Zimbabwe: Land and people

Extracted from: Susan Booysen and Lucien Toulou 2009 "Chapter 15: Zimbabwe" IN Denis Kadima and Susan Booysen (eds) Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa 1989-2009: 20 Years of Multiparty Democracy, EISA, Johannesburg, 635-637.

Zimbabwe is one of Southern Africa's landlocked countries. It lies between the Zambezi and the Limpopo, and comprises an area of 390,757 km². The country shares borders in the north and north-west with Zambia, in the south-west with Botswana, in the east with Mozambique, and in the south with South Africa. Much of the land in Zimbabwe is elevated; 21% is located more than 1200 metres above sea level. Although tropical, the local climate varies considerably with altitude. Temperatures generally vary from 13ºC to 22ºC on the highveld and from 20ºC to 30ºC in the low-lying Zambezi river valley. The vegetation is primarily savannah, although forests are found in constricted areas along the eastern border and in the wetter highveld areas. The rainy season is from November to March (Kay 2007, 1286).

The population estimate was 13.1 million in 2005 (UNDP 2007/8), but these figures, like the other socio-economic indicators included in Table 1 below [see Fact File], do not take into account the impact of the precipitous collapse of the country's economy over the past few years. It is suggested that "Zimbabwe's economic crisis is so deep that it has set the country back more than half a century" and that "up to one-quarter of the population has fled the country" (Clemens & Todd. 2005, 1), with life expectancy plummeting and immigration surging from the political, economic and humanitarian crisis that has plagued the country since the early 2000s. Once of the Africa's strongest economies in the 1980s, the economy of Zimbabwe is currently collapsing, resulting in high unemployment, food shortfalls, fuel and foreign exchange shortages, endless re-evaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar, hyperinflation, etc. The suspension of international aid agencies and local NGO humanitarian fieldwork by the government on 4 June 2008 for allegedly using aid to campaign for the opposition has further worsened the country's humanitarian catastrophe.

Two main ethno-linguistic groups constitute the population: the Shona and the Ndebele. Several minor ethnic groups also exist. They include the Tonga, the Sena, the Hlengwe, the Venda, and the Sotho. The majority of Zimbabweans are Shona, a broad ethno-linguistic group that has settled in Zimbabwe over 1000 years ago. They are concentrated mainly in the north and east, with the Karanga, Zezuru and Manyika, Korekore, Rozwi and Ndau as subgroups. Karangas constitute a significant majority in the Masvingo Province and the eastern part of the Midlands Province. Zezurus are the majority in many parts of the three Mashonaland Provinces, namely Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East, and Mashonaland West. The Shona outnumber the Ndebele, who live mainly in the south and western regions, by four to one.

The Ndebele are related to the Zulus. They are concentrated mainly in Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, around Bulawayo and on the south-western border. They were originally pastoralists. The Ndebele immigrated to Matabeleland in the 1830s. Before the imposition of colonial rule, the Ndebele enjoyed predominance over the Shona. In British Southern Rhodesia, however, the colonial power oppressed and exploited both groups about equally; there was no attempt to use the minority group to help control the majority. With the coming of independence in 1980, the old pre-colonial relationship was reversed. The Ndebele lost their predominance to the ascendant Shona, who had largely been responsible for making Ian Smith's white-run Rhodesian Front regime give way (Sithole 1997,129).

Ethnicity became a major political divide among the black African majority in the early years of independence. The Ndebele Joshua Nkomo was worried about potential political marginalisation as, with independence, an overwhelming Shona vote would ensure that Zanu governed without Zapu, which had its base among the Ndebele. In that sense, part of Nkomo's post-independence political agenda was to fight for self-inclusion in the new power dispensation (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2008, 81-108), and the merger between Zanu and Zapu in the late 1980s was widely perceived as a move from confrontation to accommodation of all political, regional and ethnic identities for the sake of nation building (Sithole 1995, 121-60). The situation today is different. The Shona vote has fragmented, allowing elites from the Ndebele and other minorities to play central roles in both parties. For instance, the two largest cities, Harare (with a majority Shona population) and Bulawayo (majority Ndebele) vote overwhelmingly for the MDC. With the rural-urban divide being a key factor for political support between the ruling Zanu-PF and opposition throughout the 2000s it is likely that ethnicity is becoming less important in Zimbabwe's politics.

As for whites, the first white settlers moved into the area following the discovery of gold and the arrival of the British South Africa Company in 1890. There was a further influx of whites, primarily of British origin, upon the establishment of the British Colony in 1923. There were also Afrikaners from South Africa and some European minorities, including Portuguese from neighbouring Mozambique. With independence approaching in the late 1970s, many whites emigrated and the number has declined rapidly since then, dropping at independence and, mostly, in the early 2000s with the government-condoned invasions and takeovers of white-owned commercial farms.

Zimbabwe currently comprises ten provinces including the two metropolitan provinces Bulawayo and Harare. Bulawayo was formerly part of Matabeleland North Province and Harare once fell under Mashonaland East. Approximately 55% of the population are Christians. A large number of the African population follow traditional beliefs. The official languages are English, ChiShona, and SiNdebele (Kay 2007, 1286). About a third of the population now lives in urban areas and Aids is highly prevalent (about 20.1% adults 15-49).

References

CLEMENS, M & TODD, M 2005 "Cost and causes of Zimbabwe's crisis", CGD Notes, Centre for Global Development, July.

KAY, G 2007 "Zimbabwe: Physical and social geography" IN Frame, I (ed) Africa South of the Sahara 2008, Europa Regional Surveys of the World (37th edition), London & New York: Routledge.

NDLOVU-GATSHENI, S 2008 "Patriots, puppets, dissidents and the politics of inclusion and exclusion in contemporary Zimbabwe", Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review, 24(1), January.

SITHOLE, M 1995 "Ethnicity and democratization in Zimbabwe: From confrontation to accommodation" IN Glickman, H (ed) Ethnicity and Democratisation in Africa, Atlanta, African Studies Association Press.

SITHOLE, M. 1997 "Zimbabwe's eroding authoritarianism", Journal of Democracy 8(1).

UNDP 2007/8 "Zimbabwe", Human Development Report 2007/8, [www] http://hdrstats.undp.org/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_ZWE.html (offline 26 Mar 2010).

ZIMBABWE COALITION, SOLIDARITY PEACE TRUST & AMANDLA PUBLISHERS 2008 Zimbabwe: The Humanitarian Crisis Report, August, [www] http://www.kubatana.net/docs/hr/crisis_spt_amandla_humanitarian_crisis_080815.doc [MS Word document] (accessed 26 Mar 2010).