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The Country
The independent nation of Zimbabwe, formerly the British Colony of Southern Rhodesia
(also known as Rhodesia), is a landlocked country in southern Africa bordered
by Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia. In 1965 the colony's white
minority, which rejected British insistence on black majority rule as a requirement
for independence, unilaterally declared Rhodesia independent. International pressure
and a prolonged civil war forced Rhodesia's white-dominated government to accept
a limited form of black majority rule in 1979, but nationalist resistance continued
until late that year, when negotiations under British auspices led to a cease-fire
and a restoration of British rule over the breakaway colony until new elections
that included all groups could be held. In 1980, Zimbabwe gained full legal independence
under black majority rule.
LAND AND RESOURCES
Most of Zimbabwe consists of a high plateau that traverses the country
from southwest to northeast. These upland areas, mostly above 1,220 m
(4,000 ft), are known as the Highveld and occupy about 25 percent of the
land. A mountainous and mineral-rich intrusion, called the Great Dyke,
extends across it for about 483 km (300 mi) and is the source of
Zimbabwe's principal mineral wealth. Lower and less populated and
developed is the Lowveld, which consists of lands below about 900 m
(3,000 ft) in the Zambezi River valley and in the Limpopo and Sabi-Lundi
river basins. Higher and also less populated are the Inyanga and
Chimanimani mountains in the east, which reach 2,593 m (8,507 ft) in
Mount Inyangani, the nation's highest point.
Mean monthly temperatures on the Highveld are modified by altitude and
vary from 18 degrees C (65 degrees F) in October to 11 degrees C (52
degrees F) in July, with frosts common in the higher areas in winter
(April-September). In the low-lying Zambezi Valley in the north,
temperatures are generally higher and vary between 30 degrees C (86
degrees F) in October and 20 degrees C (68 degrees F) in July. Rainfall
decreases from an average of more than 2,600 mm (102 in) a year in the
Inyangas to 810 mm (32 in) near Harare and less than 455 mm (18 in) in
the semiarid southeast. Most rain falls during the summer months
(November-March) and is too variable from year to year for crop farming
except in the better watered eastern highlands and Highveld.
The main river is the Zambezi, which has been dammed at Kariba to form
282-km-long (175-mi) Lake Kariba and provides abundant hydroelectric
power for both Zimbabwe and neighboring Zambia. Savanna grasslands cover
much of the higher country, with stands of teak, baobab, and mopani in
the Zambezi Lowveld. Soils are generally sandy, leached, and infertile,
with the better soils occurring in the Highveld. Mineral resources
include abundant coal deposits and important supplies of copper,
chromium, asbestos, platinum, and gold.
PEOPLE
Black Africans constitute nearly 98 percent of Zimbabwe's indigenous
population; less than 1 percent are white, and the remainder are Asians
and peoples of mixed racial origin known as Coloureds. The white
population, mostly of Rhodesian, South African, and British origins,
increased from 80,000 in 1945 to a peak of 277,000 in 1977 and then
declined through emigration. Of the black majority, mostly Bantu, 77
percent belong to the SHONA linguistic group and are commonly referred
to as Mashona; about 20 percent are members of the ethnically related
Ndebele-speaking tribes known as Matabele. Smaller black ethnic groups
include the Sotho, Sena, and Tonga.
The capital, Harare (formerly Salisbury), has a population of more than
800,000, and Bulawayo, the second largest city, has more than 500,000
inhabitants.
English is the official language and is used by most whites; Bantu
languages are spoken by the black majority. Most whites and an estimated
24 percent of the total population belong to Christian
churches--principally Anglican, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and Dutch
Reformed--and about 24 percent of all blacks follow traditional
religious practices; about 51 percent practice a mixture of Christian
and tribal beliefs, and a few are Muslims. Primary education is free but
not compulsory, and education in government-run primary and secondary
schools, segregated until 1979, is now open to all. The University of
Zimbabwe (1970) is open to all races. Birth and death rates are said to
be higher among blacks than whites, with the overall rate of increase
significantly greater among the blacks.
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
Like most British colonies in the early 20th century, Rhodesia depended
on trade with the United Kingdom and exported mainly agricultural and
mineral products in exchange for imports of manufactured items. This
trading pattern ended with Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of
independence in 1965 and the imposition of trade sanctions on the
breakaway colony by the United Nations. Far from forcing submission as
intended, the sanctions encouraged industrialization and import
substitution, and Rhodesia developed one of Africa's most industrially
advanced and diversified economies.
Manufacturing provides about 27 percent of national income. Harare and
Bulawayo are the leading industrial centers. Major products include iron
and steel (from Redcliff), automobiles, textiles, chemicals, leather
goods, and tobacco products.
Mining contributes about 6 percent of national income. Asbestos,
chromium, copper, gold, and nickel and platinum are important mineral
products. Although Zimbabwe is lacking in petroleum, which must be
imported, coal-fired thermal plants and hydroelectric installations at
Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River make the country self-sufficient in
electricity.
Agriculture, the main source of income for about 74 percent of the
population, provides about 14 percent of the national income. Production
of tobacco, once the main cash crop, has declined, but output of cotton,
wheat, sorghum, and sugar and the raising of cattle have increased. A
drought of several years' duration that seriously affected agricultural
output and economic reforms finally broke in April 1993, averting
threats of famine.
Transportation facilities focus on the main railroad, which runs
southward from Bulawayo to South Africa via Botswana, and two other
lines used for overseas trade, which extend eastward across Mozambique
to its ports of Beira and Maputo. The Zimbabwean troops that had
protected strategic routes in Mozambique were withdrawn in April 1993. A
fourth line extending northeastward from Bulawayo is used to move copper
and other exports from Zambia and Shaba province in Zaire. Tourism
declined by nearly 10 percent during 1990-92. The major tourist
attractions are the Victoria Falls, Kariba Dam, and Hwange National
Park.
GOVERNMENT
The 1980 constitution provided for a bicameral parliament consisting of
a house of assembly and a senate whose members would serve 5-year terms.
A president, elected by parliament for a 6-year term, appointed a prime
minister who held effective executive power. Constitutional amendments
in 1987 eliminated the reservation of a certain number of house and
senate seats for whites and abolished the prime ministership, replacing
the ceremonial president with an executive president who serves as head
of state and government. The senate was disbanded after March 1990
elections for a restructured unicameral national assembly comprising 150
members, of whom 120 are popularly elected.
HISTORY
The ruins at Zimbabwe testify to the arrival of Bantu peoples in the
area after the 5th century AD. White settlement dates back to 1890,
when the Pioneer Column led by Leander Starr JAMESON, of the British
South Africa Company of Cecil RHODES, came from South Africa in search
of gold and land, which it acquired by treaty but mostly by conquest of
the Mashona and Matabele. Rhodesia was administered by the company
until 1923, when it became the self-governing British colony of Southern
Rhodesia; the United Kingdom retained a right to intervene on
constitutional issues and matters affecting the African population.
In 1953, Southern Rhodesia was united with Northern Rhodesia and
Nyasaland in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Salisbury was the
capital of the federation. Under a 1961 constitution, limited voting
rights were extended to blacks, but the whites remained in overwhelming
control. In 1963, after black governments were established in Northern
Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Nyasaland (now Malawi), the federation was
dissolved. No agreement could be reached with the British on the issue
of black participation in the government of an independent Rhodesia, and
on Nov. 11, 1965, Prime Minister Ian Smith made a unilateral declaration
of Rhodesia's independence.
No country other than South Africa recognized the breakaway colony, and
the British government--which termed the secession an illegal act--and
the United Nations imposed trade sanctions. Portuguese-ruled Mozambique
and South Africa opposed the economic sanctions, and petroleum continued
to enter Rhodesia through Mozambique until it gained independence in
1975. In 1969, after further fruitless negotiations with London, a new
constitution ruled out future black majority rule, and Rhodesia was
proclaimed a republic in March 1970.
Black nationalists continued to seek greater representation in
government through the 1960s and '70s despite detention and exile of
prominent leaders and other forms of repression. Guerrilla attacks on
European farms and road and rail links intensified in the mid-1970s,
especially after Mozambique became independent and closed its borders
with Rhodesia. In 1978, seeking to end the war, Prime Minister Smith
negotiated an "internal settlement" with black leaders Bishop Abel
Muzorewa, Rev. Ndabaninge Sitole, and Chief Jeremiah Chirau that led to
an interim coalition government by the four leaders. In elections held
in April 1979, the principle of universal suffrage was accepted for the
first time; Muzorewa became the nation's first black prime minister, and
the country was renamed Zimbabwe Rhodesia.
The exclusion of the major nationalist leaders, Nkomo and Mugabe, from
the internal settlement minimized the government's legitimacy and
effectiveness. Within a few months, pressure by the British government
persuaded the different factions to agree to a new constitution based on
majority rule. The Muzorewa government then repealed the 14-year-old
unilateral declaration of independence. The colony was under direct
British rule from Dec. 12, 1979, to Apr. 17, 1980, when it gained legal
independence as Zimbabwe.
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