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Were you told that gold mining in southern Africa started after ? Or that the export of iron, steel, copper and gold began in the late ? Or that South Africa became integrated into a global trading system only after ? Or that the first powerful state in South Africa was the ?

If you learned that any of these things were true, you are like most South Africans, who have missed out on at least a thousand years of the country's history.

Both radical and conservative historians have focused heavily on colonial history, a story starting at the Cape and playing out within colonial boundaries. As a result, South Africa's past has been compressed into a shortened timeline and a limited geography. That shorter version is what's taught at schools and universities.

If we abandon 1652—when the in the Cape—as the key historical starting point, and go back a thousand years and cast our gaze 2,000km north of Table Mountain, a very different story unfolds.

Our is attempting to rethink South African history. As many years of work in the interior show, along with our new focus on a central southern African trading landscape, Thulamela, the formative steps in South Africa's history began here, along the Limpopo River.

Early cooperative relationships

Two thousand years ago, San hunter gatherers were the primary occupants of the region around the , an area around the confluence of the and rivers that includes Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Contrary to popular opinion, these groups weren't living in isolated bands. They were connected through regional networks of exchange spanning hundreds, .

At this time, South Africa was on the brink of fundamental change. From about 350 AD, Bantu-speaking, iron-using, livestock-owning farmers began to settle the , south of the Limpopo River. They initially established mainly cooperative relationships with the San, especially in hunting and trading.

These farmers introduced a key innovation into the region—the production of metal tools, weapons, currency and jewelry. These goods were for their own use and for expanding trade networks.

At the start, iron was the most important metal but over time, copper and gold became more and more significant. The farmers were skilled in locating and extracting these ores, which, in the case of gold and copper, often involved shaft mining. Metal production also demanded pyrotechnical knowledge to smelt ores and to fashion metals into functional and decorative forms.

Local trade, global connections

Another crucial development took place in the 7th century AD. The Indian Ocean world connected to the expanding regional trade networks which had linked the coast and the interior. The transoceanic sailors and traders were initially motivated by the growing demand for ivory in Asia and the Middle East.

This external demand brought exotic glass beads and cloth deep into the interior, through African traders and rulers. A node in the system was , a large coastal trading settlement on the Mozambican coast near modern Vilanculos. From here, beads and cloth traveled south, to the vicinity of Durban in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and across the interior, to places such as the west of the delta's panhandle in Botswana.

Between the 10th and 15th centuries, the market for gold boomed—especially in Egypt, Persia, India and China. Southern Africa played an important role in meeting this demand because of the rich gold reserves of the Zimbabwe plateau and the adjacent region of the Limpopo valley.

So, it is clear that an economic and mineral revolution took place long before Europeans settled South Africa's Cape. Colonial processes of globalization and the mineral revolution in the 19th century trailed far in the wake of African involvement in the vast Indian Ocean economy through their hunting, mining, smelting and artisanal skills.

Rise of states

Indian Ocean trade contributed to major transformations in the interior. The wealth it generated led to social stratification and the emergence of a distinct ruling class. Leaders' economic, political and spiritual power intensified. These processes found expression in the establishment in 1220 of , in the middle Limpopo Valley, and the first state in southern Africa.

Over the centuries that followed, linked but shifting patterns of demand gave rise to major states like , , and later the , the and the .

The little-known trading state, Thulamela, was located in the north of what's now the . From 1250 to 1650 it was a key node of production and exchange. But for many decades the site was ignored. When intensive research finally started in the 1990s it made very limited progress in revealing the form and nature of the state. But renewed and interdisciplinary research at the site and surrounding areas has already produced new insights into the history of Thulamela and promises to generate many more in the near future.

New windows to a past

Given this deep history of powerful kingdoms connected by an underlying but dynamic economic system, we have to let go of the idea that the , which formed in the early 19th century, was the first powerful state in what was to become South Africa. In fact, it was a relatively recent example of much deeper and wider transformations.

It was only in the 19th century that expanding colonial capitalism and settlement fueled by the "second" penetrated the interior and encountered its kingdoms and trading opportunities.

The interaction between the two worlds culminated in a hard-fought struggle over trade, land and labor. While the African kingdoms were ultimately defeated and traders and craftsmen were displaced, their impact on the shape and nature of South African society is still felt today.

A challenge to historians now is to deepen our understanding of this missing millennium, and of pre-colonial transformations.

Researchers need to pay greater attention to a wider range of documentary sources (beyond those in English) and to oral traditions. Collaboration with scholars working on archaeology, historical linguistics and genetics will also tell us more about the forces that have shaped our present.

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