The stone-carved Zimbabwe Bird is the national emblem of

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

, appearing on the national flags and coats of arms of both Zimbabwe and former

Rhodesia Rhodesia ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state, unrecognised state in Southern Africa that existed from 1965 to 1979. Rhodesia served as the ''de facto'' Succession of states, successor state to the ...

, as well as on

banknotes A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commer ...

and coins (first on the Rhodesian pound and then on the Rhodesian dollar). It probably represents the bateleur eagle (''Terathopius ecaudatus'') or the

African fish eagle The African fish eagle (''Icthyophaga vocifer'') or the African sea eagle is a large species of eagle found throughout sub-Saharan Africa wherever large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply occur. It is the national bird of Malawi, ...

(''Haliaeetus vocifer''). The bird's design is derived from a number of

soapstone Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium-rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in sub ...

sculptures found in the ruins of the medieval city of

Great Zimbabwe Great Zimbabwe was a city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Masvingo. It was settled from 1000 AD, and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe from the 13th century. It is the largest stone struc ...

. It is now the definitive icon of independent

, with Matenga (2001) listing over 100 organizations which now incorporate the Bird in their logo.

Origins

The original carved birds are from the ruined city of

, which was built by the ancestors of the Shona, starting in the 11th century and inhabited for over 300 years.Great Zimbabwe (11th–15th century) , Thematic Essay , Timeline of Art History , The Metropolitan Museum of Art
/ref> The ruins, after which modern Zimbabwe was named, cover some and are the largest ancient stone construction in sub-Saharan Africa. Among its notable elements are the

bird sculptures, about tall and standing on columns more than tall, which were originally installed on walls and monoliths within the city. They are unique to Great Zimbabwe; nothing like them has been discovered elsewhere. Various explanations have been advanced to explain the symbolic meaning of the birds. One suggestion is that each bird was erected in turn to represent a new king, but this would have required improbably long reigns. More probably, the Zimbabwe birds represent sacred or

totemic A totem (from or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While the word ''totem'' itself is an ...

animals of the Shona – the

bateleur The bateleur (; ''Terathopius ecaudatus''), also known as the bateleur eagle, is a medium-sized eagle in the family Accipitridae. It is often considered a relative of the snake eagles and, like them, it is classified within the subfamily Circaet ...

eagle ( Shona: ''chapungu''), which was held to be a messenger from

Mwari Mwari Is the word for God in Shona (Mwali) also known as Musikavanhu / Musikavhathu, Musiki, Tenzi and Ishe, is the supreme creator deity according to Shona and Venda traditional religion. It is believed that Mwari is the author of all things an ...

(God) and the ancestors, or the fish eagle (''hungwe'') which it has been suggested was the original totem of the Shona.

Colonial acquisition and return to Zimbabwe

In 1889 a European hunter, Willi Posselt, travelled to Great Zimbabwe after hearing about it from another European explorer, Karl Mauch. He climbed to the highest point of the ruins despite being told that it was a sacred site where he should not trespass, and found the birds positioned in the centre of an enclosure around an apparent altar. He later wrote: Posselt compensated Andizibi with a payment of blankets and "some other articles". As the bird on its pedestal was too heavy for him to carry, he hacked it off and hid the pedestal with the intention of returning later to retrieve it. He subsequently sold his bird to

Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes ( ; 5 July 185326 March 1902) was an English-South African mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. He and his British South Africa Company founded th ...

, who mounted it in the library of his

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

house,

Groote Schuur Groote Schuur (; ) is an estate in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1657, the estate was owned by the Dutch East India Company which used it partly as a granary. Later, the farm and farmhouse was sold into private hands. Groote Schuur was later acqu ...

, and decorated the house's stairway with wooden replicas. Rhodes also had stone replicas made, three times the size of the original, to decorate the gates of his house in England near

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. A German missionary came to own the pedestal of one bird, which he sold to the Ethnological Museum in Berlin in 1907. Rhodes' acquisition of Posselt's bird prompted him to commission an investigation of the Great Zimbabwe ruins by James Theodore Bent, which took place in 1891 following the

British South Africa Company The British South Africa Company (BSAC or BSACo) was chartered in 1889 following the amalgamation of Cecil Rhodes' Central Search Association and the London-based Exploring Company Ltd, which had originally competed to capitalize on the expecte ...

's invasion of Mashonaland. Bent recorded that there were eight birds, six large and two small, and that there had probably originally been more as there were several additional stone pedestals of which the tops had been broken off. The colonists erroneously attributed Great Zimbabwe to ancient Mediterranean builders, believing native Africans to be incapable of constructing such a complex structure; thus in Rhodes' mind, as a 1932 guidebook put it, it was "a favourite symbol of the link between the order civilisation derived from the North or the East and the savage barbarism of Southern and Central Africa before the advent of the European." Bent attributed the birds, wholly erroneously, to the

Phoenicians Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syrian coast. They developed a maritime civi ...

. In 1981, a year after the attainment of independence in Zimbabwe, the South African government returned four of the sculptures to the country in exchange for a world-renowned collection of

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typi ...

(bees, wasps and ants) housed in Harare; the fifth remains at Groote Schuur. The pedestal kept in Berlin was reunited with the upper part of the statue for an exhibition, ''Legacies of Stone'', in Belgium in 1997. On account of pressure following this, the German museum returned this portion of the bird's pedestal to Zimbabwe in 2003. The birds were displayed for a while in the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; ) is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council claimed it to be about ...

and the Museum of Human Sciences in Harare, but are now housed in a small museum on the Great Zimbabwe site.

Cultural depictions

The Zimbabwe bird has been a symbol of Zimbabwe and its predecessor states since 1924. The crest of Southern Rhodesia's coat of arms incorporated the Zimbabwe bird, and over time the bird became a widespread symbol of the colony. The paper money and coins of the

Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation (CAF), was a colonial federation that consisted of three southern African territories: the Self-governing colony, self-governing British colony of Southern ...

, issued by the Bank of Rhodesia and Nyasaland also displayed the bird, as did the

Flag of Rhodesia The flag of Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe) changed with political developments in the country. At Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence, independence in 1965 the recently adopted Flag of Southern Rhodesia#Rhodesia, flag of Southe ...

. The flag and state symbols of modern Zimbabwe continue to feature the Zimbabwe Bird.Kuklick, p. 137 It is now the definitive icon of independent

with Matenga (2001) listing over 100 state, corporate and sporting organisations which incorporate the Bird in their emblems and logos. File:Flag of Zimbabwe.svg, National

flag of Zimbabwe The national flag of Zimbabwe consists of seven even horizontal stripes of green, gold, red and black with a white triangle containing a red five-pointed star with a Zimbabwe Bird. The present design was adopted on 18 April 1980. The soapstone ...

containing the Zimbabwe Bird File:Flag of Zimbabwe Rhodesia.svg, Flag of Zimbabwe Rhodesia (1979–1980) File:Flag of Rhodesia (1968–1979).svg,

(1968–1979) File:Coat of arms of Rhodesia.svg, Coat of Arms of Rhodesia (1924–1981) File:Rhodesia - Signal Corps emblem.jpg, Emblem used by the Rhodesia Corps of Signals (1970–1980) File:Rhodesia Parliament logo.jpg, Logo used by the Parliament of Rhodesia File:GCLM.jpg, Rhodesian Grand Commander of the Legion of Merit (GCLM) medal (Civil and Military) File:Rhodesia 20c obverse.jpg, Obverse of a Rhodesian 20c coin File:Monnaie Zimbabwe.jpg, Reverse side of a Zimbabwean one dollar coin File:Zimbabwe fifty dollars.jpg, Reverse side of a Zimbabwe fifty dollar note (2nd series) illustrating the

Ruins and Zimbabwe Bird in the bottom right hand corner File:$100 Zimbabwe revenue stamps in block of four.jpg,

Revenue stamp A revenue stamp, tax stamp, duty stamp or fiscal stamp is a (usually) adhesive label used to designate collected taxes or fees on documents, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, drugs and medicines, playing cards, hunting licenses, firearm registration, ...

s of Zimbabwe File:Coat of arms of Zimbabwe.svg,

Coat of Arms of Zimbabwe The coat of arms of Zimbabwe was adopted on 21 September 1981, one year and five months after the national flag was adopted. Previously the coat of arms of Zimbabwe was identical to the former coat of arms of Rhodesia. Official description Zimbab ...

(1981–) File:Zim Passport.jpg, Zimbabwe Passport Cover (1st version) (1980) File:Flag of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.svg, Flag of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces File:Flag of the Zimbabwe National Army.svg, Flag of the

Zimbabwe National Army The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) is the primary branch of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces responsible for land-oriented military operations. It is the largest service branch under the Zimbabwean Joint Operations Command (JOC). The modern army h ...

File:Zimbabwe - Prison Service badge image.jpg, Emblem of the Zimbabwe Prison Service File:Air Force Ensign of Zimbabwe.svg, Flag of the

Air Force of Zimbabwe The Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ) is the air force of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. It was known as the Rhodesian Air Force until 1980. The Air Force of Zimbabwe saw service in the Mozambican Civil War in 1985 and the Second Congo War of 1998– ...

File:Zimbabwe - Air Force Chief of Staff car flag.jpg,

Chief of Staff Car and Aircraft car flag File:Flag of Harare.svg, Flag of

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

, capital of Zimbabwe File:Heroes Acre, Harare, Zimbabwe (1).jpg, Relief at National Heroes' Acre, Harare

References and sources

External links

{{Rhodesian topics Birds in art National symbols of Rhodesia National symbols of Zimbabwe Stone sculptures Culture of Zimbabwe African art Heraldic birds Heraldic eagles Great Zimbabwe