Zimbabwe

The earliest known civilization in Zimbabwe was based on the exploitation of rich deposits of gold. Bantu invaders conquered the area perhaps as early as AD 800 and began the Great Zimbabwe complex, now in ruins, near Masvingo. The newcomers may have been the Karanga, who are believed to be the ancestors of the modern Shona. By about 1100 they had developed important trade in gold and ivory with ports in present-day Mozambique. Around the beginning of the 14th century a large centralized state, later known as the Mwene Mutapa Empire, developed. After a rapid territorial expansion in the 15th century, this polity split, and a southern kingdom of Changamire was established. The Portuguese, who gained a toehold on the Mozambique coast shortly after 1500, sent missionaries to Mwene Mutapa, and by 1629 they had reduced the once powerful empire to a vassal state. Changamire conquered most of the Mutapa Empire at the end of the 17th century. During the mfecane, the great migrations of the 1830s, the Ngoni, on their march north, destroyed Changamire, and the Ndebele soon after settled in the western part of the country. In 1888 King Lobengula of the Ndebele granted mining rights to the British colonialist Cecil Rhodes, and the following year Rhodes obtained a charter for his British South Africa Company. Subsequent white settlement and encroachment on native lands under company auspices brought warfare with both the Ndebele and the Shona that continued until 1897. Self-Government Before World War I (1914-1918) the white settlers had begun to demand self-government. These demands were renewed after the war, and in 1923 the British proclaimed Southern Rhodesia, as the country had become known, a self-governing British colony. From 1953 to 1963 it was a member of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, along with Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia) and Nyasaland (present-day Malawi). African nationalists, led notably by Joshua Nkomo, opposed the federation, but their movements were banned by the white government. When the federation was dissolved in 1963, the white settlers pressed for independence, which the British government refused to grant without safeguards for ultimate African control. In 1964 Northern Rhodesia gained its independence as Zambia, and Nyasaland, as Malawi. Southern Rhodesia changed its name to Rhodesia. After two years of abortive negotiations, the white government, led by Ian D. Smith, declared independence on November 11, 1965. Great Britain immediately imposed economic sanctions, and the United Nations (UN) later imposed a total embargo on trade with the country. In 1970 Rhodesia declared itself a republic. It was never recognized by Britain, however, or by any other nation, and negotiations with the British government continued. One settlement proposal, drawn up in November 1971, was abandoned the following May when a British commission found it "not acceptable to the people of Rhodesia as a whole." In the mid-1970s the dissolution of Portugal's empire in Africa left Rhodesia in an increasingly isolated position. Pressured by South Africa to take a more conciliatory stance, Smith then initiated talks with black leaders. Nkomo and other nationalists were released from detention in 1974, but negotiations during the next two years brought no accord. Guerrilla activities intensified. In late 1976 Nkomo, head of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), and Robert Mugabe, leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), formed the Patriotic Front (PF), Both leaders lived in exile at the time. In 1977 and 1978 the PF began a guerrilla campaign to overthrow the Smith regime. Independence  Foreseeing his defeat, Prime Minister Smith in March 1978 signed an accord with three relatively moderate black leaders, headed by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, calling for universal suffrage and the establishment of black-majority rule, with safeguards for whites. In the 1979 elections, Bishop Muzorewa's party won 51 of the 100 parliamentary seats; another 28 were reserved for whites. Muzorewa formed a coalition government with Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front and took office as prime minister of the new state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia (later shortened to Zimbabwe). Because his government was widely perceived as a black front for continued white rule, it failed to win popular support. A settlement was reached at a conference in London later in 1979, and Britain resumed control of the country. In the free elections of February 1980 Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) won a landslide victory. Independence for Zimbabwe came on April 17, 1980. Prime Minister Mugabe consolidated his power; in 1982 he dismissed Nkomo from his government. Mugabe's party won a landslide victory in 1985, the first general election since independence. In late 1987 the constitution was amended to replace the position of prime minister with that of executive president, which combines the posts of head of state and head of government. At that time ZANU-PF and Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) agreed to merge under the name of ZANU-PF. In 1990 Mugabe officially appointed Nkomo as a second vice president, in addition to Simon Muzenda, in the reshuffled cabinet. In the 1990 elections, Mugabe and his ZANU-PF Party won decisively. In 1992, after special constitutional provisions protecting white landowners expired, the Zimbabwean government passed an act to redistribute much of the white-owned government land to hundreds of thousands of black peasants. Although white farmers contested the act, in 1994 the High Court ruled that the redistribution and resettlement of property was constitutional. Later, the act came under severe criticism when a study revealed that almost all of the appropriated lands had not been redistributed but had been leased to government officials. In April 1995 Zimbabwe held general elections in which Mugabe's ZANU-PF won 63 out of 65 available seats in the House of Assembly. The opposition won one more seat, however, in a special election held in November 1995, after the April voting results for the seat were canceled due to evidence of voting fraud. Mugabe then won presidential elections in March 1996, but both opposition candidates, Bishop Muzorewa and Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole, withdrew at the last minute, arguing that the election process was unfairly weighted in favor of the ruling party. Muzorewa and Sithole urged their supporters to boycott the election. As a result, the election had the lowest voter turnout since 1980, with only 31 percent of voters participating.