Paper 1 · sources of history
The main weakness of written records as a source on the pre-colonial states of Southern Africa is that...
Athey can be stored in archives and read again by later historians
Bthey carry dates that help a historian build a time line
Cthey cover the whole region from the Stone Age onwards
Dthey were written by outsiders who misread what they saw
Explanation: Almost all of the early written material was produced by Portuguese and later British visitors who did not speak the languages, stayed briefly, and wrote to justify their own trading or political aims. They misunderstood customs and exaggerated where it suited them, so their reports have to be tested against archaeology and oral tradition.
Derived from ZIMSEC History Paper 1, June 2019, Q2