Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a nation of southern Africa. It has borders with South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. A dispute exists whether Zimbabwean territory touches that of Namibia at the extreme westernmost point of Zimbabwe. The country has an area of 150,873 square miles (390,759 sq km) and a population of 12.3 million (2007 est). The capital city is Harare.
The land now called Zimbabwe was colonised by the British South Africa Company (a chartered company given special privileges by the British Government, similar to the East India Company) of Cecil Rhodes in 1890; it came under direct rule of the United Kingdom government in 1923. In 1965 the government of the colony, then named Southern Rhodesia, made a 'Unilateral Declaration of Independence' to forestall British attempts to widen the franchise to include black Rhodesians. Escalating guerilla warfare during the 1970s carried out by forces loyal to Joshua Nkomo (ZAPU: Zimbabwe African People's Union) and Robert Mugabe (ZANU: Zimbabwe African National Union)led the government of Rhodesia (as it had been called from 1965) firstly to reach a settlement with the moderate Black nationalist leader Bishop Abel Muzorewa to form a multi-racial government, with the state renamed Zimbabwe Rhodesia; and then, in 1979, to hold free elections involving the guerilla groups. The surprise winner of the elections was Mugabe's ZANU-PF (ZANU Popular Front); and Mugabe has remained in power ever since, increasingly paranoid and tyrranical, rigging elections, using violence and other unconstitutional means to stifle all dissent against his rule and all protest against the country's increasingly desparate economic plight, which has been largely created by the policies he has imposed on it. It is one of the worst countries in the world to live in. In addition to being a totalitarian dictatorship, Zimbabwe is ravaged by AIDS and famine and has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world.
Further reading
- How Tyranny Came to Zimbabwe, Jimmy Carter still has a lot to answer for, by James Kirchick, The Weekly Standard, 06/18/2007, Volume 012, Issue 38.