Zimbabwe – from Great Zimbabwe to independence in 1980
The country takes its name from Great Zimbabwe, the monumental stone city built by the ancestors of today's Shona people. Between roughly the 11th and 15th centuries it was the centre of a powerful state that traded gold and ivory with the Indian Ocean coast. It was followed by other states such as the Mutapa and Rozvi kingdoms. In the 19th century the Ndebele, led by Mzilikazi, established a kingdom in the southwest, later ruled by Lobengula.
In 1890 Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company occupied the region, which became known as Rhodesia. The Ndebele and Shona rose against colonial rule in 1896–97, in what is remembered as the First Chimurenga, but were defeated. Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony in 1923, dominated by a white minority that controlled most of the fertile land, while the African majority was excluded from political power.
In 1965 the white minority government under Ian Smith declared independence unilaterally to avoid majority rule. A long liberation war followed, the Second Chimurenga, which cost many lives. After negotiations, Zimbabwe became independent on 18 April 1980, with Robert Mugabe as its leader. The 1980s saw the Gukurahundi, in which thousands of civilians were killed in Matabeleland and the Midlands. From 2000, a controversial land reform, economic collapse and hyperinflation caused great hardship and emigration. In 2017 Mugabe's long rule came to an end.
Today Zimbabwe is shaped by its rich heritage, its well-educated people, its music and landscapes such as the Victoria Falls.
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