Zimbabwe(zɪmˈbɑːbwɪ, -weɪ) is a southern African country bordered by Zambia to the north, Mozambique to the east, South Africa, The population is 11,651,858, with a life expectancy of 47.55 years. Shona ethnics are 82% of the population, Ndebele 14%, other African ethnics comprise 2%, mixed and Asian 1%, whites comprise less than 1%. The religious affiliation is 50%, who hold traditional and Christian beliefs, 25% Christian ,24% traditional beliefs, and 1% Muslim and other beliefs.
HistoryCecil Rhodes aimed to exploit the mineral wealth of Zimbabwe. In 1888, Ndebele King Lobengula was tricked into signing an agreement by translator, Rev. Helm to the Rhodes British South Africa Company. The agreement gave BSA full authority to exploit all mineral rights. Between 1896-1897, all of Zimbabwe came under BSA control. BSA confiscated all Ndebele cattle and divided Zimbabwe into white-owned farms. Land was a major reason for the 1970 resistance movement. White settlers owned most of the fertile land in Zimbabwe. ZANU and the Mugabe regime took the word of the British government that funds would be allocated for redistribution of land to dispossesed Africans. The Mugabe government never pushed the land issue during the 80's, but during the 90s, with mounting unemployment in urban areas, the Mugabe regime pursued land redistribution. White owned farms were occupied and taken over. This caused foreign exchange to plummet and agricultural production to come to a stand-still.
EconomicsIndex
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
© 2010 Afropedia.org