Matabeleland - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Modern day Matabeleland is a region in Zimbabwe divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North

Matabeleland North

Matabeleland North is a province in western Zimbabwe. It borders the provinces of Midlands and Mashonaland West to the east and northeast respectively, and the province of Matabeleland South and the city of Bulawayo to the south. Its northern border is defined by the Zambezi river, while its...

, Bulawayo

Bulawayo

Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...

and Matabeleland South

Matabeleland South

Matabeleland South is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 54,172 km² and a population of approximately 650,000 . Gwanda is the capital of the province.-Geography:...

. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

, between the Limpopo

Limpopo River

The Limpopo River rises in central southern Africa, and flows generally eastwards to the Indian Ocean. It is around long, with a drainage basin in size. Its mean annual discharge is 170 m³/s at its mouth...

and Zambezi

Zambezi

The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is , slightly less than half that of the Nile...

rivers. The region is named after its inhabitants, the Ndebele people. The Ndebele people are an agglomeration of Zulus led by Mzilikazi, Sotho, Kalanga, Venda, Tonga and other tribes normally referred to as minorities by the government. Some of the ethnic groups considered under the Ndebele umbrella term prefer to be identified separately. The Zimbabwean statistics office asserts the Population as at (1992) 1,855,300. Area: 181,605 km². The languages spoken are Kalanga

Kalanga

Kalanga may refer to:* BaKalanga people* Kalanga language* Kalanga, Togo...

, Sotho

Sotho

Sotho may refer to:*The Sotho people , an African ethnic group principally resident in South Africa and Lesotho.*The Sotho language , a Bantu Language spoken in southern Africa, an official language of both South Africa and Lesotho.*The Northern Sotho language , a group of related Bantu dialects...

, Tonga

Tonga

Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...

, Venda

Venda

Venda was a bantustan in northern South Africa, now part of Limpopo province. It was founded as a homeland for the Venda people, speakers of the Venda language. It bordered modern Zimbabwe and South Africa, and is now part of Limpopo in South Africa....

, Ndebele and other dialects of the aforementioned. The major city is Bulawayo

Bulawayo

, other notable towns are Plumtree

Plumtree, Zimbabwe

Plumtree, Zimbabwe is a town in Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe, close to the border to Botswana. It is the local administrative centre. It sits at an altitude of 1280 metres on the watershed between the Limpopo river and the Nata river that drains into Okavango to the north. The annual rainfall is...

and Hwange

Hwange

Hwange is a town in western Zimbabwe, in the province of Matabeleland North. It is named after the chieftain of Zwange, who is now called Chief Hwange. The town was known as Wankie until 1982. According to the 1992 Population Census, the town had a population of 42,581...

. The land is particularly fertile but dry. This area has important gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

deposits. Industries include gold and other mineral mines, and engineering. There has been a decline in the industries in this region as water is in short supply. Promises by the government to draw water for the region through the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project

Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project

The Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project is an ambitious project being undertaken in the arid Matabeleland North province of Zimbabwe.The project seeks to end the perennial water shortages bedevelling Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo by bringing water from the mighty Zambezi river to the city.-The...

have not been carried out. The region is allegedly marginalised by the government.

The San People and various ironworking cultures

Stone Age evidence indicates that the San

Bushmen

The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...

people, now living mostly in the Kalahari Desert

Kalahari Desert

The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savannah in Southern Africa extending , covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. The Kalahari supports more animals and plants than a true desert...

, are the descendants of this region's original inhabitants, almost 100,000 years ago. There are also remnants of several iron working cultures dating back to AD 300. Little is known of the early ironworkers, but it is believed that they put pressure on the San and gradually took over the land.

Rozwi Empire

Around the 10th and 11th centuries the Bantu

Bantu languages

The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...

-speaking Kalanga arrived from the north and settled in southern Africa in the Mapungubwe ruins. Later they moved north and both the San and the early ironworkers were driven out. By the 15th century, the Kalanga had established a strong empire, known as Munhumutapa, with its capital at the ancient city of Zimbabwe. This empire was split by the end of the 15th century with southern part becoming the Rozwi Empire

Rozwi Empire

The Rozwi Empire or Lozwi Empire was established on the Zimbabwean Plateau by Changamire Dombo.-History:In 1693, Portuguese militia tried to take control of the gold trade in the interior of sub-saharan Africa by invading the Rozwi empire...

Ndebele Kingdom

In the late 1830s, some 20,000 Ndebele, descendants of the Zulus in South Africa and led by Mzilikazi

Mzilikazi

Mzilikazi , also sometimes called Mosilikatze, was a Southern African king who founded the Matabele kingdom , Matabeleland, in what became Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe. He was born the son of Matshobana near Mkuze, Zululand and died at Ingama, Matabeleland...

Khumalo, invaded the Kalanga Rozwi Empire. Many of the Kalanga people were incorporated and the rest were made satellite territories who paid tribute to the Ndebele Kingdom. He called his new nation Mthwakazi, a Zulu word which means something which became big at conception, in Zulu "into ethe ithwasa yabankulu" but the territory was called Matabeleland by Europeans. Mzilikazi organised this ethnically diverse nation into a militaristic system of regimental towns and established his capital at Bulawayo

Bulawayo

. He was a statesman of considerable stature, able to weld the many conquered tribes into a strong, centralised kingdom.
In 1852, the Boer

Boer

Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...

government in Transvaal

South African Republic

The South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...

made a treaty with Mzilikazi. However, gold was discovered in Mashonaland

Mashonaland

Mashonaland is a region in northern Zimbabwe. It is the home of the Shona people.Currently, Mashonaland is divided into three provinces, with a total population of about 3 million:* Mashonaland West* Mashonaland Central* Mashonaland East...

in 1867 and the European powers became increasingly interested in the region.
Mzilikazi died on 9 September 1868, near Bulawayo. His son, Lobengula

Lobengula

Lobengula Khumalo was the second and last king of the Ndebele people, usually pronounced Matabele in English. Both names, in the Sindebele language, mean "The men of the long shields", a reference to the Matabele warriors' use of the Zulu shield and spear.- Background :The Matabele were related to...

, succeeded him as king. In exchange for wealth and arms, Lobengula granted several concessions to the British, the most prominent of which is the 1888 Rudd concession giving Cecil Rhodes exclusive mineral rights in much of the lands east of his main territory. Gold was already known to exist, so with the Rudd concession, Rhodes was able to obtain a royal charter to form the British South Africa Company

British South Africa Company

The British South Africa Company was established by Cecil Rhodes through the amalgamation of the Central Search Association and the Exploring Company Ltd., receiving a royal charter in 1889...

in 1889.

British South Africa Company

In 1890, Rhodes sent a group of settlers, known as the Pioneer Column

Pioneer Column

The Pioneer Column was a force raised by Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company in 1890 and used in his efforts to annex the territory of Mashonaland, later part of Southern Rhodesia ....

, into Mashonaland where they founded Fort Salisbury (now Harare

Harare

Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...

). In 1891 an Order-in-Council declared Matabeleland and Mashonaland

Mashonaland

British protectorate

Protectorate

In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...

s. Rhodes had a vested interest in the continued expansion of white settlements in the region, so now with the cover of a legal mandate, he used a brutal attack by Ndebele against the Shona near Fort Victoria (now Masvingo

Masvingo

Masvingo is a town in south-eastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The town is close to Great Zimbabwe, the national monument from which the country takes its name.- History :...

) in 1893 as a pretext for attacking the kingdom of Lobengula. Also in 1893, a concession awarded to Sir John Swinburne was detached from Matabeleland to be administered by the British Resident Commissioner

Resident Commissioner

Resident Commissioner is the title of several, quite different types of Commissioner in overseas possession or protectorate of the British Crown or of the United States.-British English:...

of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, to which the territory was formally annexed in 1911 and it remains part of modern Botswana

Botswana

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...

, known as the Tati Concessions Land

Tati Concessions Land

The Tati Concessions Land was a concession created in the borderlands of the Matabele kingdom and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. The concession was originally made by the Matabele King to Sir John Swinburne...

First Matabele War

The first decisive battle was fought when on 1 November 1893 when a laager was attacked on open ground near the Bembesi River by Imbezu and Ingubu regiments. The laager consisted of 670 British soldiers, 400 of whom were mounted along with a small force of native allies, and fought off the Imbezu and Ingubu forces, which were considered by Sir John Willoughby to number 1,700 warriors in all. The laager had with it a small artillery of 5 Maxim gun

Maxim gun

The Maxim gun was the first self-powered machine gun, invented by the American-born British inventor Sir Hiram Maxim in 1884. It has been called "the weapon most associated with [British] imperial conquest".-Functionality:...

s, 2 seven-pounders, 1 Gardner gun, and 1 Hotchkiss. The Maxim guns took centre stage and decimated the native force.

Lobengula had 80,000 spearmen and 20,000 riflemen, against fewer than 700 soldiers of the British South Africa Police, but the Ndebele warriors were no match against the British Maxim guns. Leander Starr Jameson

Leander Starr Jameson

Sir Leander Starr Jameson, 1st Baronet, KCMG, CB, , also known as "Doctor Jim", "The Doctor" or "Lanner", was a British colonial statesman who was best known for his involvement in the Jameson Raid....

immediately sent his troops to Bulawayo to try to capture Lobengula, but the king escaped and left Bulawayo in ruins behind him. An attempt to bring the king and his forces to submit led to the disaster of the Shangani Patrol

Shangani Patrol

The Shangani Patrol was a group of white Rhodesian pioneer police officers killed in battle on the Shangani River in Matabeleland in 1893. The incident achieved a lasting, prominent place in Rhodesian colonial history.-Setting and Battle:...

when a Ndebele Impi defeated a British South Africa Company patrol led by Major Allan Wilson

Allan Wilson (army officer)

Allan Wilson , was born in Scotland. He is best known for his leadership of the Shangani Patrol which resulted in his death and made him a national hero in Rhodesia....

at the Shangani

Shangani

Shangani may refer to:*Shangani Patrol - also known as Wilson's Last Stand*Shangani River, Zimbabwe*Shangani Tribe in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa*Shangani, Stone Town, a ward of Zanzibar City in Stone Town...

river in December 1893. Except for Frederick Russell Burnham

Frederick Russell Burnham

Frederick Russell Burnham, DSO was an American scout and world traveling adventurer known for his service to the British Army in colonial Africa and for teaching woodcraft to Robert Baden-Powell, thus becoming one of the inspirations for the founding of the international Scouting Movement.Burnham...

and two other scouts sent for reinforcements, the detachment was surrounded and wiped out. This incident had a lasting influence on Matabeleland and the colonists who died in this battle are buried at Matobo Hills along with Jameson and Cecil Rhodes. In white Rhodesian history, Wilson's battle takes on the status of General Custer's stand at Little Big Horn in the USA. The Matabele fighters honoured the dead men with a salute to their bravery in battle and reportedly told the king, "They were men of men and their fathers were men before them." Under mysterious circumstances, Lobengula died in January 1894, and within a few short months the British South Africa Company controlled Matabeleland and white settlers continued to arrive.

Second Matabele War

In March 1896, the Ndebele revolted against the authority of the British South Africa Company in what is now celebrated in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

as the First Chimurenga

Chimurenga

Chimurenga is a Shona word for 'revolutionary struggle'. The word's modern interpretation has been extended to describe a struggle for human rights, political dignity and social justice, specifically used for the African insurrections against British colonial rule 1896–1897 and the guerrilla war...

, i.e., First War of Independence. Mlimo, the Matabele spiritual/religious leader, is credited with fomenting much of the anger that led to this confrontation. He convinced the Ndebele that the white settlers (almost 4,000 strong by then) were responsible for the drought, locust plagues and the cattle disease rinderpest

Rinderpest

Rinderpest was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic buffalo, and some other species of even-toed ungulates, including buffaloes, large antelopes and deer, giraffes, wildebeests and warthogs. After a global eradication campaign, the last confirmed case of rinderpest was diagnosed in 2001...

ravaging the country at the time.

Mlimo's call to battle was well-timed. Only a few months earlier, the British South Africa Company's Administrator General for Matabeleland, Leander Starr Jameson, had sent most of his troops and armaments to fight the Transvaal Republic in the ill-fated Jameson Raid

Jameson Raid

The Jameson Raid was a botched raid on Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic carried out by a British colonial statesman Leander Starr Jameson and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen over the New Year weekend of 1895–96...

. This left the country’s security in disarray. In June 1896, the Shona too joined the war, but they stayed mostly on the defensive. The British would immediately send troops to suppress the Ndebele and the Shona, only it would take months and cost many hundreds of lives before the territory would be once again be at peace. Shortly after learning of the assassination of Mlimo at the hands of the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham

Frederick Russell Burnham

, Cecil Rhodes showed great courage when he boldly walked unarmed into the Ndebele stronghold in Matobo Hills and persuaded the impi to lay down their arms, thus bringing the war to a close in October 1896. Matabeleland and Mashonaland would continue on only as provinces of the larger state of Rhodesia.

Birthplace of Scouting

It was in Matabeleland during the Second Matabele War

Second Matabele War

The Second Matabele War, also known as the Matabeleland Rebellion and in Zimbabwe as the First Chimurenga, was fought in 1896–97 between the British troops and the Ndebele people....

that Robert Baden-Powell

Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, Bt, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB , also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement....

, who later became the founder of the Scouting movement

Scouting

Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....

, and Frederick Russell Burnham

Frederick Russell Burnham

, the American born Chief of Scouts for the British Army, first met and began their life-long friendship. In mid-June 1896, while scouting in the Matobo Hills, Burnham began teaching Baden-Powell woodcraft

Woodcraft

Woodcraft is a recreational/educational program devised by Ernest Thompson Seton in 1902, for young people based on camping, outdoor skills and woodcrafts. Thompson Seton's Woodcraft ideas were incorporated into the early Scout movement, but also in many other organisations in many countries.In the...

and it was here that Burnham inspired and gave Baden-Powell the plan for the program and the code of honor of Scouting for Boys. Practiced by frontier

Frontier

A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...

smen of the American Old West

American Old West

The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...

and Indigenous peoples of the Americas

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

, woodcraft was generally unknown to the British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

. These skills eventually formed the basis of what is now called scoutcraft
Scoutcraft
Scoutcraft is a term used to cover a variety of woodcraft knowledge and skills required by people seeking to venture into wild country and sustain themselves independently. The term has been adopted by Scouting organizations to reflect skills and knowledge which are felt to be a core part of the...

, the fundamentals of Scouting

Scouting

. Baden-Powell recognised that wars in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

were changing markedly and the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

needed to adapt; so during their joint scouting missions, Baden-Powell and Burnham discussed the concept of a broad training programme in woodcraft for young men, rich in exploration

Exploration

Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...

, tracking

Tracking (hunting)

Tracking in hunting and ecology is the science and art of observing animal tracks and other signs, with the goal of gaining understanding of the landscape and the animal being tracked...

, fieldcraft

Fieldcraft

Fieldcraft is a term used especially in American, Canadian and British military circles to describe the basic military skills required to operate stealthily and the methods used to do so, which can differ during day or night and due to weather or terrain...

, and self-reliance. It was also during these scouting missions in the Matobo Hills that Baden-Powell first started to wear his signature campaign hat

Campaign hat

A campaign cover is a broad-brimmed felt or straw hat, with a high crown, pinched symmetrically at the four corners .It is associated with the New Zealand Army, the Royal Canadian...

like the one worn by Burnham. Later, Baden-Powell wrote a number of books on Scouting, and even started to train and make use of adolescent boys, most famously during the Siege of Mafeking

Siege of Mafeking

The Siege of Mafeking was the most famous British action in the Second Boer War. It took place at the town of Mafeking in South Africa over a period of 217 days, from October 1899 to May 1900, and turned Robert Baden-Powell, who went on to found the Scouting Movement, into a national hero...

, during the Second Boer War

Second Boer War

The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...

British Rule

British settlement of Rhodesia continued, and by October 1923, the territory of Southern Rhodesia was annexed to the crown. The Ndebele thereby became British subjects and the colony received its first basic constitution and first parliamentary election. Ten years later, the British South Africa Company ceded its mineral rights to the territory's government for £2 million, and a deep recession of the 1930s gave way to a post-war boom of British immigration.

After the onset of self-government, a major issue in Southern Rhodesia was the relationship between the white settlers and the Ndebele and Shona populations. One major consequence was that the white settlers were able to enact discriminatory legislation concerning land tenure. The Land Apportionment and Tenure Acts reserved 45% of the land area for exclusively white ownership. 25% was designated “Tribal Trust Land” which was available to be worked on a collective basis by the already settled farmers and where individual title was not offered.

In 1965, the white government of Rhodesia led by prime minister, Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Ian Douglas Smith GCLM ID was a politician active in the government of Southern Rhodesia, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe from 1948 to 1987, most notably serving as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 13 April 1964 to 1 June 1979...

declared its independence from Britain, only the second state to do so, the other being the USA under George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

in 1776. Initially, this state maintained its loyalty to Queen Elizabeth II as "Queen of Rhodesia" (a title to which she never consented) but by 1970 even that link was severed, and Rhodesia became a totally independent republic.

Sovereign Rhodesia

The white-ruled Rhodesian government struggled to obtain international recognition and faced serious economic difficulties as a result of international sanctions. Some states did support the white minority government of Rhodesia, most notably South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

and Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

. In 1972, the Zimbabwe African National Union began a lengthy armed campaign against Rhodesia’s white minority government in what became known as the "Bush War" by White Rhodesians and as the "Second Chimurenga" (or rebellion in Shona

Shona language

Shona is a Bantu language, native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify peoples who speak one of the Shona language dialects: Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore...

) by supporters of the rebels. The Matabele, backed by Moscow, set up a separate war front from neighbouring Zambia. The Rhodesian government settled a ceasefire in 1979. For a brief period, Rhodesia reverted to the status of British colony, but in early 1980, elections were held and the ZANU party, led by Mugabe, exercised their rule over the independent nation of Zimbabwe. Matabeleland and Mashonaland would continue on as provinces of this new nation.

Zimbabwe

Following independence in 1980, Zimbabwe initially made significant economic and social progress, but tensions between the Shona and the Ndebele began to surface once again. The government responded with a series of military campaigns against the civilians, with the North Korean-trained 5th brigade

Gukurahundi

The Gukurahundi refers to the suppression by Zimbabwe's 5th Brigade in the predominantly Ndebele regions of Zimbabwe most of whom were supporters of Joshua Nkomo. A few hundred disgruntled former ZIPRA combatants waged armed banditry against the civilians in Matabeleland, and destroyed government...

killing tens of thousands of civilians in Matabeleland. By early 1984, the army disrupted food supplied in Matabeleland and much of the Ndebele population suffered food shortages. Robert Mugabe

Robert Mugabe

Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...

and Joshua Nkomo

Joshua Nkomo

Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo was the leader and founder of the Zimbabwe African People's Union and a member of the Kalanga tribe...

, finally reconciled their political differences by late 1987.

In the early 1990s, a Land Acquisition Act was passed calling for the Mugabe government to purchase mostly white-owned commercial farming land for redistribution to native Africans. Matabeleland has rich central plains, watered by tributaries of the two rivers, the Zambezi and the Limpopo, allowing it to sustain cattle and consistently produce large amounts of cotton, and maize. But land grabbing, squatting, and repossessions of large white farms under Mugabe's program resulted in a 90% loss in productivity in large-scale farming, ever higher unemployment, and hyper-inflation. White residents fled the country and strikes further crippled production prompting ever more severe repression by the government. AIDS has also had a significant impact on this nation; more than 25% of the adult population is currently infected.

Matabeleland Freedom Party

People in Matabeleland generally describe the 1980s massacres as genocide

Genocide

Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...

and insist they plan to have the perpetrators placed on trial at the International Criminal Court

International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...

at The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

.

In 2006, a separatist organization, the Matabeleland Freedom Party or MFP was founded by exiles living in Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

in neighbouring South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. The MFP seeks a referendum to regain Matabeleland independence that existed until 1894, under a constitutional monarchy.

The party has established chapters in Bulawayo

Bulawayo

, Lupane

Lupane

Lupane can refer to :*Lupane District in Zimbabwe*Lupane triterpenes...

and in other districts of Matabeleland. Their website can be found at www.matabelelandfreedomparty.org

External links

Beneath the Zanu PF, MDC feud - notes for Mbeki Newzimbabwe.com(George Mkhwananzi)
The History of the Ndebele people {Zimbabwe}

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

The San People and various ironworking cultures

Rozwi Empire

Ndebele Kingdom

British South Africa Company

First Matabele War

Second Matabele War

Birthplace of Scouting

British Rule

Sovereign Rhodesia

Zimbabwe

Matabeleland Freedom Party

See also

External links