Blackwell Reference Online

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Zimbabwe, formerly Southern Rhodesia, became independent in 1980 after a decades-long war of liberation that killed over 30,000 (and possibly twice that figure). Marxist guerilla groups fought against the European settlers of Southern Rhodesia to end white oligarchy and establish multiracial democracy. Tragically, the guerillas also fought against each other, and this bloodshed continued after independence. Instead of embracing democracy, the leaders of ZANU-PF, victorious in Zimbabwe's first elections, terrorized those supposedly affiliated with the defeated political party, ZAPU. It was largely comprised of the Ndebele ethnic minority, so the partisan conflict had an ethnic dimension. To this day, the ruling party continues to intimidate the opposition to forestall true multiparty democracy in Zimbabwe. The Shona are the largest ethnic group in Zimbabwe, with slightly more than 80 percent of the population, and the Ndebele, at slightly less than 15 percent, are the largest minority. The Ndebele (or “Matabele”) were descendants of but had broken off from the South African Zulu. The expansion of Zulu and South African Boers’ territories forced the Ndebele to move northward in the nineteenth century, subjugating the Shona people already there. In 1890, a “Pioneer Column” of several hundred whites, financed by diamond prospector Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company ... log in or subscribe to read full text