History

There have been many civilizations in Zimbabwe which you can tell by the ancient stone structures at Khami, Great Zimbabwe and Dhlo-Dhlo. The Mwene Mutapa (or monomatapas) were the first major civilization to become established. By the mid 1440’s, King Mutota’s empire included most of the Rhodesian plateau and most parts of what is now Mozambique. The wealth of this empire was based on small-scale industries, for example iron smelting, textiles, gold and copper, along with agriculture. The people who lived in the empire’s trading towns were Arab and Swahili merchants with whom regular trade was conducted.

In the early 16^th century the Portuguese arrived and destroyed this trade and began a series of wars which left the empire so weakened that it entered the 17^th century in serious decline. Several Shona states came together to form the Rozwi empire which covered more than half of present day Zimbabwe. By the 1690’s the Portuguese had been forced off the plateau and much of the land. Peace and prosperity reigned over the next two centuries and Dhlo-Dhlo, Khami, and Great Zimbabwe reached their peaks. As a result of the mid-19^th century turmoil in Transvaal and Natal, the Rozwi Empire came to an end.

A treaty was signed with the British South Africa Company in 1888 allowing them to mine gold in the kingdom, now under Ndebele rule. The increase of settlers as a result of this treaty led to war with the Ndebele in 1893. The Ndebele were defeated and European immigration began.

There was a major conflict between black and whites after the referendum of 1922 in which the Whites choose to become a self-governing colony rather than to become part of the Union of South Africa. This effectively excluded most blacks from the vote, even though the colony’s constitution was non-racial. There was a land act passed in 1930 which excluded Africans from ownership of the best farming land. In 1934 the labour law was passed which prohibited the Africans from entering skilled trade and professions. As a consequence of these actions, African’s were forced to work for low wages on white farms, mines and factories, under poor conditions.

By 1953, the mining and industrial jobs were in favor of a more racially mixed middle class. Also, a federation of Southern Rhodesia, northern Rhodesian (now Zambia) and Nyasaland (now Malawi) was formed. The Federations prime minister was thrown out along with his successor for being corrupt.

Due to African impatience the formation of a number of political parties developed along with periodic sabotage. At the forefront of this move was the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), mostly Ndebele. It was shortly joined by the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), mostly Shona. After the collapse of the federation in 1963, both ZAPU and ZANU were banned and the majority of their leaders imprisoned. At the same time, because Britain wouldn’t grant independence to Southern Rhodesia, Ian Smith the prime minister, called for a unilateral declaration of independence(UDI) which was passed in 1965. The British government tried to force Smith to revoke UDI and accept Black majority rule, but this didn’t happen. The Rhodesia’s economy began to grow.

The independence of Angola and Mozambique in 1975 altered the power balance within Rhodesia. This forced South Africa and the U.S. to rethink their attitudes to the area, they wanted to protect their economic and political interests. Attempts were made by both countries to pressurize Smith into accepting the nationalists. Ian Smith tried to make a deal with Sithole and Muzurewa whereby power would be handed over to them providing certain guarantees were given to whites: minimum of 28 seats in the 100 seat parliament ; a veto over legislation for 10 years; white control of the army, air force, police, judiciary and civil services. It failed and the war grew worse.

In the end, Smith called non-racial elections. In 1980 Mugabe’s ZANU party won the election even though the whites had most of the guarantees that Smith wanted. There was a bitter rivalry between ZAPU and ZANU and guerilla activity began again. Nkomo(ZAPU) left for England and did not return until Mugabe guaranteed his safety. Soon talks led to the uniting of the two rival parties.

In 1988 the law guaranteeing whites 20+ seats in parliament was ended. In 1990/1991 it was declared that half of the land belonging to white farmers would be given to blacks. This seems like a good solution, but it doesn’t really happen. The land problem is likely to remain on Zimbabwe’s political agenda for years to come.

In 2007, Tsvangirai is in the running for the general and presidential election against Mugabe for the 2008 elections. He was arrested on his way to a prayer meeting and severely beaten and tortured in jail. He got out of the hospital and continued his campaigning in a country with a horrible economy and inflation running at a level unheard of since Germany in the 1920’s. After the 2008 elections it is announced that Tsvangirai ‘s party has defeated Mugabe’s. And exit polls suggest that he has defeated Mugabe in the presidential election. Mugabe refuses to release the presidential results, saying that he will be contesting a second round. Tsvangirai, convinced that he has won, says that he will refuse to participate in an illegal second round.