Gokomere is a place in Zimbabwe, 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) from Masvingo, known for its rock art and pottery traditions dating from 300 to 650 AD.[1]

The ancient Bantu people who inhabited the area of Great Zimbabwe around the 4th century AD probably built the complex between 1000 and 1200 AD.[2] The Gokomere traded via ancient trading routes over the Chimanimani Mountains on the current Zimbabwe-Mozambique border with the Swahili civilization on the Kenyan and Tanzanian coast. This group is believed to have given rise to the Shona and Rozwi peoples. They may also comprise the majority of the African ancestry of the Lemba people, who paternally descend from ancient Semites whom came to Africa via Sena in Yemen.[1]

The modern descendants of the Rozwi are called the Barotse. They speak the Karanga language and second languages including English in Zimbabwe and Sena, Ndau dialect of Shona, and Portuguese in Mozambique.

Gokomere also refers to a school located close to the town of Masvingo.

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Konczacki, J. M.; Konczacki, Z. A. (11 January 2013). An Economic History of Tropical Africa: Volume One : The Pre-Colonial Period. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-27077-2.
  2. ^ Huffman, Thomas N. (29 June 2021). "Bambata Pottery and Western Bantu: re-interpreting the Early Iron Age in southern Africa". Southern African Humanities. 34: 1–17–1–17. ISSN 2305-2791.

19°56′S 30°46′E / 19.933°S 30.767°E / -19.933; 30.767