the valley ruins, Great Zimbabwe · Thomas Wozniak, CC BY 3.0 [G08] The Great Enclosure's outer wall (early photograph) · public domain [G09] A dry-stone wall at Khami (Randall-MacIver, Mediaeval Rhodesia, 1906) · public domain [G10] Karl Mauch (portrait) · public domain [G11] Cecil Rhodes · public domain [G12] The library at Groote Schuur, Cape Town (W. T. Stead) · public domain [G13] The Rhodes Colossus, Punch, 1892 (E. Linley Sambourne) · public domain [G14] The Company's pioneers in Mashonaland, 1890 (W. B. Wollen) · public domain [G15] Map of Matabele, Mashona and Manica Land (Bent, 1892) · public domain [G16] Plan of the ruins on Zimbabwe Hill (Bent, 1892) · public domain [G17] General plan of Zimbabwe (Bent, 1892) · public domain [G18] #GreatZimbabwe #Zimbabwe #AfricanHistory #OurStoryOurWay