The Zimbabwe Culture

Pikirayi skillfully marshals archaeological, historical, environmental, and ethnographic data to explain social dynamics while telling an engaging tale of the rise and fall of these important feudal kingdoms. -- A. F. Roberts, University of California * CHOICE *
Archaeologycal discussions of the Great Zimbabwe rarely attempt to cover both the formative and later periods of Zambezian prehistory. Pikirayi's book is a welcome exception in this regard and does a good job of not only summarizing the earlier periods of political centralization, but also continuing into the protohistoric period to explore the complex impact of Portuguese adventurism on the internal development and fragmentation of post-Zimbabwe kindgoms on the Zambezian highveld....It covers a tremondous amount of ground, yet remains readable and informative. -- James Denbow, University of Texas at Austin * American Antiquity, Vol. 67.4 (2002) *
Innocent Pikirayi's Zimbabwe Culture is the latest synthesis [in the literature on Great Zimbabwe], and by far the best...Pikirayi takes his reader through the fascinating and often frustrating border zone between archaeology and history, all the while keeping his eye on the major theme—the unfolding history of the southern African state that had a key place in the subcontinent's early history. -- Martin Hall, University of Cape Town * Journal of African History, Vol. 44 (2003) *
Ever since the ancient monumental towns of central Africa first became known to Westerners in the sixteenth century, they were shrouded in 'mystery'—a mystification most undeserved that has often blurred their true significance in the history of African civilization. Dr. Pikirayi, from the unique perspective of one knowledgeable in the cultural and physical landscapes, as well as the archaeology of Zimbabwe, through the medium of current investigations and interpretation, unravels the tangled skein woven by some early observers. His is a refreshing, up-to-date look at the most monumental of the great autochtonous states of southern Africa. -- Dr. Joseph Vogel, (Professor Emeritus, University of Alabama) * From The Foreword *