Cluster of Bantu-speaking peoples living in eastern Zimbabwe, west-central Mozambique, and southern Zambia.
Numbering about nine million, they cultivate corn, millet, and sorghum and keep cattle. Their villages consist of mud-and-wattle huts, granaries, and common cattle kraals. Shona traditional culture, now fast declining under Christianizing and urbanizing influences, was noted for its ironwork, pottery, and music. Magic, witchcraft, and sorcery remain important. The Shona are believed to have built Great Zimbabwe.