work. According to Huffman (2008), the original Bakalanga people descended from the late
Leopard's Kopje farmers in 1050. These people occupied areas covering parts of north eastern
Botswana, western and southern
Zimbabwe, adjacent parts of
South Africa by around AD 1100. They traded in
ivory, furs and feathers with the Indian Ocean coast for goods such as glass beads and cotton clothes. The majority of these prehistoric Bakalanga villages have been discovered in Botswana and Zimbabwe in areas close to major rivers and were usually built on terraced hilltops with stone walls built around them. The Kalanga are linked to such early African States as
Mapungubgwe, Khami, and
Zimbabwe. The early Bakalanga people living in the Shashe-Limpopo basin monopolised trade due to their access to the Indian Ocean coast with the help of the Shona and Venda who were already trading and developed in Gumanye and Zhizo-Leokwe cultures for 30 years before being annexed by the Mapungubwe Kingdom. By around AD 1220 a new and more powerful kingdom developed around Mapungubwe Hill, near the tripoint of
Zimbabwe,
Botswana and
South Africa. Some of the early Bakalanga people living in the lower Shashe-Limpopo valley probably moved towards or became part of this newly formed kingdom. But studies of climatic data from the area suggest that a disastrous
drought soon struck Mapungubgwe, and the
Shashe-
Limpopo region was uninhabited between A.D 1300 and 1420, forcing the ordinary population to scatter. Mapungubgwe had become a ghost town by AD 1290. Its golden era lasted no more than 48 years culminating in the rise of
Great Zimbabwe. Later, in the 15th century, the centre of power moved back west, from Great Zimbabwe to
Khami/Nkami. The moves were accompanied by changes of the dominance from one clan to another. In the 17th century, the Rozvi established southern BaKalanga became a powerful competitor, but when they were finally annexed, they controlled most of the mining areas. The Rozvi even repelled Portuguese colonists from some of their inland posts. In south-western Zimbabwe (now
Matabeleland) and adjacent parts of present-day Botswana, Kalanga states survived for more than another century. The fall of the
Kingdom of Butua came as a result of a series of invasions. Changamire Dombo who was actually part Kalanga led his army to march on their capital which crumbled the state in the late spring of 1683. The area of the BaKalanga were invaded many times taking the lives of hundreds of thousands maybe millions, beginning with the Bangwato Kgosi Kgari's ill-fated incursion of around 1828 and culminating in the onslaught of
Mzilikazi's
Amandebele. ==Rain-making==