Side by side

South Africa and Zimbabwe compared

Two sourced records set beside each other — the figures each nation publishes, and the events each chronicle records of the other. Compared, never graded.

🇿🇦South Africa

31 May 1910Four colonies join to create the Union of South Africa

Dossier →Chronicle →

🇿🇼Zimbabwe

18 April 1980Zimbabwe becomes independent of Britain

Dossier →Chronicle →

Shared indicators
42
Domains
9
Crossed events
2
Data through
2026-08-10

The figures, side by side

Each figure is the same observation, with the same source, as on the two dossiers. Every value shows the year it was observed — vintages differ by indicator and nation. A “—” is an absence in the source data, never a zero. Metric names link to the world ranking; values open the figure on its own dossier.

Entangled histories

2 events in which either nation’s sourced chronicle names the other — including under earlier names of the same state. Each is the same record, with the same sources, as on its own chronicle; nothing here was written for this page.

  1. 1888–1890

    Rudd Concession and the Pioneer Column

    Lobengula signed the 1888 Rudd Concession granting mining rights to Rhodes's agents; Rhodes won a royal charter in 1889 and in 1890 the British South Africa Company's Pioneer Column occupied Mashonaland, raising the flag at Fort Salisbury on 13 September.

    Colonisation · from the Zimbabwe chronicle · The Ndebele kingdom and British conquest · Zimbabwe: History, Lobengula, Pioneer Column

  2. 1893

    First Matabele War

    Company forces invaded and destroyed the Ndebele kingdom; Lobengula fled and soon died, and the British South Africa Company annexed Matabeleland.

    War & Rupture · from the Zimbabwe chronicle · The Ndebele kingdom and British conquest · Lobengula, Zimbabwe: History