{zim-bahb'-wee} The independent nation of Zimbabwe, formerly the British Colony of Southern Rhodesia, is a landlocked country in southern Africa bordered by Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia. In 1965 the colony's white minority, which refused to accept British insistence on black majority rule as a requirement for independence, unilaterally declared Rhodesia independent. World opinion and a prolonged civil war forced Rhodesia's white-dominated government to accept a limited form of black majority rule in 1979, but guerilla attacks 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% 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 deg C (65 deg F) in October to 11 deg C (52 deg 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 deg C (86 deg F) in October and 20 deg C (68 deg 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 \TZambezi\t, 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 world supplies of copper, chromium, asbestos, platinum, and gold. PEOPLE Black Africans constitute about 96% of Zimbabwe's indigenous population; about 3% are white, and another 1% 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, 75% belong to the \TShona\t linguistic group and are commonly referred to as Mashona; about 20% are members of the ethnically related \TNdebele\t-speaking tribes known as Matabele. Smaller black ethnic groups include the \TSotho\t, Sena, and Tonga. Under the Land Apportionment Act of 1930, whites occupied 47% of the land, 47% was set aside in African reserves, and 6% was set aside as national or forest areas. Modified somewhat by the Land Tenure Act of 1970, racial allocation of land was abolished entirely in 1979, and after independence millions of hectares of land were purchased by the government from white owners and given to blacks. More than 80% of all whites are urban dwellers, whereas 85% of all blacks are rural dwellers and many live in overcrowded former tribal areas. \THarare\t (formerly Salisbury) and \TBulawayo\t, each with more than 400,000 inhabitants, are the largest cities. 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% of the total population belong to a wide range of Christian churches--principally Anglican, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and Dutch Reformed--and about 24% of all blacks follow traditional religious practices; about 51% practice a mixture of Christian and tribal beliefs, and a few are Muslims. Almost all whites are literate, but only 25% to 30% of black Africans can read. 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 emerged as one of Africa's most industrially advanced, diversified, and self-sufficent nations. Manufacturing provides about 27% 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% of national income. Asbestos, chromium, copper, gold, and tin 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 70% of the population, provides about 14% of the national income. Large white-owned farms still produce most of the nation's cash crops and agricultural exports. 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. Although the government has been trying to involve black farmers in the cultivation of commercial crops, traditional subsistence farming still predominates in the former black areas, with maize and millet the staple crops and cattle the rural black African's principal form of wealth. 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. Troops from Zimbabwe guard these lines against attacks by South Africa-backed rebels in Mozambique. A fourth line extending northeastward from Bulawayo is used to move copper and other exports from Zambia and Shaba province in Zaire. Tourism, once a major foreign exchange earner, has been greatly reduced. The major tourist attractions are the \TVictoria Falls\t, 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. The Senate could delay but not veto legislation, which originated in the House. Twenty of the House's 100 members were to be elected by white voters, and the remainder chosen by the electorate at large. A president, elected by Parliament for 6 years, appointed a prime minister who held effective executive power. The leading political parties at independence were the mostly Shona Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), headed by Robert \TMugabe\t, and the Ndebele-dominated Patriotic Front (formerly the Zimbabwe African People's Union), headed by Joshua \TNkomo\t. Former prime minister Ian \TSmith\t headed the Conservative Alliance (formerly the Rhodesian Front), the leading white party, until 1987. Mugabe became prime minister after ZANU-PF won 57 Assembly seats in the 1980 elections; his party increased its seats to 63 in the 1985 elections. Nkomo was initially included in Mugabe's cabinet but was dismissed in 1982 as tensions between their supporters increased; he rejoined the government in 1988, when ZAPU merged with ZANU-PF. In April 1990 elections, Mugabe's party claimed to have won 116 out of 120 seats in the parliament, but there were widepread reports of vote rigging and voter intimidation. Numerous steps designed to transform Zimbabwe into a one-party state have been taken. ZANU-PF adopted a new party constitution and created a 90-member Central Commission and a 15-member Politburo in 1984. In 1987 the reservation of 20 House and 10 Senate seats for whites was abolished. In 1988 the post of prime minister was abolished and Mugabe became executive president. The following year, legislation was adopted to permit constitutional amendments based on a two-thirds legislative majority, rather than the 100% required previously. The Senate was disbanded after March 1990 elections for a restructured unicameral parliament. 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 \TJameson\t, of Cecil \TRhodes\t's British South Africa Company, 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. A constitution preserving white control of the government was adopted. 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, including an embargo on petroleum shipments. Portuguese-ruled Mozambique and South Africa opposed the economic sanctions, and petroleum continued to enter Rhodesia until Mozambique 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 \TMuzorewa\t, 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. Conspicuously absent from the internal settlement were rebel leaders Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, who had allied their forces as the Patriotic Front, and guerrilla attacks on the government continued. In the fall of 1979 the heads of Zimbabwe's various factions reached agreement in London on a new constitution reducing the number of parliamentary seats reserved for whites; new elections were scheduled for early 1980. The Muzorewa government then repealed the 14-year-old unilateral declaration of independence, and on Dec. 12, 1979, Lord Soames arrived in Salisbury as governor-general to restore direct British rule to the colony. The British caretaker government stepped down on Apr. 17, 1980, when the colony gained legal independence as Zimbabwe. After independence, the new government faced many problems, including the need to resettle more than 1 million people displaced by the war. Prime Minister Mugabe tried to conciliate the white population, sought overseas aid, and worked to improve education, health care, and wages for the poor. Progress was threatened, however, by growing conflict between backers of Mugabe and Nkomo. In the 1985 legislative elections, Smith's Conservative Alliance won 15 of the 20 seats reserved for whites; Nkomo's ZAPU took 15 of the other 80 seats. White seats were abolished in 1987. Mugabe was named executive president in 1987. ZANU-PF and ZAPU merged in 1988, creating a de facto one-party state and easing tensions in Matabeleland. In the March 1990 elections, Mugabe captured 78% of the presidential vote and his party won 116 of the 120 seats in the restructured unicameral parliament. The nation celebrated the tenth anniversary of its independence in April; in July a 25-year-long state of emergency was allowed to lapse. Alan C. G. Best Bibliography: Blake, Robert, A History of Rhodesia (1978); Charlton, M., The Last Colony in Africa (1990); Gann, L. H., A History of Southern Rhodesia (1965; repr. 1969); Hancock, I., White Liberals, Moderates, and Radicals in Rhodesia, 1953-1980 (1984); Hills, Denis, Rebel People (1978); Martin, D., and Johnson, P., The Struggle for Zimbabwe (1981) Morris-Jones, W. H., ed., From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe (1980); Nelson, H. D., ed., Zimbabwe: a Country Study, 2d ed. (1983); Palmer, Robin, Land and Racial Domination in Rhodesia (1977); Peterson, Robert W., ed., Rhodesian Independence (1971); Rotberg, R. I., and Overholt, W. H., Zimbabwe's Economic Prospects (1980); Stoneman, C., and Cliffe, L., Zimbabwe (1988); Strack, Harry R., Sanctions: The Case of Rhodesia (1978); Vambe, Lawrence, From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe (1976); Verrier, Anthony, The Road to Zimbabwe, 1890-1980 (1986).