Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. The capital and largest city is Harare. The second largest city is Bulawayo. A country of roughly 14 million people, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, with English, Shona, and Ndebele the most common.
Masvingo is a province in southeastern Zimbabwe. It has a population of 1.485 million as of the 2012 census, ranking fifth out of Zimbabwe's ten provinces. Established as Victoria Province by the British South Africa Company, it was one of the five original provinces of Southern Rhodesia. In 1982, two years after Zimbabwean independence, it was renamed Masvingo Province. The province is divided into seven districts, including Masvingo District, which contains the provincial capital Masvingo City.
Matabeleland South is a province in southwestern Zimbabwe. With a population of 683,893 as of the 2012 census, it is the country's least populous province. After Matabeleland North, it is Zimbabwe's second-least densely populated province. Matabeleland South was established in 1974, when the original Matabeleland Province was divided into two provinces, the other being Matabeleland North. The province is divided into six districts. Gwanda is the capital, and the Beitbridge is the province's largest town. The name "Matabeleland" is derived from Ndebele, the province's largest ethnic group.
Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo,and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers and are further separated from Midlands by the Shangani River in central Zimbabwe. The region is named after its inhabitants, the Ndebele people who were called 'Matabele' by British White Colonialists as they failed to pronounce 'Ma Ndebele'. Other ethnic groups who inhabit parts of Matabeleland include the Tonga, Bakalanga, Venda, Nambya, Khoisan, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana, and Shangaan. The population of Matabeleland is just over 20% of the Zimbabwe's total.
The British South Africa Company was chartered in 1889 following the amalgamation of Cecil Rhodes' Central Search Association and the London-based Exploring Company Ltd, which had originally competed to capitalize on the expected mineral wealth of Mashonaland but united because of common economic interests and to secure British government backing. The company received a Royal Charter modelled on that of the British East India Company. Its first directors included The 2nd Duke of Abercorn, Rhodes himself and the South African financier Alfred Beit. Rhodes hoped BSAC would promote colonisation and economic exploitation across much of south-central Africa, as part of the "Scramble for Africa". However, his main focus was south of the Zambezi, in Mashonaland and the coastal areas to its east, from which he believed the Portuguese could be removed by payment or force, and in the Transvaal, which he hoped would return to British control.
The Matobo National Park forms the core of the Matobo or Matopos Hills, an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys commencing some 35 kilometres (22 mi) south of Bulawayo, southern Zimbabwe. The hills were formed over 2 billion years ago with granite being forced to the surface, this has eroded to produce smooth "whaleback dwalas" and broken kopjes, strewn with boulders and interspersed with thickets of vegetation. Matopo/Matobo is a corruption of a Venda word, "matombo" which means stones in Tshivenda. It was named by the ancestors of Kalanga and Venda people who are the original natives of the land.
The Rhodesian Bush War—also called the Second Chimurenga and the Zimbabwe War of Liberation—was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia . The conflict pitted three forces against one another: the Rhodesian white minority-led government of Ian Smith ; the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, the military wing of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union; and the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army of Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union.
Shurugwi, formerly Selukwe, is a small town and administrative centre in Midlands Province, southern Zimbabwe, located about 350 km south of Harare; population 21,905 according Census 2012 of Zimbabwe National Statistics. The town was established in 1899 on the Selukwe Goldfield, which itself was discovered in the early 1890s not long after the annexation of Rhodesia by the Pioneer Column.
The Scout Association of Zimbabwe is a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. Scouting in Zimbabwe shares history with Malaŵi and Zambia, with which it was linked for decades.
The Mozambican Civil War was a civil war fought in Mozambique from 1977 to 1992. Like many regional African conflicts during the late twentieth century, the Mozambican Civil War possessed local dynamics but was also exacerbated greatly by the polarizing effects of Cold War politics. The war was fought between Mozambique's ruling Marxist Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), the anti-communist insurgent forces of the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO), and a number of smaller factions such as the PRM, UNAMO, COREMO, UNIPOMO, and FUMO.
Tuli is a village in the province of Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe. It is located about 90 km west of Beitbridge on the eastern bank of the Shashe River. The village grew around Fort Tuli, which was the first settlement built by the Pioneer Column in July 1890 at the place known as Selous Camp and used by Frederick Selous as a base for his hunting expeditions. The village is mainly a police post and associated housing.
The Rhodesian Security Forces were the military forces of the Rhodesian government. The Rhodesian Security Forces consisted of a ground force, the Rhodesian Air Force, the British South Africa Police (BSAP), and various personnel affiliated to the Rhodesian Ministry of Internal Affairs (INTAF). Despite the impact of economic and diplomatic sanctions, Rhodesia was able to develop and maintain a potent and professional military capability.
White people first came to the region in southern Africa today called Zimbabwe in the sixteenth century, when Portuguese colonials ventured inland from Mozambique and attacked the Kingdom of Mutapa, which then controlled an area roughly equivalent to eastern Zimbabwe and western Mozambique. Portuguese influence over Mutapa endured for about two centuries before fading away during the 1690s and early-1700s (decade). During the year of 1685, French Huguenots emigrated to present-day South Africa and whilst some settled there, others moved further north into the continent. Those who did, settled within modern-day Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana, and co-existed with the indigenous people; most of whom, in Zimbabwe, were the Naletale people.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs, commonly referred to as INTAF, was a cabinet ministry of the Rhodesian government. One of Rhodesia's most important governmental departments, it was responsible for the welfare and development of the black African rural population. It played a significant role maintaining control of rural African villages during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Blanket Mine is a village and mine in the province of Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe. It is located about 15 km north-west of Gwanda and 140 km south of Bulawayo. The village grew up around the eponymous gold mine and provides a residential and commercial centre. Its population at the time of the 1982 census was 1,346 people.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Zimbabwe.
The British South Africa Company's administration of what became Rhodesia was chartered in 1889 by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and began with the Pioneer Column's march north-east to Mashonaland and conquered it without any resistance in 1890. Empowered by its charter to acquire, govern and develop the area north of the Transvaal in southern Africa, the Company, headed by Cecil Rhodes, raised its own armed forces and carved out a huge bloc of territory through treaties, concessions and occasional military action, most prominently overcoming the powerful Matabele's army in the First and Second Matabele Wars of the 1893 and 1896 which led to Mthwakazi's kingdom being conquered by conquest and its territory losing sovereignty status to terrorists. By the turn of the century, Rhodes's Company held a vast, land-locked country, bisected by the Zambezi river. It officially named this land Rhodesia in 1895, and ran it until the early 1920s.
Chambishi is a town in Kalulushi District in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia. According to the 2010 Census its population stands at slightly above 51,000. It is located in the approximate centre of the province, and on the T3 Road between the cities of Kitwe and Chingola.
Umzingwane is a district in the northern part of Matabeleland South province in Zimbabwe. It was formerly known as Esigodini District and before 1982 as Essexvale District.
Maphisa is a small town situated in the Matobo District of the province of Matabeleland South, Mthwakazi. It also serve as the seat of Matobo Rural District Council and ultimately the district's largest business centre.
