Interregional Interaction in Southern Africa: Zhizo and Leopard's Kopje Relations in Northern South Africa, Southwestern Zimbabwe, and Eastern Botswana, AD 1000 to 1200

Abstract

The dominant model of relations between Zhizo- and Leopard's Kopje-ceramic using groups in northern South Africa, southwestern Zimbabwe, and eastern Botswana between AD 1000 and 1300 has been one of hostile invasion by Leopard's Kopje groups, who are thought to have forced Zhizo groups into eastern Botswana (Huffman, 1978, 1986a, 1996). Leopard's Kopje groups are thereupon thought to have set about the process of nascent state formation in the absence of any significant contact, other than violence or intermittent intermarriage (Denbow, 1982, 1983, 1986; Huffman, 1986a, 1996), with their Zhizo (i.e., Toutswe) neighbors to the west. More recently, Denbow (1990) has modified his position to include trade in exotic goods as a regular feature of Leopard's Kopje–Zhizo relations. Radiocarbon and ceramic data from the Iron Age site Leokwe Hill, in combination with the available ceramic data and a reanalysis of the ceramics from the site Schroda, indicate that current interpretations of the relations between Zhizo and Leopard's Kopje groups need to be reconsidered. New hypotheses are presented that posit that the nature and intensity of interaction between these groups was more far-reaching than is currently thought.