Zimbabwe

From around the eleventh century, on the granite uplands of the south-eastern plateau, ancestors of the Shona-speaking peoples built Great Zimbabwe, a city whose dry-stone walls — laid without mortar — remain the largest ancient stone structures in sub-Saharan Africa. The Shona word for such places, dzimba dza mabwe, 'houses of stone', gave the modern nation its name. At its height in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the city and its surrounding settlement may have held on the order of ten thousand to perhaps eighteen thousand people, ruled by an elite who occupied the hilltop and valley enclosures.

Great Zimbabwe's wealth rested on cattle and, above all, on long-distance trade. Gold mined and panned across the plateau, together with ivory, was carried eastward to the Swahili-coast ports of Sofala and Kilwa and exchanged for goods from across the Indian Ocean. Archaeologists have recovered Chinese porcelain, Persian and Near Eastern glass beads, and a coin from Kilwa among the ruins, evidence of a community plugged into a trading world that stretched to Arabia, India and China. The Great Enclosure, with walls reaching some eleven metres in height, and the solid Conical Tower within it are the most celebrated of the surviving structures.

By the fifteenth century the city was being abandoned, for reasons still debated: a likely combination of soil exhaustion, the overgrazing and deforestation of an over-large population, declining local gold, and the northward shift of trade routes toward the Zambezi. The dispersal of its people did not end the civilisation but transferred its centre of gravity, as new Shona states rose to inherit Great Zimbabwe's role in the gold trade. The ruins, encountered by Europeans in the nineteenth century, were long misattributed by colonial writers to foreign builders before archaeology firmly established their African origin; the site was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1986.

Turning points

1. c. 11th centuryFormation

   Great Zimbabwe is built

   Ancestors of the Shona began raising the mortarless granite walls of Great Zimbabwe, which would become the largest stone city in sub-Saharan Africa and give the modern nation its name.

   [1] [3] [4]

2. 13th–14th centuryEconomy & Trade

   Apex of the gold trade

   At its height the city held perhaps 10,000–18,000 people and controlled a gold and ivory trade reaching the Swahili coast at Sofala and Kilwa; Chinese porcelain, Persian glass and a Kilwa coin have been excavated there.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [3] [4]

3. c. 15th centuryCatastrophe

   Decline and abandonment

   Great Zimbabwe was abandoned, probably owing to resource exhaustion and shifting trade routes, as the centre of power moved north toward the Zambezi and successor states.

   ↗See the data

   [3] [4] [5]

4. 1986Culture & Ideas

   Inscribed as a World Heritage Site

   UNESCO inscribed Great Zimbabwe National Monument as a World Heritage Site, recognising it as a unique testimony to the Bantu civilisation of the Shona between the 11th and 15th centuries.

   [1]

As Great Zimbabwe waned, its political tradition passed to successor states. To the north, toward the middle Zambezi, the Mutapa empire (Mwenemutapa, rendered by the Portuguese as Monomotapa) rose in the fifteenth century under rulers who carried the title Mwenemutapa, 'lord of the conquered lands'. Mutapa controlled much of the northern plateau and parts of present-day Mozambique and continued the export of gold and ivory toward the coast.

From about 1505 the Portuguese, established at Sofala and on the Zambezi, sought to control this trade and intervened increasingly in Mutapa's affairs, planting trading fairs (feiras) in the interior and at times installing client rulers. Their pressure weakened the empire over the following century. In the south-west, meanwhile, the Torwa state arose with its capital at Khami, near present-day Bulawayo, carrying forward the dry-stone building tradition in elaborately decorated walled terraces; Khami too is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the later seventeenth century a new Shona power, the Rozvi (Changamire) state, emerged under the warrior-ruler Changamire Dombo. The Rozvi absorbed the Torwa, drove the Portuguese trading fairs from the plateau around the 1690s, and dominated much of the region into the early nineteenth century. Their hegemony was shattered in the 1830s by the upheavals of the Mfecane, as armed migrant groups — including the Ndebele moving up from the south — swept across the plateau and ended Rozvi power.

Turning points

1. c. 15th centuryFormation

   Rise of the Mutapa empire

   The Mutapa (Mwenemutapa) empire emerged toward the Zambezi, inheriting Great Zimbabwe's gold trade and ruling much of the northern plateau and parts of present-day Mozambique.

   [5] [7] [6]

2. c. 1450–1680Formation

   The Torwa state and Khami

   In the south-west the Torwa state built its capital at Khami near present-day Bulawayo, continuing the stone-walling tradition in decorated terraces; Khami is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

   [6] [2]

3. from c. 1505Colonisation

   Portuguese intervention in the gold trade

   Portuguese traders based at Sofala and on the Zambezi pressed into the interior, establishing fairs and interfering in Mutapa politics, steadily weakening the empire over the next century.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [7]

4. c. 1680Politics & Power

   The Rozvi state under Changamire Dombo

   Changamire Dombo founded the Rozvi state, absorbing the Torwa and expelling Portuguese fairs from the plateau around the 1690s; Rozvi power dominated the region until the Mfecane in the 1830s.

   [8] [6] [5]

Figures of the era

Driven north during the Mfecane, the upheavals unleashed by the rise of the Zulu kingdom, the Ndebele (Matabele) under Mzilikazi settled in the south-western plateau around 1840, founding a centralised military kingdom centred on Bulawayo and overlaying the Shona societies of the region. On Mzilikazi's death in 1868 his son Lobengula became king after a contested succession, ruling a powerful state that nonetheless faced mounting European pressure for its land and rumoured gold.

In 1888 Lobengula was induced to sign the Rudd Concession, granting Cecil Rhodes's associates exclusive mining rights; Rhodes used it to obtain a royal charter for his British South Africa Company in 1889. In 1890 the Company despatched the Pioneer Column, a column of settlers and police, into Mashonaland, where on 13 September it raised the flag at the site of Fort Salisbury — the future Harare. The Ndebele kingdom was destroyed in the First Matabele War of 1893; Lobengula fled and died, and the Company seized Matabeleland.

In 1896–97 the Ndebele and then the Shona rose against Company rule in revolts later honoured as the First Chimurenga, in which spirit mediums such as Nehanda and Kaguvi played a leading part. The risings were crushed and their leaders executed, entrenching settler control. The territory, named Rhodesia after Rhodes, was governed by the Company until 1923, when its white settlers voted for self-government and it became the self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia, with land and political power reserved overwhelmingly for the white minority.

Turning points

1. c. 1838–1840Peoples & Migration

   The Ndebele settle the south-west

   Mzilikazi led the Ndebele north during the Mfecane and established a centralised military kingdom around Bulawayo, dominating the south-western plateau and its Shona inhabitants.

   ↗See the data

   [9] [10] [5]

2. 1888–1890Colonisation

   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.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [10] [11]

3. 1893War & Rupture

   First Matabele War

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

   ↗See the data

   [10] [5]

4. 1896–1897War & Rupture

   First Chimurenga risings

   The Ndebele and Shona rose against Company rule in revolts inspired in part by spirit mediums such as Nehanda and Kaguvi; the risings were crushed and their leaders executed.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [12]

5. 1 October 1923Politics & Power

   Southern Rhodesia becomes a self-governing colony

   After a settler referendum, Company rule ended and Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony, with land and political power reserved for the white minority.

   [5] [12]

Figures of the era

Under settler self-government, laws such as the 1930 Land Apportionment Act entrenched racial division, reserving the best land for whites and confining most Africans to smaller, poorer areas. From 1953 to 1963 Southern Rhodesia was joined with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, but African nationalism grew. In 1963 rival movements emerged — the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) under Joshua Nkomo, drawing strongly on Ndebele support, and the breakaway Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), associated with Shona leaders including Robert Mugabe.

Determined to preserve white rule, Prime Minister Ian Smith and his Rhodesian Front issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain on 11 November 1965. Britain refused to recognise it and, with the United Nations, imposed sanctions, but did not intervene by force. The illegal regime held out for a decade and a half. From the mid-1960s the nationalist movements launched a guerrilla war — the Second Chimurenga or Rhodesian Bush War — with ZANU's ZANLA operating largely from Mozambique and ZAPU's ZIPRA from Zambia.

By the late 1970s the war, sanctions and regional pressure made the position untenable. An internal settlement produced the short-lived 'Zimbabwe Rhodesia' under Bishop Abel Muzorewa in 1979, but it won no international recognition. Britain convened all parties at Lancaster House in London, and on 21 December 1979 the Lancaster House Agreement provided for a ceasefire, a new constitution and supervised elections. Mugabe's ZANU(PF) won the February 1980 poll, and at midnight on 18 April 1980 Zimbabwe became an independent, internationally recognised state.

Turning points

1. 1930Politics & Power

   Land Apportionment Act

   Settler legislation formalised racial division of land, reserving the most productive areas for the white minority and restricting African landholding, a grievance that fuelled later nationalism.

   [5] [12]

2. 1963Politics & Power

   Founding of ZANU and ZAPU

   African nationalism crystallised in two movements: ZAPU under Joshua Nkomo and the breakaway ZANU, soon led toward armed struggle by figures including Robert Mugabe.

   [5] [14] [16]

3. 11 November 1965Politics & Power

   Unilateral Declaration of Independence

   Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front declared independence from Britain to preserve white-minority rule; Britain and the UN refused recognition and imposed sanctions.

   [13] [5] [15]

4. c. 1966–1979War & Rupture

   The liberation war (Second Chimurenga)

   Guerrilla forces of ZANU (ZANLA) and ZAPU (ZIPRA), based in Mozambique and Zambia, waged an escalating war against the Rhodesian state through the 1970s.

   ↗See the data

   [16] [5] [14]

5. 21 December 1979Independence

   Lancaster House Agreement

   Talks in London produced an agreement providing for a ceasefire, a new constitution and British-supervised elections, ending the war and opening the path to majority rule.

   ↗See the data

   [17] [5]

Figures of the era

Robert Mugabe became prime minister at independence on 18 April 1980 and dominated Zimbabwean politics for the next thirty-seven years. The early hopes of reconciliation were soon shadowed by violence. Between 1983 and 1987, in a campaign known as Gukurahundi, the army's North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade carried out massacres in Matabeleland and the Midlands, targeting civilians and supporters of Nkomo's ZAPU. Estimates of the dead range widely, from around 3,000 to as many as 20,000 or more; the violence ended only with the Unity Accord of 22 December 1987, which merged ZAPU into ZANU(PF) and made Mugabe executive president.

After 2000 the government launched a 'fast-track' land reform, encouraging often-violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms by war veterans and others. Combined with mismanagement, drought and sanctions, the disruption helped collapse the economy. Inflation spiralled into one of the worst hyperinflations in recorded history, peaking around mid-November 2008, after which Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency in 2009 in favour of foreign currencies such as the US dollar. Disputed elections, the contested 2008 poll and a subsequent power-sharing government with the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai marked a period of deep political and economic crisis.

In November 2017 the army intervened after Mugabe dismissed his vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa; under military pressure and facing impeachment, Mugabe resigned on 21 November 2017, ending his rule, and Mnangagwa became president. Mugabe died in 2019. Zimbabwe has since continued to struggle with economic instability, contested elections and recurring currency crises, even as Great Zimbabwe and the country's other heritage sites remain enduring symbols of a deep and distinctively African past.

Turning points

1. 18 April 1980Independence

   Independence under Robert Mugabe

   Zimbabwe became an internationally recognised independent state, with Mugabe's ZANU(PF) in power after winning the February 1980 election.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [14]

2. 1983–1987War & Rupture

   The Gukurahundi massacres

   The army's Fifth Brigade carried out massacres in Matabeleland and the Midlands targeting ZAPU supporters and Ndebele civilians; estimates of the dead range from several thousand to over twenty thousand. The campaign ended with the 1987 Unity Accord.

   ↗See the data

   [18] [5]

3. from 2000Economy & Trade

   Fast-track land reform

   The government backed often-violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms; the disruption, with drought and sanctions, helped trigger a severe economic collapse.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [12]

4. 2008–2009Economy & Trade

   Hyperinflation and dollarisation

   Inflation reached among the highest rates ever recorded, peaking in late 2008; in 2009 Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency for foreign ones such as the US dollar.

   ↗See the data

   [19] [5]

5. 21 November 2017Politics & Power

   Mugabe forced from power

   After a military intervention and the threat of impeachment, Robert Mugabe resigned after thirty-seven years in power, and Emmerson Mnangagwa became president.

   [14] [5] [12]

Figures of the era