Zimbabwe

Overview

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, covering 390,757 square kilometres with about 17 million people; its capital is Harare. The region takes its name from Great Zimbabwe, the monumental stone city built by Shona peoples from the 11th century, capital of a trading kingdom succeeded by the Mutapa and Rozvi empires, which traded gold and ivory to the Indian Ocean coast. In the 1830s the Ndebele under Mzilikazi, breaking away from Shaka's Zulu kingdom, conquered the southwest and established Matabeleland.

History

Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company obtained the Rudd Concession from King Lobengula in 1888 and occupied Mashonaland in 1890, defeating Ndebele and Shona risings in the 1890s. Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony in 1923, its white minority entrenched by the 1930 Land Apportionment Act. When Britain insisted on majority rule before independence, Ian Smith's government issued the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, provoking UN sanctions and a fifteen-year guerrilla war waged by ZANU and ZAPU. The 1979 Lancaster House Agreement ended the conflict, and Zimbabwe became independent on 18 April 1980 with Robert Mugabe as prime minister.

Mugabe's rule lasted 37 years. Early hopes were scarred by the Gukurahundi campaign of 1983–1987, in which the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade massacred thousands of civilians in Matabeleland before ZAPU was absorbed into ZANU-PF, creating a de facto one-party state. Mugabe made himself executive president in 1987. From 2000 the Fast Track Land Reform programme seized white-owned farms, collapsing agricultural exports and triggering economic freefall, hyperinflation that destroyed the Zimbabwe dollar, suspension from the Commonwealth, and mass emigration. A disputed 2008 election forced a power-sharing government with Morgan Tsvangirai, and a new constitution followed in 2013. In November 2017 the military intervened after Mugabe dismissed Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, forcing Mugabe's resignation; Mnangagwa has been president since, winning contested elections in 2018 and 2023.

Later history and present status

The economy, once one of Africa's most diversified, rests on mining (platinum, gold, diamonds, lithium), tobacco and tourism around Victoria Falls, but remains fragile — the gold-backed ZiG currency introduced in 2024 is the latest attempt at monetary stability. Zimbabwe has 16 official languages; the population is about 99.6% Black African, mainly Shona with a large Ndebele minority, and roughly 84% Christian. Chronic drought, food insecurity and political repression remain defining challenges.