The Spirit of Great Zimbabwe and the Memorial to Joe Louis

Part 9 of 13 in our journey from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo
(Connecting Landmarks in Michigan and African History)

"Each time Joe Louis won a fight in those depression years, even before he became champion, thousands of black Americans on relief or W.P.A., and poor, would throng out into the streets all across the land to march and cheer and yell and cry because of Joe's one-man triumphs. No one else in the United States has ever had such an effect on Negro emotions – or on mine. I marched and cheered and yelled and cried, too." – Langston Hughes, from Autobiography: The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Vol. 14, page 307

The Arrival of Joe Louis

Joe Louis

In 1926, Joe Louis arrived in Detroit. At the age of twelve, the Brown Bomber and his family settled into Detroit's Black Bottom. He would begin his early boxing career at Wheeler Recreation Center, Detroit's first segregated recreation center associated with the nation's first African-American public housing complex, Brewster Homes.  He would eventually go on to win the center' boxing club championship.

Joe Louis would fight 71 times, knocking out his opponents 54 times, endure only 3 defeats and hold the heavy weight championship from 1937 to 1949. He would be victorious in 25 title defenses and be ranked by many as the best of all time. But more important than the victories was what he symbolized for a people. He was the first African-American to be national hero.

A Memorial to Joe Louis

A Memorial to Joe Louis

On October 16, 1986, Detroit dedicated a memorial to Joe Louis. Commissioned by Sports Illustrated Magazine, Robert Graham modeled his sculpture on Louis's tensed arm and clinched fist. The 28'-0" long arm modeled to scale hangs suspended from a steel tripod that sits defiantly amid rush hour traffic at the intersection of Woodward and Jefferson Avenues.

"The Fist"

For a city struggling to reinvent itself amid a shrinking population and mounting fiscal crises, the Memorial to Joe Louis represents the City's new spirit. A spirit symbolized in the Brown Bomber's clinched fist. To me it symbolizes not only the City's strength, but perseverance to find a way to reinvent itself. And just as Joe Louis overcame early racial prejudice and later financial difficulties, the City of Detroit will also endure.

Just as the Fist, as it's known to Detroiters, represents its City's spirit, thousands of miles away the ruins of an ancient city represent the spirit of a nation and a people reviving its pride in its African, sub-Sahara roots.

"To outsiders, perhaps, Zimbabwe is just a name signifying some random geographical boundaries... But for me it is different. Rhodesia was a forbidden country for me, a white man's playland. I was always outside looking in... And I did not know until years of bloodshed and turmoil later just how sweet life could be here... I had inhabited Rhodesia, but in Zimbabwe I lived." -Nozipo Maraire, from Zenzele

A Nation is born

The British protectorate of Southern Rhodesia was created in 1889. Over time, a system of advantage was created that placed 60% of the wealth in the hands of a 4% white minority. Commerce was restricted to whites. The Land Act of 1930 gave the best farming lands to whites. Labor law in 1934 prohibited blacks from entering skilled trades and professions. Schooling, housing, recreation, sport facilities and medical care were all restricted and made to benefit whites.

Enduring this colonial oppression, the native Zimbabwean people finally gained independence in 1980. In order to re-establish pride in their ignored native history, they renamed their nation after the largest stone structures in Africa south of the pyramids known as the Great Zimbabwe ("house of stone"). These precisely cut structures are the remnants of a civilization that flourished during the 13^th century and was mysteriously abandoned by the late 15^th.

While under colonial control, historians insisted that the monumental ruins of the Great Zimbabwe were built by anybody but the Zimbabwean people. Phoenicians, Sabeans, Egyptians, even the Queen of Sheba, peoples whose civilizations had long died before the rise of the Great Zimbabwe, were among those given credit for its construction. It was beyond comprehension that the founders were sub-Saharan Africans. Much of this fiction was promulgated by the British businessman Cecil Rhodes, whose name is now best recognized for its association with Rhodes scholarship.

The Great Zimbabwe

The Great Zimbabwe

The truth is that the city was built by the Benametapa, Bantu-speaking ancestors of the Shona. They built other cities at Mapaungubwe, Dhlo Dhol and Penhalonga. They arrived around 400 AD and created the city sometime around the 1100s. At its peak, it contained a population of between 10,000 and 20,000 people. Most lived outside the wall of the main stone buildings which were restricted to roughly 200 to 300 royals and advisers.

Life for these people remains a mystery for there are no records except for these stone ruins. What is clear is that the area was perfect for grazing cattle and was rich in gold. Some researchers believe the City was built on a gold mine that facilitated trade with the Middle and Far East along the Limpopo River. This trading might is evidenced by unearthed Chinese and Persian pottery and stoneware. Unearthed Arabic inscribed coins are believed to come from the great east African Swahili coast city of Kilwa.

The City seemed to disappear by 1450. Theories center on environmental changes, reduction in usable land and water, and the disruption of all trade markets, particularly gold, with the arrival of the Portuguese.

But what is clear, is that these people were great masons. Without the use of mortar, each stone block is carefully fitted together. Stones were standardized in shape, size and weight to create a smooth and regular finish. There are hardly any straight faces, right-angled junctions or rectangular spaces. Circular turrets decorate the outer walls. Inside, there were a collection of circular huts completely made of daga (clay). Sometimes thirty feet in diameter and two to three stories high, they were finished with colors ranging from pale ochre to rich dark reds.

The Spirit of a Monument
There is now a deep pride in this heritage. There will never be a time when the Zimbabwean people's history is allowed to be forgotten. However, there is still much to be discovered about the people who lived in this great city, as well as the other great east African trade cities of Kilwa, Songo Mnara and Rhapta.

There are also serious economic, public health and living standard issues facing modern Zimbabwe. Price controls, land confiscations, the HIV/AIDS epidemic and drought lead the country's challenges. The average life expectancy of a Zimbabwe male is 42 years. In 1997, 25% of the population was believed to be infected with HIV. Infant mortality rates have climbed to 81 deaths per 1,000 live births (Note that the US infant mortality rate ranks 34^th in the world at 6.81 deaths per 1,000).

But despite the modern challenges faced by Zimbabwe, they will always have a symbol of their spirit. And just like Detroit's Joe Louis Memorial, the Great Zimbabwe symbolizes their strength to endure and to continue to build for the future.