Zimbabwe

Printer-friendly versionThen the Ndebele people arrived, fleeing from Zulu expansionism in the 1830s, and settled in Matebeleland. A few years later, the Shona were conquered by the new arrivals, and the Shona retreated to the northern parts of the country. This was the situation when Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company and the first Rhodesian settlers arrived.

As Africa moved inexorably towards independence after World War II, solutions were sought in Rhodesia that would accommodate the fears and aspirations of white settlers. The ill-fated Central African Federation that amalgamated Southern Rhodesia with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formed. After its dissolution95, and after full independence had been granted to the Federation’s last two components as Zambia and Malawi, the white minority government of Southern Rhodesia in 1965 made a unilateral declaration of independence and plunged the Southern African region into 15 years of obdurate resistance and conflict.

For several years Britain tried to negotiate with the illegal Rhodesian regime whose response was to declare itself a republic in 1970, a move that was recognised only by South Africa. As time passed, fighting in Rhodesia’s bush war intensified, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands and the displacement of almost one million Zimbabwean and Mozambican people. It was a war that the Rhodesian republic could not win. By 1978, with his regime close to economic collapse, Smith had been obliged to sign an accord with three ‘moderate’ African leaders who offered safeguards for white civilians. After another year of wrangling, the country went to the polls in the free elections of February 1980. Robert Mugabe and his Shona-based ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union) won a resounding victory.

In the years that followed, Mugabe purged his cabinet of Ndebele members, an action that caused fierce fighting in the Ndebele-speaking region. Meanwhile in Harare, Mugabe consolidated his power by establishing what was – to all intents and purposes – a one-party state that he ruled for nearly 30 years until a protracted and widely disputed election in 2008 led to the formation of the current ‘Government of National Unity’.

A generally declining economy was accelerated in 2000 when the government’s notorious land reform programme ousted hundreds of white farmers. In spite of the differing arguments that still rage around this programme, it is agreed that the country experienced a sharp decline in agricultural exports and an increasingly severe shortage of hard currency.

The country is now in severe political, economic and social crisis. Life expectancy for males has declined from 60 in 1990 to 37, among the lowest in the world. The figure for females is even lower. Services have collapsed; health problems abound; and the country, once described as ‘Africa’s breadbasket’, is on the verge of famine.

Independent Zimbabwe placed a high national priority on education, the effects of which are still visible today. Despite its current political and economic woes, Zimbabwe still has a literacy rate of 90 percent, placing it among the most literate countries in the world; and the number of public universities in the country is second only to South Africa in the SADC region.