Racism in Zimbabwe

Last updated December 21, 2024

Racism in Zimbabwe was introduced during the colonial era in the 19th century, when emigrating white settlers began racially discriminating against the indigenous Africans living in the region.^[1] The colony of Southern Rhodesia and state of Rhodesia were both dominated by a white minority, which imposed racist policies in all spheres of public life. In the 1960s–70s, African national liberation groups waged an armed struggle against the white Rhodesian government, culminating in a peace accord that brought the ZANU–PF to power but which left much of the white settler population's economic authority intact.

Violent government repression following independence included massacres against African ethnic groups, embittering ethnic divides within the population. The government led by Robert Mugabe during the 1980s was benevolent to white settlers while violently repressing illegal incursions on white land by African peasants who were frustrated with the slow pace of land reform.^[2] Mugabe's government would change policies in 2000 and encourage violence against white Zimbabweans, with many fleeing the country by 2005.^[3] After assuming the presidency in 2017, Emmerson Mnangagwa pledged to compensate white farmers for property seized from them under the land reform programme and declared that thinking along racial lines in farming and land ownership was outdated.^[4]

History

Racism in colonial Zimbabwe (pre–1965)

Racism in Zimbabwe has a history going back to the era of British colonialism in the region which began in the late nineteenth century and lasted until the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965. The belief in the civilising mission was at the core of the justification for colonisation. White settlers believed that Europeans were more developed than Africans, who they believed were of low morality and incapable of controlling themselves.^[1] This racist ideology was the basis for a series of discriminatory legislation such as the Sale of Liquor to Natives and Indians Regulations 1898 which prohibited the sale of alcohol to indigenous peoples in Southern Rhodesia, as well as the Immorality and Indecency Suppression Act 1903 which criminalised sexual acts between white women and black men.^[5]^[6] The dispossession of land from indigenous peoples began in the late nineteenth century as land was rewarded to European settlers in exchange for occupying the area that would become Southern Rhodesia. Many white settlers would turn to agriculture and found themselves competing with the indigenous farmers who provided for the growing settler population. In response the colonial government targeted black agricultural producers through land alienation and forced resettlement to reserves. ^[7] These reserves were intentionally set up in areas unsuitable for agriculture in order to ensure minimal competition to white farmers. By 1914, indigenous Africans accounted for 97% of the Southern Rhodesian population yet they were restricted to only 23% of the land. Racial discrimination in matters of land continued with the Land Apportionment Act 1930 which proclaimed that the majority black population could only legally reside in Tribal Trust Lands, which made up 29.8% of the country, and Native Purchase Areas. This confinement meant indigenous agriculture began to put ecological strain on the natural environment which led to further restrictions and impediments on indigenous farmers.^[7] Politically, indigenous Africans were excluded on every level. The Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia Godfrey Huggins was in absolute opposition to blacks serving in a governmental position at any level and the Public Services Act of 1921 prohibited indigenous peoples from employment in the civil service. Black Africans were also largely disenfranchised through a series of qualifications. The 1923 Constitution enforced income and property restrictions that were unattainable for the majority of blacks. While race was not an explicit factor in enfranchisement, such prerequisites were used to intentionally prevent black Africans from attaining voting rights.^[8]^[9] The labour force was also an area of prominent racial prejudice as the Southern Rhodesian state sought to control black labour. Legislation allowed white employers unquestioned control over their indigenous employees. White workers were resistant to black opposition and pressure from white trade unions led to policies enforcing that blacks could not be employed in positions above a certain skill level. The Industrial Conciliation Act of 1934 also excluded blacks from participating in trade unions.^[10]

Racism in Rhodesia (1965–1980)

Racial division would continue under Rhodesian governance, sparking an armed struggle to overthrow white rule led by the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). This conflict culminated in the establishment of the modern state of Zimbabwe. The coalition of black African forces was fragile, and the government led by Robert Mugabe and the majority-Shona ZANU committed massacres against Northern Ndebele people in ZAPU strongholds, producing resentment between the black ethnic groups.^[2]

Because of the large number of white settlers in Rhodesia following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, the government continued to function similarly to the colonial period. In 1965, there were estimated 224,000 whites living in Rhodesia, predominantly settled in urban areas. According to David Kenrick, there was little sense of Rhodesian nationalism in the white Rhodesian community, and many of the white settlers did not stay for long—with many leaving for South Africa.^[11] The Rhodesian Front government sought to maintain control by preventing too large of a “racial imbalance” by encouraging white immigration to Rhodesia and preventing the black population from growing with birth control.^[11]

Discrimination in the military

The military of Rhodesia was also heavily influenced by racial hierarchy, non-white soldiers were allowed in the Rhodesian army but they were subjected to stricter entry standards and were rarely able to rise to higher ranks. The army was heavily segregated and only some units including both black and white soldiers formed in the 1970s. Units made up of non white soldiers were subjected to close supervision by white leaders and it was believed that this would properly discipline them. Importantly these integrated units did not include “Coloured” soldiers, this was done to prevent Coloured and black soldiers from uniting against the white leaders. Coloured and Asian men in the army were not able to carry weapons or take combat roles until the late 1970s and before this they were only given minimal training and menial jobs.^[12]

Discrimination in sports

Sports in Rhodesia became increasingly segregated after the UDI and the sanctions that followed prevented competition with most of the international community. The exception to this was the highly segregated sporting scene of South Africa. Unlike in South Africa however sport was not segregated by law but instead by private clubs that were concerned with maintaining a white identity. The sanctions imposed by the international community had a more significant effect on black athletes than white because most white athletes had some form of dual citizenship that would allow them to travel with a non Rhodesia passport and black athletes did not.^[13] Despite international sanctions put in place after the 1965 UDI Rhodesia was included in the qualifying rounds of the 1970 World Cup but shortly afterwards its membership was removed in part due to racial discrimination as well as the complicated political situation it was in.^[14]

Racism in Zimbabwe (post–1980)

Following the end of armed conflict, the white minority in Zimbabwe continued to exert disproportionate control over the economy, owned the majority of arable land in Zimbabwe, and maintained racially segregated social circles. White settlers were protected by generous provisions established by the Lancaster House Agreement, and thus continued to exert significant political and legal control over the black population. Wide disparities existed in access to sports, education and housing.^[2]^[15] The ZANU-led government did not engage in significant expropriation of white settlers despite promising land reform to the black population, with one white commercial farmer commenting that Mugabe's government in the early 1980s was "the best government for farmers that this country has ever seen". Dissatisfaction with the slow pace of land reform led to the illegal seizing of white-owned land by black peasants.^[2] The government responded with heavy-handed repression against the black peasants.^[16] Resentment of continued white control of the economy continued through the 1990s, spurred by the perception that the white business community was disinterested in improving the economic lot of the black population or otherwise changing the status quo.^[17]

By 2000, as ZANU grew politically isolated, it increasingly criticized the white population's segregationism and racism,^[2] and began to encourage violent farm invasions against the white population, which drew condemnations from the international community.^[16] A dozen white farmers and scores of their black employees were killed in the ensuing violence, with hundreds injured and thousands fleeing the country.^[3]

On 18 September 2010, droves of white people were chased away and prevented from participating in the constitutional outreach program in Harare during a weekend, in which violence and confusion marred the process, with similar incidents having occurred in Graniteside. In Mount Pleasant, white families were subjected to a torrent of abuse by suspected Zanu-PF supporters, who later drove them away and shouted racial slurs.^[18]

However, at this stage, land acquisition could only occur on a voluntary basis. Little land had been redistributed, and frustrated groups of government supporters began seizing white-owned farms. Most of the seizures took place in Nyamandhalovu and Inyati.^[19]

After the beating to death of a prominent farmer in September 2011, the head of the Commercial Farmers' Union decried the attack, saying that its white members continue to be targeted for violence, without protection from the government.^[20]

In September 2014, Mugabe publicly declared that all white Zimbabweans should "go back to England", and he urged black Zimbabweans not to lease agricultural land to white farmers.^[21]

In 2017, new President Emmerson Mnangagwa's inaugural speech promised to pay compensation to the white farmers whose land was seized during the land reform programme.^[22] Rob Smart became the first white farmer whose land was returned after President Mnangagwa was sworn in to office; he returned to his farm in Manicaland province by military escort.^[23] During the World Economic Forum 2018 in Davos, Mnangagwa also stated that his new government believes thinking about racial lines in farming and land ownership is "outdated", and should be a "philosophy of the past."^[4]

Related Research Articles

Until roughly 2,000 years ago, what would become Zimbabwe was populated by ancestors of the San people. Bantu inhabitants of the region arrived and developed ceramic production in the area. A series of trading empires emerged, including the Kingdom of Mapungubwe and Kingdom of Zimbabwe. In the 1880s, the British South Africa Company began its activities in the region, leading to the colonial era in Southern Rhodesia.

Rhodesia, officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979. During this fourteen-year period, Rhodesia served as the de facto successor state to the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, and in 1980 it became modern day Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the north, and Mozambique to the east. The capital and largest city is Harare, and the second largest is Bulawayo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Smith</span> Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1979

Ian Douglas Smith was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1979. He was the country's first leader to be born and raised in Rhodesia, and led the predominantly white government that unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in November 1965 in opposition to their demands for the implementation of majority rule as a condition for independence. His 15 years in power were defined by the country's international isolation and involvement in the Rhodesian Bush War, which pitted the Rhodesian Security Forces against the Soviet and Chinese-funded military wings of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU).

Land reform in Zimbabwe officially began in 1980 with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement, as a program to redistribute farmland from white Zimbabweans to black Zimbabweans as an effort by the ZANU-PF government to give more control over the country's extensive farmlands to the black African majority. Before the implementation of these policies, the distribution of land in what was then known as Rhodesia saw a population of 4,400 white Rhodesians owning 51% of the country's land while 4.3 million black Rhodesians owned 42%, with the remainder being non-agricultural land. The discrepancy of this distribution, as well as the overall dominance of the white population in the newly-independent but largely unrecognized Rhodesian state was challenged by the black nationalist organizations ZANU and ZAPU in the Rhodesian Bush War. At the establishment of the modern Zimbabwean state in 1980 after the bush war, the Lancaster House Agreement held a clause that prohibited forced transfer of land, this resulted in changes in land distribution from the willing sale or transfer by owners being minor until 2000, when the government of Robert Mugabe began a more aggressive policy.

The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) is a political organisation which has been the ruling party of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The party was led for many years by Robert Mugabe, first as prime minister with the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and then as president from 1987 after the merger with the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and retaining the name ZANU–PF, until 2017, when he was removed as leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhodesian Bush War</span> 1964–1979 conflict in Southern Africa

The Rhodesian Bush War, also known as the Second Chimurenga as well as the Zimbabwean War of Independence, was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia.

White Zimbabweans, also known as White Rhodesians or simply Rhodesians, are a Southern African people of European descent. In linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, these people of European ethnic origin are mostly English-speaking descendants of British settlers. A small minority are either Afrikaans-speaking descendants of Afrikaners from South Africa or those descended from Greek, Portuguese, Italian, and Jewish immigrants.

Goffals or Coloured Zimbabweans are persons of mixed race, predominately those claiming both European and African descent, in Malawi, Zambia, and, particularly Zimbabwe. They are generally known as Coloureds, though the term Goffal is used by some in the Coloured community to refer to themselves, though this does not refer to the mixed-race community in nearby South Africa. The community includes many diverse constituents of Shona, Northern Ndebele, Bemba, Fengu, British, Afrikaner, Cape Coloured, Cape Malay and less commonly Portuguese, Greek, Goan, and Indian descent. Similar mixed-race communities exist throughout Southern Africa, notably the Cape Coloureds of South Africa.

Timothy John Stamps was a Welsh and Zimbabwean politician and medical doctor who served in the Government of Zimbabwe as Minister of Health from 1986 to 2002. For most of that period, he was the only white member of the government.

Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is a Zimbabwean politician who is serving as the third president of Zimbabwe since 2017. A member of ZANU–PF and a longtime ally of former president Robert Mugabe, he held a series of cabinet portfolios and he was Mugabe's first-vice president from 2014 until 2017, when he was dismissed before coming to power in a coup d'état. He secured his first full term as president in the disputed 2018 general election. Mnangagwa was re-elected in the August 2023 general election with 52.6% of the vote.

General elections were held in Southern Rhodesia between 14 February and 4 March 1980 to elect the members of the House of Assembly of the first Parliament of the independent Zimbabwe. As stipulated by the new Constitution of Zimbabwe produced by the Lancaster House Conference, the new House of Assembly was to comprise 100 members, 80 of whom would be elected proportionally by province by all adult citizens on a common roll, and 20 of whom would be elected in single-member constituencies by whites on a separate roll.

The Southern Rhodesia African National Congress (SRANC) was a political party active between 1957–1959 in Southern Rhodesia. Committed to the promotion of indigenous African welfare, it was the first fully fledged black nationalist organisation in the country. While short-lived — it was outlawed by the predominantly white minority government in 1959 — it marked the beginning of political action towards black majority rule in Southern Rhodesia, and was the original incarnation of the National Democratic Party (NDP); the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU); the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU); and the Zimbabwe African National Union — Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), which has governed Zimbabwe continuously since 1980. Many political figures who later became prominent, including Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo, were members of the SRANC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military history of Zimbabwe</span>

The military history of Zimbabwe chronicles a vast time period and complex events from the dawn of history until the present time. It covers invasions of native peoples of Africa, encroachment by Europeans, and civil conflict.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, and as a socialist during the 1990s and the remainder of his career.

Zimbabwe and the Commonwealth of Nations have had a controversial and stormy diplomatic relationship. Zimbabwe is a former member of the Commonwealth, having withdrawn in 2003, and the issue of Zimbabwe has repeatedly taken centre stage in the Commonwealth, both since Zimbabwe's independence and as part of the British Empire.

The modern political history of Zimbabwe starts with the arrival of white people to what was dubbed Southern Rhodesia in the 1890s. The country was initially run by an administrator appointed by the British South Africa Company. The prime ministerial role was first created in October 1923, when the country achieved responsible government, with Sir Charles Coghlan as its first Premier. The third premier, George Mitchell, renamed the post prime minister in 1933.

Michael Theodore Hayes Auret was a Zimbabwean farmer, politician, and activist. A devout Catholic, he served as chairman and later director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe (CCJP) from 1978 until 1999. He also served as a member of Parliament for Harare Central from 2000 to 2003, when he resigned and emigrated to Ireland.

Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Limited, operating as Zimpapers, is a state-controlled Zimbabwean mass media company. Originally a newspaper Publishing company, in the 2010s it expanded its operations to include commercial printing, radio and television. The company's portfolio includes over a dozen Magazines and newspapers, including The Herald and The Chronicle, several radio stations, and a television network. It is the largest newspaper publisher in Zimbabwe.

Relations between the UK and Zimbabwe have been complex since the latter's independence in 1980. The territory of modern Zimbabwe had been colonised by the British South Africa Company in 1890, with the Pioneer Column raising the Union Jack over Fort Salisbury and formally establishing company, and by extension, British, rule over the territory. In 1920 Rhodesia, as the land had been called by the company in honour of their founder, Cecil Rhodes, was brought under jurisdiction of the Crown as the colony of Southern Rhodesia. Southern Rhodesia over the decades following its establishment would slowly be populated by large numbers of Europeans emigrants who came to form a considerable diaspora, largely consisting of Britons but also smaller groups of Italians, Greeks and Afrikaners. A settler culture that had already existed since the time of company would come to cement fully and the white population began to identify as Rhodesians, often in conjunction with British/Afrikaner/Southern European identities of their ancestors. Southern Rhodesia would go on to participate heavily in both the First and Second wars, providing soldiers and military equipment to the British war effort.

References

1 2 Mlambo 2019, pp. 433–434.
1 2 3 4 5 Mlambo, Alois S. (2014). A History of Zimbabwe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 222–224, 254–256. ISBN 978-1-139-86752-8.
1 2 Koinage, Jeff (30 March 2005). "Tale of two farms in Zimbabwe". CNN. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
1 2 Mnangagwa on land: 'We don't think along racial lines... it's outdated' News24. 26 January 2018
↑ Mlambo 2019.
↑ Mushonga 2013, pp. 1–12.
1 2 Mlambo 2019, pp. 437–438.
↑ Mlambo 2019, pp. 434, 440.
↑ Mutiti 1974, pp. 261–275.
↑ Mlambo 2019, pp. 439–440.
1 2 Kenrick, David (13 November 2020). "Decolonisation, Identity and Nation in Rhodesia, 1964-1979: A Race Against Time". ISBN 978-3030327002.
↑ Seirlis, J K (1 July 2004). "Undoing the united front?: Coloured soldiers in Rhodesia 1939–1980". African Studies. 63 (1). Johannesburg: 73–94. doi:10.1080/0002018042000226166. ISSN 0002-0184. S2CID 143527819 . Retrieved 17 June 2022.
↑ Novak, Andrew (3 April 2021). "Rhodesia and FIFA: racial discrimination, political legitimacy and football, 1960 to 1980". Soccer & Society. 22 (3): 266–279. doi:10.1080/14660970.2020.1814752. ISSN 1466-0970. S2CID 225234481 . Retrieved 17 June 2022.
↑ Novak, Andrew (9 August 2015). "Rhodesia and the Olympic Games: representations of masculinity, war and Empire, 1965–1980". Sport in Society. 18 (7): 853–867. doi:10.1080/17430437.2014.990691. ISSN 1743-0437. S2CID 143851560 . Retrieved 17 June 2022.
↑ Masocha, Vincent; Mugari, Abisha (2014). "Sport and Racial Inequality: An Analysis of Pre-Independence Zimbabwe (1890-1979)". Greener Journal of Sport and Physical Education. 1 (1): 1–7. doi:10.13140/RG.2.1.3918.9845.
1 2 Mlambo, Alois S. (30 October 2012). "Becoming Zimbabwe or becoming Zimbabwean: Identity, nationalism and state building in the historical context of Southern Africa". hdl:2263/20491. Inaugural Lecture presented at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
↑ Gaidzanwa, Rudo (1999). "Indigenisation as empowerment? Gender and race in the empowerment discourse in Zimbabwe". In Cheater, Angela (ed.). The Anthropology of Power. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-65048-4.
↑ "Racism against white Zimbabweans reach shocking levels". Zimdiaspora.com. 20 September 2010. Archived from the original on 24 September 2010. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
↑ Hyslop, Leah (11 June 2010). "White farmers in Zimbabwe struggle against increasing violence" . The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022.
↑ "Zimbabwe's white farmers still target of violence". News.yahoo.com. 5 September 2011. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
↑ "Zimbabwe: Go back to England, Mugabe tells Whites". New Zimbabwean. 5 September 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
↑ President Emmerson Mnangagwa promises to pay compensation for land grabs and clean up Zimbabwe's 'poisoned politics' as he is sworn in The Telegraph. 24 November 2017. Archived 25 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine
↑ white farmer gets land back under Zimbabwe’s new leader The Independent. 28 January 2018. Archived 25 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine

v t e Racism in Africa
Sovereign states	Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Eswatini Ethiopia Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ivory Coast Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa South Sudan Sudan Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe
States with limited recognition	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Somaliland
Dependencies and other territories	Canary Islands / Ceuta / Melilla (Spain) Madeira (Portugal) Mayotte / Réunion (France) Saint Helena / Ascension Island / Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom)