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Zimbabwe
A guerrilla war of more than a decade, the Second Chimurenga, forced Ian Smith's settler regime to the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement.
- Independence
- April 18, 1980
- Before
- Southern Rhodesia
- Metropole
- United Kingdom
- Leader
- Robert Mugabe
- Transition
- Armed Insurgency
- Movement
- ZANU (ZANLA) and ZAPU (ZIPRA), allied from 1976 as the Patriotic Front
“If yesterday I fought you as an enemy, today you have become a friend and ally with the same national interest, loyalty, rights and duties as myself.”
— Robert Mugabe, April 17, 1980
Company Rule and the First Chimurenga
Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company occupied Mashonaland in 1890 and conquered the Ndebele kingdom in 1893. The Ndebele and Shona risings of 1896–97, the First Chimurenga, in which spirit mediums such as Mbuya Nehanda played leading roles, were crushed. From 1923 Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British colony, and the Land Apportionment Act of 1930 reserved the best land for whites.
UDI and the Second Chimurenga
African nationalism grew through the ANC, NDP and, from 1961–63, ZAPU and ZANU, both soon banned. To block majority rule, Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front declared independence unilaterally on 11 November 1965, which Britain and the UN refused to recognise. The guerrilla war, dated by ZANU to the Chinhoyi clash of April 1966, escalated after 1972, with ZANLA operating from Mozambique and ZIPRA from Zambia.
Lancaster House and Majority Rule
Sanctions, the war and pressure from South Africa and the Frontline States pushed Smith to an 'internal settlement' in 1978, which failed to end the fighting. The Lancaster House Agreement of 21 December 1979 restored British authority briefly and set up elections. ZANU-PF won 57 of 80 common-roll seats in February 1980, and Zimbabwe became independent on 18 April 1980, with Robert Mugabe as prime minister.
Chronology
- 1890 — British South Africa Company's Pioneer Column occupies Mashonaland
- 1896–1897 — First Chimurenga
- November 11, 1965 — Unilateral Declaration of Independence
- April 28, 1966 — Chinhoyi battle, commemorated as the start of the Second Chimurenga
- December 21, 1979 — Lancaster House Agreement signed
- February 1980 — ZANU-PF wins the independence election
- April 18, 1980 — Independence
Aftermath
Mugabe's initial policy of reconciliation was followed by the Gukurahundi killings in Matabeleland and the Midlands (1983–87), in which civilian deaths are most often estimated at around 20,000, though the true toll remains disputed. Unresolved land inequality led to the fast-track land reform programme from 2000. Mugabe ruled until he was forced out in November 2017.
Legacy
The guerrilla war ended white minority rule, but the Lancaster House settlement left land ownership largely untouched for a decade. The land question, political violence and economic collapse in the 2000s have dominated Zimbabwe's post-independence history.