Zimbabwe

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.

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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.

F

White-Ruled Rhodesia

In 1962 Nyasaland broke away from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which was formally dissolved in 1963. Southern Rhodesia’s white settlers, now led by Ian Douglas Smith and his Rhodesian Front party, sought independence from Britain. However, Britain’s newly elected Labour government refused to agree to independence without significant constitutional reform that would provide for eventual black African rule. In November 1965 Smith announced the Unilateral Declaration of Independence for Rhodesia, severing ties to Britain. The United Nations (UN) quickly levied sanctions against the illegal nation. In 1969 Rhodesia formally declared itself a republic.

Britain failed to take any decisive action against Rhodesia’s white government and in 1970 and 1971 tried to negotiate a settlement with Smith. Smith refused to make significant concessions and defied the weak international sanctions that had been imposed. Covertly supported by South Africa, another white-ruled state, the white Rhodesians held power without much difficulty until the mid-1970s.

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.

G

Independent Zimbabwe

The Lancaster House agreement had protected the position of Zimbabwe’s white inhabitants, who were allocated 20 seats in parliament. Land reform, specifically the redistribution of white-owned land to landless black peasants, was promised but was delayed in order to smooth the transition to majority rule. During the 1980s the new government increasingly moved away from its Marxist rhetoric and toward supporting a capitalistic economy. The civil war in Mozambique and unresolved political conflict in South Africa threatened the stability of the new state. Zimbabwe incurred the wrath of South Africa by supporting both the African National Congress (ANC), which opposed South Africa’s minority-rule government, and Mozambique’s government, which South Africa was attempting to overthrow by supporting a rebel group. South Africa threatened to attack ANC bases in Zimbabwe and blocked Zimbabwean exports through South African ports. Zimbabwe consequently suffered economic dislocation as it was forced to export its products through Mozambique. This required the Zimbabwean armed forces to protect the railroad corridor to the Mozambican port of Beira from South African-sponsored rebel attacks. Mugabe was one of the founders of the Southern African Development Cooperation Committee (SADCC), an organization formed to reduce regional economic dependence on South Africa, and he played a prominent role in trying to counter the influence of South Africa.

The 1980s also saw unrest within Zimbabwe. Insurrection threatened in Matabeleland in the southwest, as Ndebele dissidents who questioned the validity of the 1980 elections began to stockpile arms. The government severely repressed the Ndebele opposition, and Nkomo and other members of the Ndebele-supported ZAPU were expelled from the government. In 1985 legislative elections, ZANU won again by a landslide everywhere but in Matabeleland. However, corruption scandals rocked Mugabe’s government, and several splinter parties broke away from ZANU-PF. In an effort to consolidate his power, in 1987 Mugabe had the constitution revised, replacing the office of prime minister with that of president, which combines the posts of head of state and head of government. In 1988 Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and Nkomo’s ZAPU agreed to merge under the name of ZANU-PF, and Zimbabwe’s ethnic and political tension eased greatly. Mugabe appointed Nkomo one of two joint vice presidents in 1990.

H

Recent Developments

In the early 1990s the transition to majority rule in South Africa coincided with peace negotiations in Mozambique, and Zimbabwe seemed poised to turn its lackluster economy around. In exchange for economic aid and assistance from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Zimbabwe agreed to a structural adjustment package designed to move the country from a state-controlled economy to a free-market economy. These measures led to further economic struggles for many Zimbabweans, and popular discontent for Mugabe grew. Mugabe was reelected as president in 1996, running unopposed after the withdrawal of two opposition candidates who protested against allegedly unfair electoral regulations.

In 1997 Mugabe announced a controversial program of land redistribution. Hundreds of white-owned commercial farms, making up nearly half of Zimbabwe’s total commercial farmland, were designated to be seized without compensation and divided among landless blacks and blacks with only small landholdings. Faced with strong protests by white farmers and the international economic community, the Zimbabwean government retreated from this position. In what was widely seen as a significant challenge to Mugabe’s authority, Zimbabwean voters in February 2000 rejected a constitutional referendum that would have expanded Mugabe’s powers and allowed the government to seize white-owned farms without compensation. Soon after the referendum, however, government-backed militias began violently occupying white-owned farms. Most of Zimbabwe’s white farmers fled the country, and soon few white-owned farms remained. Opposition groups accused the government of distributing seized farmland only to supporters of the ruling party. The seizures and resulting chaos destroyed the country’s commercial agricultural sector, forcing many Zimbabweans to survive on food donated from other countries.

Mugabe was reelected president in March 2002. Allegations of voter intimidation and other irregularities led some international observers to declare the presidential election flawed. ZANU-PF similarly dominated 2005 legislative elections. In May 2005 Zimbabwean police forces abruptly began demolishing what the government termed “illegal structures” in urban areas around the country. The bulldozing of shantytowns left hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans without homes.

In the aftermath of the farmland seizures, the economy of Zimbabwe suffered a complete meltdown. The collapse of the agricultural sector deprived the country of its main source of revenue, and the country became mired in massive deficits. The rate of inflation soared beyond control several years in succession, and in January 2008 officially reached 100,000 percent annually. About 80 percent of the people lived in poverty, and shortages of food and fuel were widespread. The economic collapse led to growing discontent with Mugabe and his ZANU-PF. Also, divisions within the ruling party became evident when a former finance minister, Simba Makoni, presented himself as a candidate in the 2008 presidential election. He ran against Mugabe and the main opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, of the Movement for Democratic Change (known as MDC-T).

Presidential and parliamentary elections were held concurrently in March 2008. ZANU-PF lost its majority for the first time since majority rule was achieved in 1980, winning 97 seats in the 210-seat House of Assembly. The MDC won 99 seats, and a breakaway MDC faction known as MDC-M won 10 seats; the remainder went to independents. The results for the Senate were evenly divided, with ZANU-PF and the combined opposition each taking 30 seats. In the presidential election Tsvangirai won 47.9 percent of the vote and Mugabe 43.2 percent, necessitating a runoff since neither candidate had an absolute majority.

In June, as the runoff election approached, Tsvangirai withdrew from the contest and called for a boycott, citing a campaign of violence and intimidation against his party and its supporters. The MDC-T charged that 86 people were killed, 10,000 injured, and more than 200,000 displaced as their homes were destroyed in what it described as a concerted campaign of state-sponsored violence against the party. Government election officials refused to remove Tsvangirai’s name from the ballot, and in the runoff on June 27, the official election results gave Mugabe 85 percent of the vote. International election observers and election monitors from the African Union cited widespread voter intimidation, raising the question of whether the African Union would recognize the election results as legitimate.

In early July a summit meeting of the African Union called for a national unity government. Under the terms of the resolution, Mugabe was required to relinquish some of the absolute power he had held in Zimbabwe since the country achieved majority rule in 1980. Mugabe also faced criticism from former allies, including South Africa’s Nelson Mandela.

After several months of continued negotiations, mediated by South African president Thebo Mbeki, Mugabe and opposition leaders announced a preliminary power-sharing agreement in September 2008. Under the agreement, Mugabe was to remain as president, responsible for foreign policy and with the power to declare martial law, while Tsvangirai became prime minister with executive authority as head of the government and oversight of the cabinet. A third opposition figure, Arthur Mutambara of the MDC-M, was named a deputy prime minister.

Final agreement on a power-sharing pact was reached in January 2009, and in February, Tsvangirai took office as prime minister, while Mugabe remained as president. Under this pact, authority over certain ministries, such as the ministry that controls the police, was to be shared. Tsvangirai took office at a time when Zimbabwe’s economy was devastated, with continuing hyperinflation and an unemployment rate of 90 percent. In addition a cholera epidemic had claimed the lives of more than 3,400 people, and more than half the population was dependent on emergency food aid.

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