Zimbabwe
Geography
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in south central Africa, sharing a border with the Republic of South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. The capital of Zimbabwe is Harare. Lying north of the Tropic of Capricorn, Zimbabwe is renowned for its diverse landscapes and is home to notable geographical and cultural landmarks including one of the world’s largest waterfalls, Victoria Falls and the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Great Zimbabwe.
Economy
Zimbabwe is an emerging economy in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) regions. The main sectors of the economy are agriculture, mining and tourism. The country’s principal export commodities include tobacco, sugar, cotton, textiles and coffee. The main imports are iron and steel plates and sheets, telecommunications equipment, construction and industrial machinery and vehicle kits.
Population
With a population of over 16 million (as of 2026), Zimbabwe has a rich cultural heritage with over a dozen ethnic groups, primarily the Shona who inhabit the north and east, and Ndebele who mainly reside in the south-west of the country. Other minority groups include the Batonga, the Venda and Kalanga who live along the south-western borders. More than two thirds of Zimbabweans speak Shona as their first language and one out of six Zimbabweans speak Ndebele, both of which are Bantu languages. In addition to Shona and Ndebele, the country gives official status to fourteen other languages which are: Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Khoisan, Nambya, Ndau, Shangaan (Shangani), sign language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, and Xhosa.
Studies of archaeological sites in Zimbabwe such as Bambandyanalo have traced the earliest human settlements to between 100,000 and 500,000 years ago. It is believed the first inhabitants of the country were San people. Between the 5th and 10th centuries, Bantu speaking groups began to settle in Zimbabwe, establishing farms and villages along the central rivers of the country.
Colonisation and Independence
European colonial powers began their efforts to conquer Zimbabwe as early as the 1600s when Portugal made several attempts to invade and control resources inland. In 1889, the country became a British Colony after Cecil John Rhodes’ British South Africa Company obtained a mandate to colonise Zimbabwe and rename it Southern Rhodesia. The Ndebele, who had established a kingdom in Zimbabwe in the 1830s, led uprisings against the British invasion in 1893 and 1896 which the British suppressed.
After World War I, pressure for self-governance in Southern Rhodesia was building. As a result a referendum of the electors among the 34,000 white Europeans in the country was held in 1922. A majority voted for self-government and the country became a self-governing colony on 12 September 1923, ruled by the white minority. The British government retained control of external affairs and legislation directly affecting Africans.
A definite milestone in the history of Zimbabwe under British colonial rule that continued to affect the socio-cultural and political systems of the country, even after independence, was the passing of the Land Appointment Act in 1930. The act made it illegal for Africans to purchase and own land outside the reserves. While white large scale commercial farmers, consisting of less than 1% of the population, were allocated 45% of agricultural land, Africans were forced into wage labour. Through land segregation and limiting of native opportunities, the Land Appointment Act created large economic and social inequality in Southern Rhodesia.
This climate led to growing political consciousness and opposition to colonial rule among the African population. In the 1960s, a number of nationalist groups were established to represent and give voice to socio-politically oppressed Africans including the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu), the latter of which was led by future Prime Minister of independent Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.
British colonial rule of Zimbabwe came to an end on 11 November 1965 when Prime Minister of white minority rule Ian Smith unilaterally declared independence from Britain and renamed the country Rhodesia. In 1969, a referendum was held regarding adoption of a constitution that would enshrine political power and authority in the hands of the white minority and establish Rhodesia as a republic. The country’s predominantly white electorate overwhelmingly voted favourably and Rhodesia declared itself a republic, governed by the white minority, on 2 March 1970.
Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, Rhodesia was in civil war. African nationalist and liberation groups including the Zapu, Zanu and United African National Council (led by Abel Muzorewa) protested against and organised raids and attacks on the Rhodesian government. An internal agreement was finally reached in 1978 between the white minority government and Black leaders which promised a negotiated settlement that would provide for both enfranchisement of Blacks and protection of white political and economic interests. After 15 years of political instability and intensified fighting, the country achieved majority rule in the elections of February 1980 and internationally recognised independence two months later on 18 April.
The priorities of the new government, headed by Zanu leader Robert Mugabe, was to breakdown the inequalities of race and class that had developed over 100 years of colonial and white minority rule. A major policy introduced was land reform to redress the systematic dispossession and alienation of the land from the Black indigenous people during the period of colonial rule. This led to policies that redistributed access to land and enabled large-scale settlement of Black families on former white farms.
References
“Zimbabwe country profile”, BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14113249 (Accessed: 13 February 2026).
“Zimbabwe”,EBSCO. Available at: https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/geography-and-cartography/zimbabwe (Accessed: 11 February 2026).
“Zimbabwe”, South African History Online. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/place/zimbabwe (Accessed: 13 February 2026).
“History of Zimbabwe”, Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Zimbabwe (Accessed: 11 February 2026).
“Country Facts – Zimbabwe”, United Nations. Available at: https://www.un.int/zimbabwe/zimbabwe/country-facts (Accessed: 13 February 2026).
