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 ZimbabweComments on Zimbabwe
About Zimbabwe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zimbabwe ( Zimbabwe began as the British crown colony of Southern Rhodesia, created from land held by the British South Africa Company. President Robert Mugabe is the head of State and Commander in Chief of the armed forces. Morgan Tsvangirai is the Prime Minister. Mugabe has been in power since the country's internationally-recognized independence in 1980.
[edit] EtymologyThere are two theories on the origin of the word "Zimbabwe": Various sources hold that the word is derived from dzimba-dza-mabwe, translated from the Karanga dialect of Shona as "large houses of stone" (dzimba = plural of imba, "house"; mabwe = plural of bwe, "stone").[5][6][7] The Karanga-speaking Shona people are found around Great Zimbabwe in the modern-day province of Masvingo. Archaeologist Peter Garlake claims that "Zimbabwe" is a contracted form of dzimba-hwe which means "venerated houses" in the Zezuru dialect of Shona, and is usually applied to chiefs' houses or graves.[8] [edit] Geography and environmentMain article: Geography of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in southern Africa, lying between latitudes 15° and 23°S, and longitudes 25° and 34°E. Most of the country is elevated in the central plateau (high veld) stretching from the southwest to the northwest at altitudes between 1200 and 1600m. The country's east is mountainous with Mt. Nyangani as the highest point at 2,592 m. About 20% of the country consists of the low veld under 900m. Victoria Falls, one of the world's biggest and most spectacular waterfalls, is located in the country's northwest as part of the Zambesi river. The country has a tropical climate with a rainy season usually from November to March. The climate is moderated by the altitude. [edit] Environmental issuesLarge parts of Zimbabwe were once covered by forest, the African bush, with an abundant wildlife. Poverty, population growth and lack of fuel have led to extensive deforestation, which, along with poaching, has reduced the wildlife considerably. Deforestation and woodland degradation are a major concern[9] and have led to erosion and land degradation which diminish the amount of fertile soil. [edit] HistoryMain article: History of Zimbabwe
By the Middle Ages, there was a civilization that occupied the region, evidenced by ruins at Great Zimbabwe, near Masvingo, and other smaller sites. The main archaeological site is a unique dry stone architecture. Around the early 10th century, trade developed with Muslim merchants on the Indian Ocean coast, helping to develop the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in the 11th century. This was the precursor to the more impressive Shona civilizations that would dominate the region. [edit] Pre-Colonial era (1000–1887)
Proto-Shona speaking societies first emerged in the middle Limpopo valley in the 9th century before moving on to the Zimbabwean highlands. The Zimbabwean plateau eventually became the center of subsequent Shona states. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe was the first in a series of sophisticated trade states developed in Zimbabwe by the time of the first European explorers from Portugal. They traded in gold, ivory and copper for cloth and glass.[10] From about 1300 until 1600, Mapungubwe was eclipsed by the Kingdom of Zimbabwe. This Shona state further refined and expanded upon Mapungubwe's stone architecture, which survives to this day at the ruins of the kingdom's capital of Great Zimbabwe. From circa 1450–1760, Zimbabwe gave way to the Kingdom of Mutapa. This Shona state ruled much of the area that is known as Zimbabwe today, and parts of central Mozambique. It is known by many names including the Mutapa Empire, also known as Mwene Mutapa or Monomotapa as well as "Munhumutapa," and was renowned for its gold trade routes with Arabs and the Portuguese. However, Portuguese settlers destroyed the trade and began a series of wars which left the empire in near collapse in the early 17th century.[10] As a direct response to Portuguese aggression in the interior, a new Shona state emerged called the Rozvi Empire. Relying on centuries of military, political and religious development, the Rozvi (which means "destroyers") removed the Portuguese from the Zimbabwe plateau by force of arms. The Rozvi continued the stone building traditions of the Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe kingdoms while adding guns to its arsenal and developing a professional army to protect its trade routes and conquests. Around 1821, the Zulu general Mzilikazi (meaning The Great Road) of the Khumalo clan successfully rebelled from King Shaka and set up his own tribe, the Ndebele. The tribe fought its way northwards into the Transvaal leaving a trail of destruction in its wake and beginning an era of widespread killings and devastation known as the Mfecane. When the Boer settlers (descendants of Dutch and other Europeans) arrived in the Transvaal in 1836 during the Great Trek they attacked the Ndebele and drove the tribe even further northward. In 1837–38, the Rozvi Empire along with other Shona states were conquered by the Ndebele and forced to pay tribute and concentrate in the northeast of present-day Zimbabwe. After losing the Transvaal in 1840, Mzilikazi and his tribe settled the southwest of present-day Zimbabwe in what became known as Matabeleland and established Bulawayo as their capital. Mzilikazi then organized his followers into a military system with regimental kraals, similar to those of Shaka, which became strong enough to repel the Boer attacks of 1847–1851 and persuade the government of the South African Republic to sign a peace treaty with him in 1852. Mzilikazi died in 1868 and after a brief, violent power struggle was succeed by his son, Lobengula. [edit] Colonial era (1888–1965)Main articles: Southern Rhodesia and Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
In the 1880s, the British arrived with Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company.[11] In 1888, British colonialist Cecil Rhodes obtained a concession for mining rights from King Lobengula of the Ndebele peoples.[12] Cecil Rhodes presented this concession to persuade the government of the United Kingdom to grant a royal charter to his British South Africa Company (BSAC) over Matabeleland, and its subject states such as Mashonaland.[13] Rhodes used this document in 1890 to justify sending the Pioneer Column, a group of white settlers protected by well-armed British South Africa Police (BSAP) through Matabeleland and into Shona territory to establish Fort Salisbury (now Harare). In 1893 and 1894, with the help of their new maxim guns, the BSAP would go on to defeat the Ndebele in the First Matabele War, a war which also resulted in the death of King Lobengula. Rhodes sought permission to negotiate similar concessions covering all territory between the Limpopo River and Lake Tanganyika, then known as "Zambesia".[13] In accordance with the terms of aforementioned concessions and treaties,[13] Cecil Rhodes promoted the colonisation of the region's land, with British control over labour as well as precious metals and other mineral resources.[14] In 1895 the BSAC adopted the name "Rhodesia" for the territory of Zambesia, in honour of Cecil Rhodes. In 1898 "Southern Rhodesia" became the official denotation for the region south of the Zambezi,[15] which later became Zimbabwe. The region to the north was administered separately by the BSAC and later named Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Shortly after the disastrous Jameson Raid on the South African Republic, the Ndebele were led by their spiritual leader Mlimo against the white colonials and thus began the Second Matabele War (1896–97). The Shona also staged unsuccessful revolts (known as Chimurenga) against encroachment upon their lands, by clients of BSAC and Cecil Rhodes in 1896 and 1897.[16] Following the failed insurrections of 1896–97 the Ndebele and Shona groups became subject to Rhodes's administration thus precipitating European settlement en masse which led to land distribution disproportionately favouring Europeans, displacing the Shona, Ndebele, and other indigenous peoples. Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony in October 1923, subsequent to a 1922 referendum. Rhodesians served on behalf of the United Kingdom during World War II, mainly in the East African Campaign against Axis forces in Italian East Africa. Proportional to (European-descended) population, Southern Rhodesia contributed more to both the First and Second World Wars than any other part of the Empire, including Britain itself.[17] In 1953, in the face of African opposition,[18] Britain consolidated the two colonies of Rhodesia with Nyasaland in the ill-fated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland which was dominated by Southern Rhodesia. Growing African nationalism and general dissent, particularly in Nyasaland, persuaded Britain to dissolve the Union in 1963, forming three colonies. As colonial rule was ending throughout the continent and as African-majority governments assumed control in neighboring Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and in Nyasaland (Malawi), the white-minority Rhodesian government led by Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front (RF) dropped the designation "Southern" in 1964 and issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (commonly abbreviated to "UDI") from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965, effectively repudiating the British plan that the country should become a multi-racial democracy. It was the first declaration of independence by a British colony since the American declaration of 1776, which was indeed claimed by the Rhodesian government to provide a precedent.[17] [edit] UDI and civil war (1965–1979)
After UDI, the British government requested United Nations economic sanctions against Rhodesia as negotiations with the Smith administration in 1966 and 1968 ended in stalemate. The United Kingdom deemed the Rhodesian declaration an act of rebellion, but did not re-establish control by force. A civil war ensued, with Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) using assistance from the governments of Zambia and Mozambique (the latter following its independence from Portugal in 1975). Smith's declaration of a republic in 1970 was recognized only by South Africa,[19][20] then governed by its apartheid administration.[21][22] Over the years, the fighting against Ian Smith's UDI government intensified. As a result, the Smith government opened negotiations with the leaders of ZAPU and ZANU. 
In March 1978, with his regime near the brink of collapse, Smith signed an accord with three African leaders, led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, who offered safeguards for white civilians. As a result of the Internal Settlement, elections were held in April 1979. The United African National Council (UANC) party won a majority in this election. On 1 June 1979, the leader of UANC, Abel Muzorewa, became the country's prime minister and the country's name was changed to Zimbabwe Rhodesia. The internal settlement left control of the country's police, security forces, civil service and judiciary in white hands. It assured whites of about one-third of the seats in parliament.[23] However, on June 12, the United States Senate voted to end economic sanctions against Zimbabwe Rhodesia. Following the fifth Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), held in Lusaka, Zambia from August 1 to August 7 in 1979, the British government invited Muzorewa and the leaders of the Patriotic Front to participate in a constitutional conference at Lancaster House. The purpose of the conference was to discuss and reach an agreement on the terms of an independence constitution and that elections should be supervised under British authority to enable Rhodesia to proceed to legal independence and the parties to settle their differences by political means.[24] Lord Carrington, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, chaired the conference.[24] The conference took place from September 10 to December 15 in 1979 with 47 plenary sessions. On December 1, 1979, delegations from the British and Rhodesian governments and the Patriotic Front signed the Lancaster House Agreement, ending the civil war.[25] [edit] Independence and Early Decline (1980–1999)Main article: Gukurahundi
See also: History of Zimbabwe
Britain's Lord Soames was appointed governor to oversee the disarming of revolutionary fighters, the holding of elections and the granting of independence to an uneasy coalition government with Joshua Nkomo, head of ZAPU. In the elections of February 1980, Mugabe and his ZANU won a landslide victory.[26] There was however opposition to a Shona win in Matabeleland. In November 1980 Enos Nkala made remarks at a rally in Bulawayo, in which he warned ZAPU that ZANU would deliver a few blows against them. This started the first Entumbane uprising, in which ZIPRA and ZANLA fought for two days.[27] In February 1981 there was a second uprising, which spread to Glenville and also to Connemara in the Midlands. ZIPRA troops in other parts of Matabeleland headed for Bulawayo to join the battle, and ex-Rhodesian units had to come in to stop the fighting. Over 300 people were killed. These uprisings led to what has become known as Gukurahundi (Shona: "the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains"[28]) or the Matabeleland Massacres, which ran from 1982 until 1985. Mugabe used his North Korean trained Fifth Brigade to crush any resistance in Matabeleland. It has been This country information has been retrieved from wikipedia.org and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
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