There's lots of people in this thread demonstrating exactly what this Great Zimbabwe project is about. The history of Africa that many of us have been taught is basically "there were a bunch of black people living in mud huts forever, and then the White Man came and gave them civilisation". This is an ideological and inaccurate portrayal history designed to make African people look backwards. In actuality, despite a challenging climate, various African groups built cities and civilisations.

The idea to use European civilisational and technological development as the measure for all other places is also absurd, because you could sample various points in time where e.g. Britain was a place of warring tribes with pointy sticks while China or the Middle East had thriving civilisations. Real life history is not a game of Civ where everyone starts at the same point and races through a bunch of predetermined milestones.