LAND AND RESOURCES
B Rivers and Lakes The Zambezi River, along the northern border, is Zimbabwe’s most important river. On the river, in the country’s far west, is Victoria Falls, a spectacular waterfall where the Zambezi flows over a cliff into a narrow gorge. The Zambezi is navigable between Victoria Falls and the Cabora Bassa Dam in Mozambique. A number of smaller rivers, chief among them the Mazoe and the Sanyati (known in its upper course as the Umniati), join the Zambezi in the north. The Sabi River rises in the center of the country and flows into Mozambique (where it is known as the Save River). The Limpopo River forms the country’s southern boundary with South Africa.
Kariba Dam is located on the Zambezi and houses a hydroelectric power station that serves both Zimbabwe and neighboring Zambia. The dam has formed Lake Kariba, a reservoir that is 282 km (175 mi) long and is a major source of fish and wildlife. A large number of smaller dams have been built throughout the country to provide water for cities or to support irrigated agriculture. There is extensive irrigation in the valley of the Sabi, and water from the upper Zambezi is used to irrigate the dry southwestern parts of the country.
Plant and Animal Life
E Climate Zimbabwe’s climate is dependent on the rains brought by the Indian Ocean monsoons (seasonal winds). Up to 1,000 mm (40 in) of rain falls each year in the eastern part of the country between the months of October and March; rain levels reduce to about half that amount in the dry southwest. Little if any rain falls from March to October, when the weather gets cold with frosts common in the mountains and central plateau areas. Since the late 1970s rainfall has been very irregular and there have been serious droughts, which have led to soil erosion in some areas and other environmental problems. On the central plateau, average daily temperatures range from 7º to 21º C (44º to 70º F) in July and 16º to 26º C (61º to 79º F) in January. In the Zambezi valley they range from 13º to 28º C (55º to 83º F) in July and 22º to 32º C (71º to 90º F) in January.
PEOPLE AND SOCIETY
Ethnic Groups and Languages
B Religion Protestant and Catholic missionaries attempted to spread Christianity into what is now Zimbabwe starting in the early 17th century. However, they made few converts until the establishment of British colonial control in the late 19th century. An estimated 55 percent of the population are Christian and most of the rest adhere to traditional religions. The largest Christian churches are Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Methodist. Each church draws its following from black and white segments of the population and from across social ranks. There are also a large number of African independent churches. The country also has small groups of Greek Orthodox Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
C Education Christian missionaries conducted the first formal education in Zimbabwe, and many schools still retain a strong religious affiliation. With the growth of white settlement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, schools for the white population were established in all the major towns. Public day schools were initially single sex and were complemented by private boarding schools modeled on those in Britain. As late as 1965 there were only two government-run secondary schools for blacks.
Primary education in Zimbabwe has been universal and compulsory since 1987. With nearly half the population of school age, there has been massive growth since the country’s independence in the provision of education. Education accounts for approximately 20 percent of government expenditure. Virtually all primary school-aged children enroll in school, but only 48 percent attend secondary schools and just 7 percent attend colleges or universities. Zimbabwe has two state universities, the University of Zimbabwe (founded as the University College of Rhodesia in 1955) in Harare, and the National University of Science and Technology (founded in 1990) in Bulawayo. There are also several private colleges. Literacy has increased dramatically since independence. Adult literacy was estimated at 85 percent (90 percent for males and 80 percent for females) in 1995, up from only 39 percent in 1962.
D Social Structure Zimbabwe still bears signs of its colonial past. The white population, which represents only 1 percent of the country’s total population, forms a distinct group enjoying a high standard of living; whites control larger amounts of land than blacks and most of the country’s private businesses. However, black middle and upper classes are developing. In rural communities, traditional chiefs were accorded considerable power by the colonial authorities but now retain little more than social prestige.
E Way of Life Zimbabwe has inherited many traits from its colonial past. The white population reproduced the sport-based culture of colonial Britain and has produced world-class sports figures, competing at the highest level in rugby, cricket, and golf. Africans tend to be more interested in football (soccer). Zimbabwe’s tourist attractions, such as Victoria Falls and the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, help to make it a leisure-oriented society. The African middle and upper classes tend to imitate the lifestyle of the old colonial ruling class, while younger Africans are drawn to the popular urban styles of South Africa. European-style clothing and housing are fashionable, although traditional rondavels (round thatched huts made of wood) are preferred in rural areas.
Social Issues and Social Services
Harare developed originally as a European-style city with European theater and music, museums, an art gallery, and archives. The Queen Victoria Museum played a significant role in developing archaeology in Zimbabwe and a knowledge of the past, while the National Gallery pioneered the appreciation of Shona sculpture. The National Archives remain a major source for the history not only of the colonial period but of the Shona and Ndebele peoples. Bulawayo also has theaters, libraries, and an art gallery.
Debt has risen since independence and has been accompanied by high rates of inflation, which averaged 26 percent annually in the period of 1990-1997. In 1990 Zimbabwe agreed to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) Structural Adjustment Program aimed at reducing government control over the economy, lowering inflation, and encouraging investment. Government expenditure was reduced, and unemployment rose sharply as a result. In 1997 Zimbabwe had an estimated gross domestic product (GDP)of $8.9 billion, or $780 per person.
A Government Role in the Economy Much of the economy of Rhodesia after 1965 was state-run, with state ownership of power and railways being the central features. Immediately after independence in 1980, the new government declared itself to be socialist. State ownership was extended to the financial sector, and public subsidies for food and housing were adopted. However, the government protected the private commercial farming sector and private industry. Since the IMF imposed a structural adjustment package on Zimbabwe in 1991, the government’s role in the economy has been reduced, with food subsidies being removed and government control over the currency’s exchange rate lifted.
B Labor In 1997 Zimbabwe’s labor force was 5.3 million people. Most of the workers-68 percent-were employed in agriculture, primarily as peasant farmers. Of the rest, 24 percent were employed in the service sector, and 8 percent were in industry, including mining, manufacturing, and construction.
Trade unions represent Zimbabwe’s major industries and service sectors. All are affiliated with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which was founded in 1981. Employers’ associations are strong in the agricultural sector, particularly the Commercial Farmers’ Union, which is an influential body representing white farmers, founded in 1942.
D Industry The industrial sector diversified during the years that sanctions were imposed on Rhodesia (1965 to 1980), and today Zimbabwe produces a wide range of consumer goods. The most important products are iron and steel, textiles, processed food, and chemicals. Industry, primarily manufacturing and mining, accounted for 25 percent of GDP in 1997.
Tobacco is the most important product of Zimbabwe, accounting for 51 percent of total export value in 1997. Both the Virginia and burley strains of tobacco are produced. Cotton rose in importance during the years of economic sanctions and has become a major export crop. Maize production depends on rainfall, but Zimbabwe has the capacity to produce about twice its own consumption needs. The production of sugar, citrus fruit, grapes, and cut flowers depends on irrigation from dams.
F Mining Zimbabwe has a long tradition of mining, going back before European colonization. The country contains a wide range of minerals, including antimony, asbestos, chromium, coal, cobalt, copper, gold, graphite, iron ore, magnesite, nickel, silver, and tin. Coal is an important power source. Gold, chrome, and asbestos are the major mineral exports; gold is consistently Zimbabwe’s second-most important export product after tobacco.
G Energy Zimbabwe is rich in energy resources. The coal reserves at Hwange are estimated at 30,000 million metric tons, of which 5 million are mined each year to supply two thermal power stations. Such plants produced 72 percent of the country’s electricity in 1997, while the remaining 28 percent came from hydroelectric facilities at the Kariba Dam, which was completed in 1959.
I Communications The state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation operates numerous national radio stations broadcasting in English, Shona, Ndebele, and other African languages. There is also a national television station broadcasting on two channels. Zimbabwe has two national daily newspapers—The Chronicle, published in Bulawayo, and The Herald, published in Harare. Both dailies, which are government-owned, are written in English and are monitored by the government-owned Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust. Dozens of nondaily registered periodicals and newspapers, most in English, are published as well. Zimbabwe Inter-Africa News Agency is the national news agency; several foreign news agencies also operate in the country.
J Foreign Trade Zimbabwe’s foreign trade position is structurally healthy, in that it typically exports more than it imports and usually only spends a small amount more than it takes in. The country’s main customers for exports are South Africa, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and Botswana. South Africa is by far the primary source for imports; other large suppliers are the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and the United States. Zimbabwe’s most important imports include petroleum products, machinery, motor vehicles, and foodstuffs. Chief exports include tobacco and other agricultural products as well as gold and other minerals.
K Currency and Banking Zimbabwe’s basic unit of currency is the Zimbabwe dollar, consisting of 100 cents (12.11 Zimbabwe dollars equal US$1; 1997 average). The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, founded in 1964, is the bank of issue, and several commercial banks operate throughout the country. The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange is located in Harare.
B Legislature Zimbabwe’s unicameral (single chamber) parliament is called the House of Assembly, made up of 150 members. Of these, 120 are directly elected to represent local constituencies, 10 are elected by traditional chiefs (5 from among the Shona and 5 from the Ndebele), 12 are appointed by the president, and 8 are provincial governors. All representatives serve six-year terms, and there is no limit to the number of terms they may serve. The House of Assembly is independent of the president and has the power to enact and modify laws and to levy taxes.
C Judiciary Zimbabwe’s legal system is based on English common law (the body of law that developed in England beginning in the 12th century) and traditional Zimbabwean law. There is a Supreme Court, consisting of a chief justice and four judges of appeal. Below the Supreme Court is the High Court, consisting of 13 judges, which has original jurisdiction in major civil and criminal cases. Below the High Court are regional courts, magistrates courts, customary law courts, and local courts. These last two tiers are traditional Zimbabwean courts presided over by chiefs and headmen, which hear small claims cases and cases concerned with marriage and children. The executive branch appoints all judges.
D Local Government Zimbabwe is divided into eight provinces and the cities of Harare and Bulawayo, which have provincial status. Each of these units are governed by a provincial council. The powers of the provincial administrations are closely circumscribed by the central government. Beneath the provincial councils are dozens of district councils, rural councils, town councils, and municipal councils. At the lowest level of administration are village development councils and ward development councils.
E Political Parties Zimbabwe’s dominant political party is the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). ZANU-PF began as the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which was founded in 1963 as a Marxist party seeking majority rule in Zimbabwe. The military wings of both ZANU and the rival nationalist party Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) merged after 1976 as the Popular Front (PF), and after independence in 1980, ZANU was known as ZANU-PF. ZANU-PF and ZAPU merged in 1988. In the 1990s ZANU-PF moved away from Marxism, and is now primarily concerned with staying in power. The conservative Zimbabwe African National Union-Ndonga (ZANU-Ndonga), the only other party besides ZANU-PF to have members in parliament, was founded by ZANU cofounder Ndabaningi Sithole after he was forced out of ZANU in 1976. The Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM) is a breakaway party from ZANU-PF. The colonial Rhodesian Front Party, which ruled Rhodesia from 1963 until the creation of Zimbabwe, survives under the title of the Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe, but it has little political influence.
F Defense Zimbabwe’s armed forces, consisting of an army and an air force, had 39,000 personnel in 1997. Military service is not compulsory. With the end in the mid-1990s of the Mozambican civil war—in which Zimbabwe’s armed forces played an active role—the government began to reduce the size of the armed forces. Zimbabwe also has a police force totaling about 20,000.
G International Organizations Zimbabwe is a member of the United Nations (UN), the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The country also helped found the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (now the Southern African Development Community), an organization for economic cooperation between southern African countries.
A Early Civilizations About 2,000 years ago Iron Age peoples established themselves on the plateau, developing a series of distinctive pottery styles, herding cattle, and mining gold and copper that they traded with peoples of the coast. These people were the ancestors of the modern Shona population. About the 11th century AD the first stone building began, and this rapidly developed into a distinctive and impressive architectural style. Stone building reached its first peak in the city of Great Zimbabwe, which was built between the 11th and 15th centuries.
By the 11th century the population was grouped in small village communities that were ruled over by dynasties of chiefs, called Karanga. The major Karanga chiefs built their capitals in stone and by the 15th century they controlled the trade in gold to the coast of present-day Mozambique. The most important of the chieftaincies were Mwene Mutapa in the Mazoe River valley, Chicanga in the Inyanga highlands, and Quiteve in the Mozambique lowlands. These states established gold-trading fairs in their territory, which attracted traders from the coast.
B Portuguese Influence In 1498, in the same period that the Karanga chiefs were extending their power over the lowland areas of Mozambique, the Portuguese arrived on the Indian Ocean coast. The Portuguese traded gold at the fairs and in 1569 sent a large military expedition led by Francisco Barreto to establish Portuguese control over the chieftaincy of the Mwene Mutapa. This attempt failed, but Portuguese traders became influential in all the main fairs. Early in the 17th century locally recruited armies under Portuguese control conquered the Karanga chieftaincies of the north, including Mwene Mutapa, and invaded the central and southern areas. Small Portuguese trading towns were established, the most important being at Dambarare on the upper Mazoe.
C The Rozwi Empire and the Ndebele In 1693 the Portuguese were defeated by the Rozwi chieftaincy of Changamire, whose power was based in Butua in the southwest. The Portuguese were driven off the central plateau and only retained a nominal presence at one of the fairs in the eastern highlands. The whole of present-day Zimbabwe was brought under the control of Changamire and became known as the Rozwi Empire. The Rozwi chiefs revived the tradition of building in stone and constructed impressive cities throughout the southwest. The economic power of the Rozwi Empire was based on cattle wealth, but gold mining continued, and gold was traded for luxury imports.
A decade later, another Nguni people, the Ndebele, entered what is now Zimbabwe from the southwest under their king, Mzilikazi. Mzilikazi had fled the Transvaal (present-day northern South Africa) after his armies were defeated by Afrikaners (South African descendents of Dutch and French Huguenot settlers). The king built a new Ndebele capital, called Bulawayo, in the southwest. The Ndebele kingdom replicated the military and economic organization of the Zulu and introduced the Ndebele dialect (a Nguni language similar to Zulu). In addition to his powerful military force, the Ndebele monarch derived his wealth and power from large herds of cattle. During the mid-19th century most of the Karanga chieftaincies (whose people were now known as Shona) of central and northern Zimbabwe retained their independence, though from time to time they were forced to pay tribute to the Ndebele.
D Cecil Rhodes Beginning in the 1860s increasing numbers of European ivory hunters entered the area from the south and from the coast. These hunters returned to Europe with reports of vast gold deposits, spurring European interest in Matabeleland (as Europeans called the territory of the Ndebele, in the south) and Mashonaland (as they called the land of the Shona, in the north). During the 1880s the coastline of Africa was partitioned between Germany, Portugal, and Britain, and competition between European and African powers for land in the interior became intense. The Portuguese sent missions to secure the submission of the northern Shona chiefs, the Gaza Empire of southern Mozambique brought the eastern borderlands under its rule, and Afrikaner settlers began to spread north from the Transvaal. However, it was the British rulers of Cape Colony (in what is now western South Africa) who in the end successfully won concessions of land from the Ndebele king. In 1888 Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, granted a mineral concession encompassing Mashonaland (which he nominally controlled) to Cape Colony politician and financier Cecil John Rhodes. The following year the British government granted Rhodes a charter to establish the British South Africa Company. The company was given sweeping powers, including the power not only to mine but also to settle and administer a huge, vaguely defined area north of the Transvaal, including both Mashonaland and Matabeleland.
In late 1895 Jameson led a British military force from Rhodesia in a raid on the Transvaal, hoping to incite British settlers there to overthrow the Afrikaner government. Jameson and his party were quickly arrested, however, and the raid was unsuccessful. Meanwhile, in Rhodesia the Shona and Ndebele took the opportunity to unite under the leadership of influential spirit mediums to overthrow the settlers’ rule. It was not until British troops had been sent in 1897 that the rebellion was finally put down. The same year, colonial administrators divided Rhodesia into two separate colonies: Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). Rhodes worked to encourage British settlement in Northern and Southern Rhodesia until his death in 1902.
E Settler Colony As Rhodes hoped, Southern Rhodesia grew as a settler-dominated colony under the rule of the British South Africa Company. Whites laid out farms along the railroad, which ran along the plateau between Salisbury and Bulawayo. In order to provide cheap labor for the colony’s farms and mines, colonial administrators imposed heavy monetary taxes on black inhabitants (who had no money, and therefore were forced to seek jobs) and encouraged immigration from Mozambique.
The settlers established a legislative council, and when the British South Africa Company charter expired in 1923, a referendum was held on whether to join South Africa. The vote went against union, and Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony. This marked the beginning of decades of prosperity for white settlers in Southern Rhodesia. In 1930 the colonial government passed the Land Apportionment Act, which divided the colony into separate areas for whites and blacks. The act allocated white settlers, who numbered only about 50,000 (less than 5 percent of the colony’s population), approximately 50 percent of the land.
The Great Depression of the 1930s held back economic prosperity and white immigration. Tobacco farming developed, however, and after World War II (1939-1945) the colony witnessed considerable immigration and investment. By 1950 the white population had risen to about 125,000.
In 1953 white settlers in Northern and Southern Rhodesia pressured the British government to unite Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland (present-day Malawi) to form the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (also known as the Central African Federation). The federation, which allowed white settlers in the colonies to consolidate their economic power, had its capital in Salisbury and was dominated by Southern Rhodesia. The federation lasted until 1963 and saw rapid economic expansion, as Southern Rhodesia industrialized and became the second-most powerful economy in southern Africa, after South Africa. The regions of the colony allocated to blacks grew overcrowded in the 1950s, prompting large numbers of blacks to move to the colony’s urban areas. By 1960 the white population had grown to 220,000.
During this period, black opposition to white settler rule grew more active and vocal. The first African labor unions began to appear in the 1920s, and in the 1950s African nationalist parties formed. As support for the parties grew, the colonial government became increasingly repressive and resisted the idea of majority rule.
The first Zimbabwean nationalist parties had emerged in the 1950s, and the early political leader of stature was Joshua Nkomo. Nkomo led a number of political movements, most notably the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), which was formed in 1962 and supported largely by the Ndebele of the southwest. In 1963 the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) was established by dissident Marxists who sought a more radical political stance. ZANU was led by Ndabaningi Sithole until he was replaced in 1976 by Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The colonial government banned both ZAPU and ZANU shortly after their creation, and the movements consequently developed as clandestine guerrilla groups seeking the overthrow of the white government.
In the mid-1970s guerrilla attacks became more formidable, with ZANU proving the more effective of the guerrilla movements. After 1976 the military wings of ZANU and ZAPU joined forces to create a more powerful liberation army, called the Patriotic Front (PF). Peace negotiations, at first brokered by South Africa, began in 1976, but no agreement was reached. In 1979 Rhodesia’s white regime attempted to compromise by introducing a new constitution that allowed limited black majority rule with political safeguards for whites. After elections the same year, a moderate black leader, Bishop Abel Muzorewa, formed a coalition government with the Rhodesian Front and took office as prime minister. However, ZANU and ZAPU did not accept this arrangement, viewing Muzorewa as a puppet of the white government. In 1980 the Rhodesian government accepted British and American mediation and signed the Lancaster House agreement for majority rule. In elections held that year, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), as ZANU became known, decisively defeated ZAPU. Mugabe was installed as prime minister, and the nation was renamed Zimbabwe.
H Recent Developments In the early 1990s the transition to majority rule in South Africa coincided with peace negotiations in Mozambique, and the economic crisis in Zimbabwe began to lift. In exchange for economic aid and assistance from the World Bank and the IMF, Zimbabwe agreed to a structural adjustment package designed to move the country from a state-controlled economy to a free-market economy. ZANU-PF won 82 percent of the vote in 1995 legislative elections. Mugabe was reelected as president in 1996, running unopposed after the withdrawal of two opposition candidates who protested against allegedly unfair electoral regulations.
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