ZIMBABWE

On our journey through the discussion about every nation on this planet, the one continent that will be discussed most will be Africa. Africa has the most sovereign nations of any continent totaling between 54 or 55 depending on the status of Western Sahara. Since my birth in 1974, 12 new nations have been created inside Africa. In the 20th Century, many nations broke away from their colonizers and declared independence, including 17 during the 1960s. Africa has always been a very interesting contradiction. Often considered the breadbasket for the foundation of the first humans in recorded history and home to the first massive and powerful empire (Egypt), Africa remains the most underdeveloped continent on the planet due to various factors including its reliance on mining and agriculture, difficult ecosystems that make connecting the entire continent into a solitary grid impossible, and massive political corruption. Africa is also home to the largest land animals on the planet due to its lack of development. Today, a quick summary regarding our first of the 54 African nations, Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is in southern Africa on the eastern side of the continent. Landlocked and bordering neighboring states Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa, it’s probably most famous for sharing Victoria Falls with its neighbor Zambia on its western edge inside of Zambezi National Park. Western Zimbabwe is known for its extreme beauty, National Parks, and being one of the best locations to see the large mammals that roam the African countryside with many designated safari areas. Discussing the history of Zimbabwe can not be done without talking about the British Empire. A topic that will be repeated hundreds of times as we analyze recent history. Zimbabwe was colonized by the British in the late 19th Century. Signing a deal with King Lobengula of the native Ndebele people, Cecil Rhodes began extraction of the minerals inside the country under the incorporated British South Africa Company (BSAC). In the present day through mergers, the BSAC is now part of a company called Charter Consolidated. By 1890, Zimbabwe was colonized and the British changed the name of their new territory to Rhodesia. Like its neighbor to the south (South Africa) which will be discussed in much greater detail later, laws passed inside Rhodesia allowed land to be expropriated from the native populations and the white settlers from England were given priority for the best land. A couple of uprisings by the Ndebele people and the Shona were put down by the Brits in the late 1800s. In 1923, the settlers who moved to Rhodesia not wanting to be part of South Africa became their own functioning British colony known as Southern Rhodesia. Beginning in 1965, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) united in a successful war against the British. The war ended in December 1979 with the Lancaster House Agreement which set the table for independence. On April 18, 1980, Robert Mugabe won the election and Zimbabwe declared themselves an independent sovereign nation.

Robert Mugabe is an interesting historical character. Helping to liberate and free Zimbabwe from the reign of the British, his Marxist tendencies allowed him to consolidate power, and he became sole ruler and dictator of the nation for almost 40 years. Due to his own corruption and destruction of the currency inside his country, Mugabe eventually resigned in 2017 in his 90s. He died two years later in 2019 at the age of 95. Emmerson Mnangagwa is only the 2nd president in the history of this nation since independence and has done his best to bring some aspect of stability to the nation. Due to its Marxist nature, the country still struggles with high inflation and massive corruption and ranks usually around 150 in GDP regarding its economic fortunes.

Zimbabwe has a very elaborate history due to its land being very fertile with some of the best natural clean water in the African continent. They have been able to track human activity inside the nation going back 100,000 years. Like most of Africa and until 1980, there was no defined borders for Zimbabwe as many different tribes passed through the region and settled different regions. The San people were the first to settle the area and left various rock paintings in the area that confirmed their presence. The San spoke a variation of the Bantu language. Zimbabwe first became known for the Zhizo people settling in the area and creating a lucrative ivory trade that was popular in ancient Persia and India. They centralized the area and created its first great settlement known as Great Zimbabwe. This settlement became home to the Kingdom of Zimbabwe which thrived from the 12th Century into the 14th. Around 1430, Nyatsimba Mutota, a prince from Great Zimbabwe, settled in the beautiful Zambezi Valley and conquered the tribal Tawara people. He created the Mutapa Kingdom. Having its own army to force people into paying tributes, this Kingdom thrived for another 200 years before wars with the Portuguese and migration to the plateaus to the south began its decline. Due to a civil war between ruling Great Zimbabwe families, another competing kingdom called the Torwa was born in the late 15th Century. Another cattle owner fractured the existing kingdoms even further setting up the Rovzi Kingdom inside of its new hub city, Danangombe. The Rovzi Kingdom due to its superior military tactics eventually took control over most of the region until the Ndebele people who were descendants of the Khumalo people who were in alignment with Shaka Zulu’s powerful Zulu kingdom went to war with the Rovzi in 1854 and conquered them by 1857.

A few basic facts about Zimbabwe. The population is approaching 17 million. The country is 99% indigenous African and 84% Christian (A legacy of the British). The capital of the country with about 1.8 million inhabitants is Harare.

Hope you enjoyed part two of this ongoing series. Next will be an evaluation of the first country on this list that I have spent time inside even if it was for part of a single day, Albania. Until then.