Editing Republic of Zimbabwe

'''Zimbabwe''', officially the '''Republic of Zimbabwe''', is a landlocked country located in Southeast [[Africa]]. It is bordered by [[Republic of South Africa|South Africa]] to the south, [[Botswana]] to the south-west, [[Zambia]] to the north, and [[Mozambique]] to the east.  

The capital and largest city is [[Harare]]. Zimbabwe has been subjected to intense [[Economic sanctions|sanctions]] from [[Imperialism|imperialist]] powers, mainly in response to land reform policies that expropriated land from white [[Settler colonialism|settlers]].<ref name=":0">Covington, Arthur. [https://www.liberationnews.org/05-06-01-zimbabwes-people-reject-imperia-html/ “Zimbabwe’s People Reject Imperialist Intervention.”] Liberation News. June 2005. [https://web.archive.org/web/20221115033441/https://www.liberationnews.org/05-06-01-zimbabwes-people-reject-imperia-html/ Archived] 2022-11-15.</ref>  

The area that is now modern Zimbabwe was known during the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|British]] [[Colonialism|colonial]] period as [[Southern Rhodesia]], named for imperialist [[Bourgeoisie|businessman]] [[Cecil Rhodes]], who made his fortune in consolidating diamond mines. In 1965, the colony renamed itself [[Rhodesia]] and broke from the United Kingdom with the express purpose of maintaining white rule.<ref>''The New York Times''. [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/magazine/rhodesia-zimbabwe-white-supremacists.html “Rhodesia’s Dead — but White Supremacists Have given It New Life Online (Published 2018)”] [https://web.archive.org/web/20221110160109/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/10/magazine/rhodesia-zimbabwe-white-supremacists.html Archived] 2022-11-10.</ref>  

An article in [[Liberation News|''Liberation News'']] describes the western imperialist hostility toward Zimbabwe, saying: "hostility stems first and foremost from the fact that Zimbabwe's government has its origin in the armed struggle that ended the Western-backed [[Racism|racist]], [[Fascism|fascist]] settler regime. [[United States of America|U.S.]] and British opposition to the government reached a crescendo as the [[Robert Mugabe|Mugabe]] government moved to confiscate and redistribute the commercial agricultural land owned by white farmers. This land constituted 70 percent of the country’s prime farmlands."<ref name=":0" />

As explained on the Government of Zimbabwe's website, pre-colonial Zimbabwe was a multi-ethnic society inhabited by the Shangni/Tsonga in the south-eastern parts of the Zimbabwe plateau, the Venda in the south, the Tonga in the north, the Kalanga and Ndebele in the south-west, the Karanga in the southern parts of the plateau, the Zezuru and Korekore in the northern and central parts, and finally, the Manyika and Ndau in the east. The article notes that scholars have tended to lump these groups into two broad categories, the Ndebele and Shona, "largely because of their broadly similar languages, beliefs and institutions" and describes the term "Shona" as an anachronism that did not exist until the 19th century and which "conflates linguistic, cultural and political attributes of ethnically related people."<ref name=":2" />

 

==== Portuguese colonialism ====

==== Europe's "Scramble for Africa" ====

 

==== Rudd Concession ====

==== Settlers seize the land ====

==== Early colonial rule ====

South Africa History Online describes the process and methods in the following way:<blockquote>Land was taken away from Africans and heavy taxes imposed as a way of forcing them into wage labour. As small scale farmers the African people in Rhodesia were self sufficient and had no need for seeking wage labour in the white cities. Yet the settlers needed cheap labour to work in mines, farms and factories around the colony. By taking away land and imposing what is called a “[[Hut tax|hut-tax]]” local people were forced to get jobs in the colonial economy. There were also put into place laws which forced Shona and Ndebele people to sign long-term contracts which forced them to stay in labour compounds. The result of these laws were that black people become slave labour in the white economy.<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>The early period of the colonial regime was still focused largely on mining, though over time, the focus began to shift to agriculture as it became more apparent that the rumored massive gold reserves BSAC expected were not to be found. In this period, the settlers' mines and emerging towns obtained agricultural products primarily from indigenous peasant farmers, with settlers engaging in relatively minor agricultural activity themselves. As the settlers' agricultural sector gradually grew (as they were expelling the indigenous population to arid reserves, stealing their land, and otherwise restricting native people from land access), competition from African farmers still left white farming ventures in a precarious position. By 1908, a "white agriculture policy" was put forth by the colonial regime to boost the viability of white farmers who had previously been dependent on indigenous farmers:<blockquote>Until white agriculture became established, however, the expansion of peasant production was allowed, as the settler community depended on it. This was soon to change as white commercial agriculture developed as a result of a vigorous state policy and a concerted campaign to promote white agriculture which was based on a multi-pronged white agriculture policy. This began with the creation of an Estates Department in 1908 to promote European settlement and to handle all applications for land.<ref name=":7">Mlambo, Alois S. [https://archive.org/details/historyofzimbabw0000mlam "A History of Zimbabwe."] Cambridge University Press, 2014.</ref></blockquote>The government campaign to promote white agriculture included free agricultural training for white farmers; the establishment of a Land Bank to provide white farmers with loans for the purchase of farms, livestock, and equipment and for farm improvements such as irrigation and fencing; other inputs were offered at subsidized prices; and infrastructural projects were undertaken to improve the roads and irrigation near white settlements.<ref name=":7" />

While white settlers were being aided by these policies, indigenous Zimbabweans continued to have their land stolen and be expelled to arid reserves, and indigenous farmers thus came under increasing pressure. By the 1930s, Africans were not allowed to own land outside the reserves, and most reserves were severely over-crowded with few employment opportunities for landless Zimbabweans.<ref name=":4" /> Alois S. Mlambo notes that the reserves to which Africans were sent were not only poor agricultural land, but also far away from major transportation lines and market towns, further contributing to eliminating African competition in the market.<ref name=":7" /> As the Government of Zimbabwe's website summarizes, "White commercial production was promoted on the back of the destruction of African peasant production. This wanton undercutting of African peasant production marked the beginning of the underdevelopment of African reserves in Rhodesia and the forcible proletarianisation of the African."<ref name=":2" />

The article goes on to describe the various responses by indigenous Zimbabweans to the settler regime, which ranged from outright resistance, to acquiescence, to adopting and adapting Christian ideologies, and to the use of petitions for the return of Ndebele land alienated by the settlers. By 1923, there was the Southern Rhodesia Bantu Voters Association, which though "largely an elitist organisation" is noted for its "vibrant Women’s league". Also significant was "the formation of African churches that broke away from the orthodox Christian churches to ameliorate the impact of colonialism" and the [[Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union]] (ICU)<ref name=":2" /> which was active in several countries in Southern Africa.<ref>[https://thetricontinental.org/a-brief-history-of-south-africas-industrial-and-commercial-workers-union-1919-1931/ "A Brief History of South Africa’s Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (1919-1931)."] Dossier #20, The Tricontinental. September 3, 2019. ([https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/190902_Dossier-20_EN_Web_Final.pdf PDF]). [https://web.archive.org/web/20240421075811/https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/190902_Dossier-20_EN_Web_Final.pdf Archived] 2024-04-21.</ref> [[Clements Kadalie]], founder of the ICU, described how working and witnessing conditions in Southern Rhodesia had influenced him: "I had worked as a clerk in two leading mines in Southern Rhodesia, where I watched the evils of the recruiting system [...] it was the systematic torture of the African people in Southern Rhodesia that kindled the spirit of revolt in me."<ref>Kadalie, Clements. [https://archive.org/details/mylifeicuautobio0000kada/ "My life and the ICU: The Autobiography of a Black Trade Unionist in South Africa."] Frank Cass & Co., Ltd., 1970.</ref>