Zimbabwe

A New Government

During the struggle for independence, two liberation movements advanced: (1) the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), led by Robert Mugabe, a Shona from the province of Mashonaland in the northeast of the country, and (2) the Patriotic Front-Zimbabwe African People's Union (PF-ZAPU) party, led by Joshua Nkomo, an Ndebele from Matabeleland in the southwest. With the first democratic elections in 1980, ZANU and PF-ZAPU competed for the eighty electoral seats available; ZANU won the election with fifty-seven seats, while PF-ZAPU acquired a total of twenty (a further twenty seats were reserved for Whites). ZANU's political objective was the creation of a one-party state, as President Mugabe argued that this was “more in keeping with African tradition.”

The initial years of independence were marked by improvements in education, health, and the economy, as well as a policy of tolerance and acceptance by the ZANU government toward the White Zimbabweans who remained in the country. However, ZANU faced a political challenge in the south of the country from the Ndebele supporters of PF-ZAPU. Several hundred soldiers had mutinied and fled into the rural areas, opposing what they saw as increased oppression from ZANU.

In 1983, the government unleashed the 5th Brigade of the army on the Ndebele, with the aim of destroying their political power. The brigade was officially formed to address internal insurrection and was to operate outside the command structure of the national army, answerable to President Mugabe only. At the brigade's inaugural “passing out” parade, the unit was told that they were to be called Gukhurahundi, or “the wind that blows away the chaff before the rains.” As the wind rids the land of the old discarded part of the grain before the new season of growth, so the 5th Brigade was tasked to rid the country of elements that would hinder the development of the new Zimbabwe.

Between 1983 and 1987, an estimated 20,000 Ndebele were killed by direct action by the 5th Brigade, members of the police, or ZANU youth brigades or through the systematic use of starvation. White Zimbabweans were not overly affected by these killings; the government concentrated upon consolidating its hold on the political reins of power, leaving the 200,000 Whites to dominate the country's industry and agriculture.

Land Seizures

In 1999, the government faced a new set of challenges. Veterans from the war of independence wanted economic assistance and land that they had been promised. A new political party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had emerged from the trade union movement, one that had strong support across race and ethnic lines and was threatening to force ZANU from power in the 2000 elections. The government had been involved in a 2-decade-long policy of buying farms from willing sellers for resettlement; however, this had been slow and ineffective.

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