Zimbabwe 

The landlocked country is located with South Africa to the South, Botswana to the West, Zambia to the north and Mozambique to the east. A country with 16 official languages was once occupied by the oldest culture on Earth today. The San were notorious for moving from one place to another and this nomadic influence can be noticed throughout Zimbabwe's history as various tribes, cultures and even European domains ruled the country. As the San migrated towards Botswana the new integrated languages of the Bantu and Zhizo moved in. 

 

The Zhizo were considered connoisseurs of the African trade as they would trade along the Swahili coast connecting to trade all the way to Iran and India, trading elephant ivory in exchange for premier glass beads which they would ultimately trade for grain in more fertile rich areas in Africa. Some believe that the success in Zhizo trading was the first origin of hereditary kings (in Africa) as the families bound by trade started to form internal power structures based on the accumulation of trading goods. The Zhizo held power for hundreds of years up until 1000CE when the Kalanga (Western Shona) people migrated to the area. The infusion of these two tribes was the force for the creation of The Kingdom of Mapungubwe. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe is archaeological stupefaction of stone walls that still stand today. 

 

With the fall of Mapungubwe came Great Zimbabwe.  The name “Zimbabwe” is derived from either one of the two Shona terms: dzimba dza mabwe (great stone houses) or dzimba woye (esteemed houses). Great Zimbabwe was the largest city that housed an estimated 18 000 people but as the Nomadic culture was nevertheless still ripe as was the frequent shift of successors.

 

The Mutapa Kingdom 

The Mutapa Kingdom was established in 1430 and was ruled by prince Nyatsimba Mutota. The essence of his rule was the expansion of his army. This army would gather the poorest of men, men who had no cattle or land and promise them compensation in the form of a bride and cattle. The true successor after Nyatsimba Mutota was Monomutapa Matope Nyanhehwe Nebedza who extended the city into an empire by taking control of the lands from North Central Mozambique up to the Indian Ocean making his empire rich in exploits of ivory and copper. When the Portuguese arrived on the Mozambique coastline in the 1530s extensive warfare began up until 1674. While the Mutapa state was weakened a new and powerful kingdom of Rozvi was emerging from the South-Western part of the Zimbabwean plateau. 

The Rozvi Kingdom 

The succession of the Rozvi kingdom was organised that the eldest brother next to the king will be the next Mambo and with this structure came a lot of internal stability. The Rozvi Kingdom was founded on a large and well-organised standing army. The Rozvi army had options to various weapons,  fought in formations of Shaka Zulu and favoured close combat. The Rozvi Kingdom ruled successfully up until the early 1800s when the civil war started to deplete the power of the dynasty by threatening the legitimacy of the king. The majority of the people of the Rozvi Kingdom migrated into the rest of Africa but the Ndebele people who arrived in 1838-39 settled in conflict with Rozvi for almost 20 years. The conflict between Rozvi and Ndebele was militaristic and monetary. The Rozvi needed cattle and the Ndebele needed people. Many young people worked on the Ndebele land in exchange for cattle, this aided in the spread of news of the Ndebele influence. The war began in 1854 and ended in a Ndebele victory in 1857. 

The Ndebele Kingdom 

The Ndebele people migrated from the rule of Shaka in KwaZulu-Natal to Zimbabwe in 1838. The core of the success of the Ndebele Kingdom was based on the richness of cattle that the kingdom owned. This gave the Ndebele Kings power of the distribution of cattle and materials in exchange for services. The land was not owned by anyone but was only given to the people on the importance of who needed it. In the late 1800s, colonial regimes began to take over the African continent and by the 1880s The British began their incursions which lead to an attack on Ndebele. The British advanced through the land by burning, plundering, raiding and looting as they proceeded with the ambition to conquer the capital of Ndebele called Bulawayo to kill King Lobengula. As King Lobengula escaped North the British followed barring a year later in 1894 the king died of an illness - crushing much of the Ndebele resistance. By 1895 the country of Zimbabwe was a British colony and the colony was named Rhodesia after Cecil Rhodes, who was the driving hand for Zimbabwe's take over. 

 

Rhodesia 

Rhodesia came with ​​a complex cast system of racial segregation and hierarchy that was used to control the local people. During this time land was stolen from the people and an introduction of heavy taxes was implemented as a way to force the people into wage labour “hut-tax”. As the people are Rhodesia were forced into labour, they were  forced to sign contracts that were indebted into the labour compounds - This led to black slavery in a white economy. 

 

In the late 1950s came a wave of liberation throughout Africa, starting with Ghana in 1957 to Zambia and Malawi in 1964. With the increase in colonial resistance in Rhodesia, new political parties fighting for liberation were becoming increasingly more organised. In 9161 the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) held power but was then separated into Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) due to the ethnic tensions between Shona and Ndebele members of ZAPU. It was only until 1964 when Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) and the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army's (ZANLA) joined forces in what is known as the Rhodesian Bush War. 

 

The Bush war began on the 4th of July 1664. By the mid-1970s, as Mozambique gained its independence from Portugal and South Africa was withdrawing most of its military aid. In Mozambique, the Rhodesian government fueled a civil war by supporting the Mozambican rebel group called Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) which lead to over a thousand Zimbabwean refugees in Mozambique being killed by Rhodesian forces. In 1979 negotiations were met under the “Lancaster House Agreement” and Zimbabwe finally gained independence on the 18th of April 1980