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Viewpoint The Conical Tower

ID: w227031 View large map

Located in Zimbabwe :: Masvingo  :: Masvingo
Category: Attraction :: Viewpoint

The conical towers represent symbolic grain bins, and could also symbolise the male seed providing crops for the people, as expressed in a Karanga genesis story, where the man was able to 'fill his grain bin with seeds' (children). Since nature's fertility and woman's fertility are closely connected in the Karanga universe, the conical towers could then represent both the mambo's role of providing seeds for the people's fields as well as seed (semen) to provide crops (children) for his wives.

There is evidence to support this idea in Karanga tradition. When a man dies, his personal possessions such as his bow and arrows, his walking stick and his axe are placed inside the grain bin of a young pre- pubescent girl, until the bringing-home ceremony. The unused grain bin is a symbol of her virginal (clean) state and this has a 'protective' nature. While the dead man's artefacts represent his status and male responsibilities, the place meant of them inside the woman's grain bin becomes a symbolic sexual act. (Aschwanden 1987:239f). The grain bin then, is symbolically associated with the female in this particular situation, and it might be appropriate to suggest that the conical towers at Great Zimbabwe, as symbolic grain bins, refer to both male and female fertility and not just to male status. They therefore represent the unity between the dualities of male and female.The large Conical Tower would then become a significant symbol in the royal settlement, since the longevity of the mambo's ancestry can only be provided by his children, through his wives. The large Conical Tower therefore provides a marker within the settlement of his family's longevity.

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Address :  Masvingo, Zimbabwe

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