THE FOUNDING OF RHODESIA:
When the powerful Diamond-magnate Cecil John Rhodes deemed to create the most ambitious modern African cross-continental silk-route from Cape to Cairo, he applied his titanic ambitions in a region called Zambesia - so called as it was bounded by the vast african Zambezi river. Despite his larger than life influence, impact and ambitions, his lifelong ill health brought him to death at a relatively young age of 48, never having seen his objective of a trans-african railroad network brought to fruition.
Cecil did however see the establishment of the Rhodesia mining settlement province as a staging point for his enormous railway project in Zambesia. However, after his death, the colony of Rhodesia became just that - a regular settler colony, and any grand aspirations of trying lay down 4000km of railways was shelved by the miners and company settlers.
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 territories of Zambesia. The most promising parts of the vast region of Zambesia was two kingdoms called Matabeleland and Mashonaland. Rhodes was anxious to secure Matabeleland and Mashonaland before the Germans, Portuguese or Boers did. Rhodes was the wealthiest and most powerful man in all of Southern Africa at this point, and the Pioneer Column contained a mercenary force of 2500 armed men.
Rhodes's company, the British South Africa Company (BSACo) had began to cut out vast swaths of land across Zambesia in the famous mad scramble for Africa's rich, seemingly limitless resources by the Western european powers, and their respective Industrial titan companies.
His first step was to persuade the Matabele King Lobengula (the ruler of Matabeleland), in 1888, to sign a treaty giving him rights to mining and administration (but not settlement as such) in the area of Mashonaland. Mashonaland was ruled by King Lobengula by use of coercion and murderous raids involved tribute-taking and abduction of young men and women. The defeated Mashonas had been subjugated by the Matabeles in a similar fashion in which the Zulus had subjugated the Xhosas under Shaka's regime, and the tribal-tribute was the manner in which Lobengula forced his will on the region of Mashonaland.
https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/rudd-concession-king-lobengula-matabeleland-1888
https://zimfieldguide.com/bulawayo/were-lobengula-and-amandebele-tricked-rudd-concession
Rhodes would go full corporate scumbag mode by fooling King Lobengula twofold in something called the Rudd Concession (so called because Rhodes's business partner, Charles Rudd, was instrumental in securing the signature) between Rhodes' British South Africa Company and Lobengula. First: the Rudd Concession was signed on behalf of Queen Victoria though without any official knowledge or authority - the rest of Britain was fully in the dark of this deal in which Rhodes made, and no royal authority was given by the Queen. It was all bluff. Second: he set out to occupy the land, NOT just mine the minerals. Lobengula gave permission for settlements for the purpose of harvesting minerals, but Rhodes and his company high command fully intended to to occupy the land. Rhodes's military advisers estimated that it would take 2,500 men and about one million pounds to win the war that would, they thought, inevitably result when Lobengula realised that Rhodes meant not only to mine but also to occupy his land.
https://zimfieldguide.com/harare/pioneer-column’s-march-macloutsie-mashonaland
https://zimfieldguide.com/harare/pioneer-column’s-march-detailed-maps
Now I'm going on a tangent, but just to demonstrate how batshit fearless and insane the founders of Rhodesia were, I need to include the numbers of the BSACo Pioneers column. The column consisted of 180 civilian colonists, 62 wagons and 200 volunteers (who ultimately formed the nucleus of what became the British South Africa Police). A further party of 110 men, 16 wagons, 250 cattle and 130 spare horses later attached itself to the column. The troopers were equipped with Martini-Henry rifles, revolvers, seven-pound field guns and Maxim machine guns, as well as an electric searchlight (which they later used to good effect to intimidate Matabele warriors shadowing the column). Under 500 men.
The column would travel over a distance of about 650 kilometres. The British union flag would be hoisted in what would become Fort Salisbury,
Realizing the Rhodes company and its mercenaries were here to stay, the Matabeles quickly became aggressive and tried to hound the column and miners at night, but electric lamps inspired great fear from into their impi soldiers.
THE FIRST MATABELE WAR:
Fought between 1893 and 1894, the First Matabele War pitted the British South Africa Company against the Ndebele (Matabele) Kingdom. Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, had tried to avoid outright war with the company's pioneers because he and his advisors were mindful of the destructive power of European-produced weapons on traditional Matabele impis (units of warriors) attacking in massed ranks. News of how the British army regulars had overcome the Zulus in the Natal Province, east of Cape Town, had reached all the way to Zambesia, and africans were very wary of any power who could defeat the dreaded Zulus. The Zulus had also been brutally defeated by the Boers at the battle of Bloodriver with a force of no more than 500 overcoming over 10 000 Zulus, thanks to their firearms. The Matabeles were now aware of the deadliness of european firearms. Lobengula reportedly could muster 80,000 spearmen, and yet even such a small group of european settlers such the 500 men of the 1st Pioneer column inspired caution for him.
Thus, the Matabeles tried to raid around the white settlements to cut them off from supply, and kill their Tswana labourers whom had started to work in their mines. The British South Africa Company administration felt that they had to intervene to avoid losing the confidence of the local people who complained that they were not being given any support against the raids.
A force totalling about 700 men, commanded by Major Patrick Forbes and equipped with five Maxim machine guns, moved on the Matabele king's capital at Bulawayo. The Matabele army mobilised to prevent Forbes from reaching the city, and twice engaged the column as it approached: on 25 October, 3,500 warriors assaulted the column near the Shangani River. Lobengula's troops were well-drilled and formidable by pre-colonial African standards, but the pioneers' Maxim guns, which had never before been used in battle, far exceeded expectations, according to an eyewitness "mow[ing] them down literally like grass". By the time the Matabele withdrew, they had suffered around 1,500 fatalities; the Company Soldiers , on the other hand, had lost only four men.
Lobengula and his warriors were in full flight towards the Zambezi. An attempt was made to induce Lobengula to surrender, but no replies were received to the messages. The war would continue until Lobengula died of smallpox. in 1894.
https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/first-matabele-war
"The 1893 campaign had been successful for Rhodes and the British South African Company (BSAC). Ndebele cattle were considered loot and were divided among Jameson's volunteers. Each trooper had been promised 6,000 acres of land. By mid-1894, more than 10,000 square miles had been docketed for farmland. Lobengula's royal village of Bulawayo grew almost overnight into a European-style city."
This is important because each of these company soldiers would be the ancestors of the Rhodesian farmers making the main ideological war between Communists and Rhodesians 70 years later.
RHODESIA COMPANY RULE:
For the next 30 years the regions of Zambesia would be included in a vast amount of land gobbled up by Rhodes's company.
The absolutely massive amounts of land claimed by the British South African Company, included what is modern Zimbabwe, and Zambie. The BSAC and the Portuguese would frequently clash in skirmishes between each other over rulership of regions between modern day Mozambique and Zimbabwe - both factions would arm and train local africans to fight as auxiliary armies between the colonial powers alongside the white mercenaries or colonial army regulars, but no fullout war ever developed.
The Company initially referred to each territory it acquired by its respective name—Mashonaland, Matabeleland and so on—but there was no official term for them collectively. Rhodes preferred the name "Zambesia" while Leander Starr Jameson proposed "Charterland". Many of the first settlers instead called their new home "Rhodesia". This was common enough usage by 1891 for it to be used in newspapers. In 1892 it was used in the name of Salisbury's first newspaper, The Rhodesia Herald. The Company officially adopted the name Rhodesia in 1895, and three years later the UK government followed suit.
The biggest irony of all for Rhodes and the BSAC was that the fabulous gold mines they went to war for, never materialized to the extent that they had hoped. The Company originally hoped that gold prospecting between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers would reveal mineral deposits comparable to those of the South African Rand, and indeed acquired its charter in part because its founders convinced Whitehall that a "second Rand" would be found and exploited in what would become Southern Rhodesia, thereby providing more than enough capital to develop the territory without help from London. Unfortunately for our cucked company friends, the gold they had prospected didn't reflect the magnitude discovered from Gauteng.
The Company resolved after about a decade that it could not financially sustain its domain through gold mining alone, and therefore shifted its priority to the development of white agriculture. To maximize the potential of new, white-run farms, the Company launched a wide-scale land settlement program for white settlers. As part of this drive it re-organised the geographical distribution of native reserve areas, moving the reserves and often reducing them in size where the land was of particularly high quality. Comapany soldier veterans were given hundreds of hectares of land, always at the expense of the local Matabeles.
Agriculture such as Tobacco would become the main economic revenue for the colony. Wheat production also ramped up substantially as white settlers became aware of the appropriateness of the Rhodesian land towards wheat.
https://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php
Further Consequences:
The effects of the Pioneer Column were immense. Mashonaland and Matabeleland ceased to be the poorly developed backwaters they had slipped into since the decline of the Mwenemutapa state began about 400 years earlier with the arrival of the Portuguese. The Matabele were forcibly compelled to join the modern world of the West. This was accomplished through a hut tax aimed at forcing African men to leave their herds and their barter economy to join the cash economy of the West via wage labour. A new european elite snatched control from the Iron Age monarchy which had formerly held sway ,through demonstration of overwhelming technological superiority
SOUTHERN RHODESIA 1923:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Rhodesia
By 1923 Rhodesia had developed to such an extent, and populated by so many european settlers that the company structure of a corporation could no longer fittingly serve the needs of a fledgling nation state, and the white populace voted for an independent responsible government sseparate from the British South Africa Company. Rhodesia was officially a Nation State in 1923. The idea had been toyed with to combined Southern Rhodesia with the Union of South Africa, but by this point in time, the Rhodesians had developed their own culture and independent mindset, and didn't want to be tethered to the Union of South Africa, which had formed in 1910, and was seen as too much of a Mainland British dominion colony.
https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/zambia
So what's with the Southern Rhodesia thing? Why didn't Zambië (named North Rhodesia by the company) join Southern Rhodesia?? Why were there 2 Rhodesias?
While Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) contained the lionshare of white settlers, Zambia was relatively barren and sparsely settled. Basically Zimbabwe and Zambia is separated by the Zambezi river. Initially Rhodes' main focus was south of the Zambezi, in Mashonaland and the coastal areas to its east, where everyone believed rich gore ore lay similar to the Gauteng riches. and when the expected wealth of Mashonaland did not materialize, there was little money left for significant development in the area north of the Zambezi, which he wanted to be held as cheaply as possible. Although Rhodes sent European settlers into the territory that became Southern Rhodesia, he limited his involvement north of the Zambezi to encouraging and financing British expeditions to bring it into the British sphere of influence.
Additionally, Lewanika, king of the Lozi people of Barotseland (in Zambia) sought European protection because of internal unrest and the threat of Ndebele raids. Thus Rhodes sent Frank Elliott Lochner to Barotseland to obtain a concession and offered to pay the expenses of a protectorate there.
Lochner told Lewanika that BSAC represented the British government (again Corporate bullshit), and on 27 June 1890, Lewanika consented to an exclusive mineral concession. This (the Lochner Concession) gave the company mining rights over the whole area in which Lewanika was paramount ruler in exchange for an annual subsidy and the promise of British protection
https://www.lusakatimes.com/2012/03/07/barotse-agreement-product-british-deceit
Here is a seeeth article about how King Lewanika had no right to sell the ground beneath all the other tribes' feet on their behalf, and lots of slapfights still develop because of this today, not important right now.
Understanding this is important why in 1923, Northern Rhodesia or Zambia separated into a british protectorate, whilst Southern Rhodesia separated into an independent gorvernment and nation state.
Thus Northern Rhodesia became Zambia, and Southern Rhodesia became THE Rhodesia. A Self-governing British colony (1923–1964).
Economically, Southern Rhodesia developed an economy that was narrowly based on production of a few primary products, notably, chrome and tobacco. It was therefore vulnerable to the economic cycle. The deep recession of the 1930s gave way to a post-war boom. This boom prompted the immigration of about 200,000 white settlers between 1945 and 1970, taking the white population up to 307,000. A large number of these immigrants were of British working-class origin. The black population was about 6 million.
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/07/03/archives/a-split-in-rhodesia-ranks.html
RHODESIA DECLARES INDEPENDENCE:
From 1923–1964, Rhodesia had been a British territory. Although a self-governing British african territory with a vast amount of autonomy. After 40 years, Rhodesia now regarded itself as an independent sovereign state. The culmination of a protracted dispute between the British and Rhodesian governments regarding the terms under which the latter could become fully independent, it was the first unilateral break from the United Kingdom by one of its colonies since the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Britain was systematically given various countries independence, having no longer the capacity or political will to maintain oversees colonies.
https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/11/newsid_2658000/2658445.stm
This was an extremely weird moment in time, where the White-minority elite rule were screaming for independence from Britain, and the black-majority underclasses were shouting for the country to REMAIN as part of butt part of a British protectorate type territory - similar to Zambia. The reason being is that Zambia would negotiate a reasonable and bloodless transition of power, and independence from Briitish rule a black african leadership. Meanwhile the Rhodesian whites did not want to dissolve the country under Britain, and lose their power and land. Remember many of these settlers were direct descendants of those few hundred to thousand farmers who earned large farming grants from the Rhodes company for their services - these lands were sometimes taken from the Tswana or Matabeles, and which race/ethnicty/people got what depended upon the manner in which Britain would negotiate independence of Rhodesia.
You thus had a balkan-tier shitstorm brewing with peeps having mutually exclusive incompatible desires about land ownership in Zambesia.
https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/11/newsid_2658000/2658445.stm
Thus Rhodesia effectively went into Rebellion by declaring independence:
=====(from article from 1965)
The Rhodesian Government, led by Prime Minister Ian Smith, has illegally severed its links with the British Crown. Mr Smith made the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) after days of tense negotiations with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson.
After the proclamation he explained: "There can be no happiness in a country while the absurd situation continues to exist where people, such as ourselves, who have ruled themselves with an impeccable record for over 40 years, are denied what is freely granted to other countries." British authorities were only prepared to permit independence on the basis of giving the black majority population a fair share of power.
Under Mr Smith's system there will be white minority rule, where 220,000 white Rhodesians will enjoy privileges over nearly four million black Rhodesians. Harold Wilson told a packed and solemn House of Commons the Labour Government would not be sending troops to deal with the crisis. Instead he announced a full-range of sanctions including ceasing all British aid to and preferential treatment for Rhodesia, banning the import of Rhodesian tobacco and recalling the British High Commissioner.
Both Rhodesian opposition parties - the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu) have declared breakaway governments. They have both called upon the British Government to use force to suspend the Smith Government. Zanu has also petitioned the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity for assistance. "Treason and rebellion have been committed. The lives particularly of four million unarmed Africans are in jeopardy," he said.
=====(end of article from 1965)
Thus a hellstorm of violence and a contest of brutality in Southern Africa was imminent.
RHODESIAN BUSH WAR (July 1964 to December 1979):
The Rhodesian bush war is long and weird and complex, and would take a whole other Longpost to put into comprehension. What's important to know is that lots of people have extremely strong opinions about it, and that this is where the story of Robert Mgabe begins.
You'd be surprised to know that very large and substantial parts of the Rhodesian army consisted of Sub-saharans black people. A complex set of factors made this war an ideological shitshow. First was the Cold War pitting external superpower influences into Rhodesia as their ideological proxy war.
South African and Namibia were under the rulership of hard right wing white-governments, and were hardcore anti-communists. They followed the doctrine of NATO, and were highly motivated to stop the spread of Moscow and Soviet influence. The paranoia of the Red Menace was so fricking high, that people declared as communists in SA would be completely socially ruined. A common saying amongst Boers and Bongs in SA was that if communists were not stopped from infiltrating Namibia from the Angola border, then South Africa would have its last stand on the banks of the Orange river against the communists hordes. This hyperbolic fear is hard to transcribe to modern millenials whom had not grown up in the era of perpetual Red Scare fear.
Thus the Union of SA was Rhodesia's primary benefactor and would supply them with literally everything - arms, armaments and munitions. Rhodesia would basically collapse in 1978, the very moment SA stopped, thus ending the Bush War, but that's another story.
Funny enough, was that although NATO and the white-ruled southern afircan countries shared the exact same ideological and military doctrines against the Soviets, but the rapid liberalization of the West like Europe and America resulted in them being in the very very very awkward position of being "mutual partners" with problematic governments against communism. Liberals protested against Apartheid South Africa and the Independent Rhodesia as racist white-supremacist governments since day one, but these two nations were the only bulwarks standing against the tides of rapidly falling amounts of 3rd world governments falling to Socialism/Communism (from the eyes of the west). For the entirety of the Rhodesian Bush War, America would be cuked by circumstances to placidly ignore the Rhodesian Civil War, as most 3rd world governments were falling to communism, except in Southern Africa, and the ideological global Cold War meant burgers were stretched thin, and with fewer choice allies they would prefer.
The Soviets and Red Chinese obviously supported any and all communist parties worldwide, either as democratic groups, or insurrectionist or rebels, and would fund and fuel, arm and train comnunist africans with Russian and chinese special operatives. Even communist Cuba would sent very large amounts of military aid and soldiers/trainers proportional to its size and population.
You could even go so far as to say that Rhodesia was the focal point between Socialist and FreeMarket powers from al over Southern Africa Angola, Zammbia, Mozambique vs Namibia and Union of SA. Neighbouring African nations, supported primarily by North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union, used communist material support to begin launching guerrilla attacks on on Rhodesian civilians and infrastructure.
But black peeps inside Rhodesia were similarly divided with roughly half vying for communism, and half against. Many black peeps didn't buy into socialist paradises promised, or were already wary of the factions formed within the dominant communist groups like ZANU and ZAPU. Many black peeps were also loyal to white farmers after having their poverty and way of life uplifted under Rhodesia, even as secondary citizens with lesser rights.
Additionally Rhodesia was NOT racially homogenous in terms of its black population - if you dramatards recall, when the British South Africa Company arrived, the Matabeles were dominating the Mashonas, and the ethnic division still lasted 70 years later. There was valid fear that the loss of rulership of the white minority would lead to ethnic cleansing by one dominant racial group over another, as is what similarly led the the total destabilization of the Congo the minute it obtained independence - life under white europeans as secondary citizens was preferable to the hellscape of the Congo by 1964. Many black afircans also showed household loyalty to white farmers and police, as they obtained rank through meritocracy in european administrations, which they would not have obtained through their rigid tribal structures under inDoenas.
Important that this is not an endorsement of Rhodesia regime, or an attempt or wave away the systemic racism, but to demonstrate the compelx set of emotions and worldviews many blacks in Rhodesia had, and why they still supported the white-government, or opposed the rising communist movements.
Anyways, by 1975–1976, it was clear that an indefinite postponement of majority rule, which had been the cornerstone of the Smith Government's strategy since declaration of Independence, was no longer viable. Even overt South African support for Rhodesia was waning. South Africa began scaling back economic assistance to Rhodesia, placed limits on the amount of fuel and munitions being supplied to the Rhodesian military, and withdrew the personnel and equipment they had previously provided to aid the war effort, including a border police unit that had been helping guard the Rhodesia-Zambia border.
LANCASTER HOUSE AGREEMENT:
https://history.blog.gov.uk/2019/12/23/the-lancaster-house-agreement-forty-years-on
The beginning of the end for Smith came when South African Prime Minister B. J. Vorster concluded that white minority rule was unsustainable in a country where blacks outnumbered whites 22:1. Under pressure from Vorster, Smith accepted in principle that white minority rule could not be maintained forever. He oversaw the 1979 general election which resulted in Abel Muzorewa, a politically moderate black bishop, being elected Prime Minister. Both ZANU and ZAPU had boycotted the election, which did not receive international recognition.
Minister Margaret Thatcher surprised delegates by announcing that the UK would officially recognise the country's independence if it transitioned to democratic majority rule. The negotiations took place at Lancaster House in London, and were led by the Conservative Party politician Peter Carington
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/10/margaret-thatcher-apartheid-mandela
Mugabe refused to attend these London peace talks, opposing the idea of a negotiated rather than military solution to the Rhodesian War. Already Mugabe showed himself to be a firebrand. The ensuing Lancaster House Agreement called for all participants in the Rhodesian Bush War to agree to a ceasefire, with a British governor, Christopher Soames, arriving in Rhodesia to oversee an election in which the various factions could compete as political parties.
The plan was for a transition to formal independence as a sovereign republic under black-majority rule, also maintaining that Rhodesia would be renamed Zimbabwe, a name adopted from the Iron Age archaeological site of Great Zimbabwe.
The agreement also ensured that the country's white minority retained many of its economic and political privileges, with 20 seats to be reserved for whites in the new Parliament. By insisting on the need for a democratic black majority government, Peter Carington was able to convince Mugabe to compromise on the other main issue of the conference, that of land ownership. This is important to remember the thinking of Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe agreed to the protection of the white community's privately owned property on the condition that the UK and U.S governments provide financial assistance allowing the Zimbabwean government to purchase much land for redistribution among blacks. Mugabe was opposed to the idea of a ceasefire, but under pressure from other independent activists, Mugabe signed the agreement.
Mugabe would famously state that he felt cheated, and remaining disappointed that he had never achieved a military victory over the Rhodesian forces. Yikes. This was foreshadwing of what's to come.
ROBERT GABRIEL MUGABE:
https://mg.co.za/article/2019-09-06-robert-gabriel-mugabe-1924-2019-a-tragedy-in-three-acts
Mugabe was very intelligent and charismatic. He studied in Fort Harare in South Africa, during high apartheid. He would join the ANC Youth League and become a Marxist. Mugabe would return home to his country in Rhodesia and join the growing discontentment that learned black peeps had under white-minority rule in 1952.
His political career began in 1960-1963, where he became a hardcore anti-colonialist.
A dude by the name of Joshua Nkomo recruited Mugabe to the Rhodesian ANC party as he saw Mugabe's intelligence and charisma. But this love affair would immediately break apart and the two would splinter the entire anti colonial movement into two factions.
Nkomo lead ZAPU, and its twin was the much more radical ZANU PF under Mugabe. The Rhodesia Ian Smith regime grew wary of the "hardcore radical" rhetoric of Mugabe and ZANU PF members, and imprisoned them for sedition. Even when Mugabe's child died, he would not be allowed to attend the kid's funeral. After his 21 month sentence, Mugabe would immediately flee to Mozambique where he would become a formidable guerilla leader, and solidify his name amongst many Zimbabweans.
1980 RHODESIA ELECTION AND AFTER:
After the Lancaster House Agreement, Mugabe would return to Salisbury Rhodesia in January 1980, Mugabe was greeted by a supportive crowd.
During the campaign, Mugabe survived two assassination attempts. n the first, which took place on 6 February, a grenade was thrown at his Mount Pleasant home, where it exploded against a garden wall. In the second, on 10 February, a roadside bomb exploded near his motorcade as he left a Fort Victoria rally. Still to this day we don't know those responsible, but it's just as likely to be ZAPU versus ZANU PF infighting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Southern_Rhodesian_general_election
The 1980 election was also fright with widespread voter intimidation and brutalization, by both ZAPU and ZANU PF forces. Already the factionalization was underway. ZANU–PF secured 63% of the national vote, gaining 57 of the 80 parliamentary seats allocated for black parties and providing them with an absolute majority. ZAPU had gained only 20 seats.
A tense moment hung in the air. Everyone expected violence and reprisal, and that Mugabe would spout hate and vengeance and radical reform. And yet, remarkably his initial rule was very calm and moderate.
Mugabe's closest advisers had cautioned him not to alienate Rhodesia's white minority, warning him that any white flight after the election would cause economic damage as it had in Mozambique. Accordingly, during his electoral campaign, Mugabe avoided the use of Marxist and revolutionary rhetoric. He would imply universal healthcare where possible in public hospitals.
Although he did nationalize the mines of Rhodesia, and removed all public symbols and statues of Rhodesia's founders - including that of the big man Rhodes himself. The names of cities and streets would also be changed - the most prominent being the Rhodesian capital of Salisbury into modern Harare.
For the most part the early years of Mugabe's regime and rule would see him praised by international media, similar as to how Madiba Mandela was. His governemnt also received support from western governments in the form of development aid as promised.
Incredibly Mugabe was even quoted as follows: "Yesterday I fought you as an enemy, today you have become a friend. If yesterday you hated me, today you cannot avoid the love that binds me to you." This is an actual quote.
But quickly Mugabe would have dark streak.
DETERIORATING RACE RELATIONS:
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/18/world/whites-who-left-zimbabwe-fearful-of-future-drift-back.html
Mugabe initially emphasised racial reconciliation and he was keen to build a good relationship with white Zimbabweans. He hoped to avoid a white exodus and tried to allay fears that he would nationalise white-owned property. He appointed two white ministers—David Smith and Denis Norman—to his government, met with white leaders in agriculture, industry, mining, and commerce, and impressed senior figures in the outgoing administration like Smith and Ken Flower with his apparent sincerity. With the end of the war, petrol rationing, and economic sanctions, life for white Zimbabweans improved during the early years of Mugabe's rule. In the economic boom that followed, the white minority—which controlled considerable property and dominated commerce, industry, and banking—were the country's main beneficiaries.
Nevertheless, many white Zimbabweans complained that they were the victims of racial discrimination. Many whites remained uneasy about living under the government of a black Marxist and they also feared that their children would be unable to secure jobs. There was a growing exodus to South Africa, and in 1980, 17,000 whites—approximately a tenth of the white Zimbabwean population—emigrated. Mugabe's government had pledged support for the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid forces within South Africa, but did not allow them to use Zimbabwe as a base for their military operations. To protest apartheid and white minority rule in South Africa, Mugabe's government banned Zimbabwe from engaging South Africa in any sporting competitions. In turn, South Africa tried to destabilise Zimbabwe by blocking trade routes into the country and supporting anti-Mugabe militants among the country's white minority.
In December 1981, a bomb struck ZANU–PF headquarters, killing seven and injuring 124. Mugabe blamed South African-backed white militants.He criticised "reactionary and counter-revolutionary elements" in the white community, stating that despite the fact that they had faced no punishment for their past actions, they rejected racial reconciliation and "are acting in collusion with South Africa to harm our racial relations, to destroy our unity, to sabotage our economy, and to overthrow the popularly elected government I lead". Increasingly he criticised not only the militants but the entire white community for holding a monopoly on "Zimbabwe's economic power". This was a view echoed by many government ministers and the government-controlled media. One of these ministers, Tekere, was involved in an incident in which he and seven armed men stormed a white-owned farmhouse, killing an elderly farmer; they alleged that in doing so they were foiling a coup attempt. Tekere was acquitted of murder; however, Mugabe dropped him from his cabinet.
Racial mistrust and suspicion continued to grow. In December 1981, the elderly white MP Wally Stuttaford was accused of being a South African agent, arrested, and tortured, generating anger among whites. In July 1982, South African-backed white militants destroyed 13 aircraft at Thornhill. A number of white military officers were accused of complicity, arrested, and tortured. They were put on trial but cleared by judges, after which they were immediately re-arrested. Their case generated an international outcry, which Mugabe criticised, stating that the case only gained such attention because the accused were white. His defence of torture and contempt for legal procedures damaged his international standing. White flight continued to grow, and within three years of Mugabe's premiership half of all white Zimbabweans had emigrated. In the 1985 election, Smith's Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe won 15 of the 20 seats allocated for white Zimbabweans. Mugabe was outraged by this result, lambasting white Zimbabweans for not repenting "in any way" by continuing to support Smith and other white politicians who had committed "horrors against the people of Zimbabwe". (He was angry they were still voting for the people whom had opposed democratization of Zimbabwe).
Extremely fricking good Youtube video:
OPERATION GUKURAHUNDI GENOCIDE:
Ethnic tensions between Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo (the dude from the opposition party of ZAPU) continued to deteriorate.
https://mg.co.za/article/1999-07-12-zapu-wants-seized-properties-back
Violence between ZAPU and ZANU–PF supporters broke out among the battalion stationed at Ntabazinduna, soon spreading to other army bases, resulting in 300 deaths. An arms cache featuring land mines and anti-aircraft missiles were then discovered at Ascot Farm, which was part-owned by Nkomo. Mugabe cited this as evidence that ZAPU were plotting a coup, an allegation that Nkomo denied. Likening Nkomo to "a cobra in the house", Mugabe sacked him from the government, and ZAPU-owned businesses, farms, and properties were seized.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gukurahundi
The word "Gukurahundi" derives from a Shona-language term which loosely translates to "the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains" oof
A colossal pogrom began against the Shona/Ndebeles in which several hundred thousand were tortured, brutalized and displaced. Between 20 000 and 300 000 were culled. We don't know exactly because there were little census records. Inter tribal ethnic tensions erupted, all from the days of Mashonas and Matabeles. The intention was to destroy or weaken the ZAPU party, by decimating its supporters at the root.
DICTATOR:
Mugabe's autocratic streak began to worsen until In late 1987, Zimbabwe's parliament amended the constitution on 30 December, where it declared Mugabe to be executive president - a new position that combined the roles of head of state, head of government, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. This position gave him the power to dissolve parliament, declare martial law, and run for an unlimited number of terms. Thus he became the dictator of Zimbabwe.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/17/robert-grace-mugabe-missing-millions-money-zimababwe
Finally white farms would be "expropriated at fixed prices" instead of the willing-buyer-willing-seller which was agreed in the Lancaster Convention back in 1979's independence agreement with Britain.
Additionally as Mugabe and his inner circle and loyalists were getting more and more wealthy, the living standards of normal Zimbabweans deteriorated. The hope of early 1980s already disappearing and the living conditions of civilians worsening to way beyond pre-Zimbabwe standards. Things like life-expectancy lowered, while unemployment heightened.
Mugabe seeing his support wane, and his country decline felt cornered and put out increasingly r-slurred laws which gradually destroyed economic prosperity.
Example of the type of shit he would legislate:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/12/how-to-kill-a-country/302845
========(from "How to kill a country")
For all the lawlessness in Zimbabwe, the country in fact suffers from an overabundance of laws. Indeed, Mugabe has introduced so many economic edicts in the past year that most citizens have found it impossible to keep track. He fixed the price of a loaf of bread at half the bakers' break-even price, and levied astronomical fines on any baker who charged more. Bakers stopped making bread until somebody noticed that sesame bread, a "luxury item," wasn't price-controlled; by sprinkling a few sesame seeds on their standard loaves, bakers were able to get back in business. A pair of mortuary workers were arrested recently for running a profitable "rent-a-cadaver" business: because Mugabe had decreed that drivers in funeral processions would get privileged access to the trickle of fuel coming into the country, these entrepreneurs had begun leasing bodies to Zimbabwean drivers.
=======(end)
MUGABE FUELS ANTI WHITE SENTIMENT:
Most agricultural and manufacturing industries in zimbabwe were run/owned by the few white Zimbabweans holdovers. Mugabe's rhetoric became increasingly more severe and radical, and was once quoted publicly in parliament: "strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy". Something he had not said since the guerilla days almost 20 years earlier.
https://africanarguments.org/2017/07/zimbabwe-the-oppositions-urban-voter-problem
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070600656143
Mugabe began to lose Urban and youth support, as the new generation who did not revere him unconditionally as their liberator from Rhodesia demanded change and improved conditions from the corruption of the ZANU-PF.
Thus Mugabe would reinforce his focus on the more uneducated and rural supporters, and double down on racial inflamation whenever ZANU-PF corruption came to light, and his rule seemed on shaky grounds - he would focus on the white minority's occupation on Matabeles ancestral lands.
ZIMBABWE 2000 ELECTION:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Zimbabwean_parliamentary_election
Mugabe came extremely close to losing power against his new opponent Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, leader of the "Movement for Democratic Change" party which was fueled by the discontent youth and urban vote.
After this vote, with the inflamed tension, Zimbabwe guerilla veterans inflamed by racial hate speech by Mugabe, went into action to obtain their pensions squandered by corrupt ZANU-PF officials. Mugabe saw this rising pogrom movement as a golden ticket to regain momentum and power, and worsened the racial tension by publicly voicing aproval of the violence these violent attacks and pogroms by his rural supporters and veterans.
FARM ATTACKS:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/aug/08/zimbabwe.chrismcgreal
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-zimbabwe-election-farmers-idUKL015847720080701
https://reliefweb.int/report/zimbabwe/zimbabwe-veterans-invade-farm-three-trapped-inside
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/world/africa/061300zimbabwe-attacks-rts.html
You guys know what happens next.
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2000/04/13/zimbabwe-veterans-vow-attacks-on-white-farms-2
https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/08/12/violence.zimbabwe
https://www.refworld.org/docid/3df4becd10.html
"The CFU – which includes 4,500 mainly white farmers – said the militants, who have illegally occupied more than 1,000 farms since February last year, were in some cases slashing tobacco crops and extorting money, particularly in Mashonaland Central Province.
Aid agencies have warned of starvation in Zimbabwe due to declining crop output. At least three million people out of the population of 12.6 million have registered for food aid with the government. Aid agencies estimate Zimbabwe would need to import 700,000 tons of maize and wheat to avert famine.
Ms Williams said another farmer was attacked and barricaded himself for two days at his farm in Marondera. The self-styled war veterans had since confiscated the farmer's two adjacent properties and told him to confine himself to the land in which his farmhouse is located. Three other farmers were attacked at their properties in Guruve, Mashonaland Central Province. Another three farms in the same area were invaded."
Black zimbabweans who stood up for the white farmers were equally brutalized or killed. Opposition leader denounces the farm attacks: The leader of Zimbabwe's main opposition party said President Robert Mugabe was responsible for the occupation of more than 900 white-owned farms by black squatters, a crisis that was damaging Zimbabwe's already crippled economy. He said land reform must be done democratically and not through violence.
Finally Mugabe decreed that the gov can seize all white farms without warning or compensation.
CONSEQUENCES OF FARM SEIZURES:
https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/05/02/mugabe.threat/index.html
British Prime Minister Tony Blair instantly became frosty to this violation of the Lancaster Agreement, and cut off all foreign aid to Zimbabwe as they had done for the past 20 years.
https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/africa/05/02/mugabe.threat/index.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/aug/09/zimbabwe.chrismcgreal
Our boi Mugabe tells the UN to eat dirt:
https://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/occupied-zim-farms-lie-unoccupied-96408
=====(from article)
Only about half of the eight million hectares of land seized from Zimbabwe's white farmers has been occupied by new black owners, prompting fears of a drastic decline in agricultural output next year.
Most of the land seized from farmers under Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's controversial policies of confiscating white farms for resettling blacks is now lying fallow, much of it abandoned by new owners who were not given the resources to farm.
So bad is the situation that the government has threatened to re-confiscate land from the new black owners and transfer it to others. Reports said in some areas the government had already started reconfiscating the land.
Mashonaland East province, which had some of the country's most productive farmland and biggest tobacco farms, was the worst affected. David Karimanzira, the province's governor and resident minister, admitted that only half of the seized land in the province had been occupied, close to a month after the expiry of the first deadline for the new black farmers to move there.
"We have given the new settlers a deadline of up to the end of this month, failing which the land will be given to other applicants," Kariomanzira told the state-owned Herald newspaper. The deadline is the second issued to the new settlers in as many months. "We want production on the farms and people should be on their farms before the end of the rainy season," said Karimanzira.
(in other words they're saying that unless these veterans which had seized the commercial farmlands started farming by the raining season, they would lose the land they seized and have it given to other blacks who would farm the land)
Some of the farms designated for compulsory seizure were demarcated into small plots for redistribution to their new black owners. One farm was demarcated into as many as 61 plots, but only four people had been resettled there. Davidson was quoted by the Zimbabwe News, a website newspaper covering news from that country, as saying the end result of subdivision was to decrease efficiency.
"A lot of them did not realise the implications of what it means to start farming," Davidson said. 
Most were unable to raise money to begin cropping or keep livestock, while many were reluctant to move on to their new plots without a ready-built home. Others were allocated land unsuitable for agriculture. "If there had been a properly scheduled take-over, this trough in production could have been avoided," Davidson said. "Clearly it demonstrates that this is not a land reform programme. It was done because there was an election coming."
Only about 400 white farmers remain on their land in Zimbabwe against a figure of more than 4 000 six months ago. The Farm Community Trust estimates that 250 000 farm workers have been left jobless and without any roofs over their heads by the indiscriminate land seizures.
Many white farmers, who had not been served with eviction notices, have been forcibly removed from their properties by rampaging war veterans. Many deserving landless peasants were left in the cold in favour of war veterans and supporters of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party. Agricultural output is now expected to decline by at least 60 percent next year. 
======(end article)
With no idea how to farm commercially, or not willing to even live on farms away from urban centres, more than half of these now empty white farms would just be defunct next year. Most black farmers would subdivide land into tiny subsistence plots, and would not farm for selling. The new black farmers could not maintain the same productivity as their white predecessors due to inexperience, no farming equipment, seed or willing labour.
The end result was that the sumtotal of commercial farming output halved, and then halved again.
ZIMBABWE HUNGERS:
https://reliefweb.int/report/zimbabwe/zimbabwe-grain-production-shortfall-will-continue
"According to the United Nations (FAO/World Food Program), more than 6 million people are now at risk of hunger in Zimbabwe, and imports of 1.9 million tons of grain will be needed in the current marketing year to prevent starvation. The main reason for the current food shortage is severe drought during the spring of 2002, aggravated by an overall economic crisis. The Government of Zimbabwe's (GOZ) decision to take thousands of successful farms out of commercial production has made the situation worse. Zimbabwe and the entire southern Africa region will feel the economic, political, and social consequences of the land-redistribution policy will be felt for years.. Although the Government's goal of putting Zimbabwe's farmland into the hands of indigenous black farmers may have long-term benefits, food production will suffer in the interim."
For the 1st time in its existence, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe will have to IMPORT food instead of EXPORTING food. Agriculture was the largest revenue generating industry in Rhodesia. Now Zimbabwe had to import food for its citizens to not starve to death.
The "Breadbasket of Africa" Zimbabwe now had 75% of its population relying on foreign AID not to die.
By 2001, Zimbabwe's GDP dropped 50%. The Mugabe regime was now heavily in debt, had substantially reduced tax revenue, and would waste and squander the remains of its taxes on the costly Congolese civil war to stoke Mugabe and the ZANU-PF's ideological egos.
HYPERINFLATION:
With many farms simply falling into disrepair or given to Mugabe loyalists, from1999 to 2009, the country experienced a sharp drop in food production and in all other sectors. The banking sector also collapsed, with farmers unable to obtain loans for capital development. Food output fell 45%, and manufacturing output fell by 29% in 2005, 26% in 2006 and 28% in 2007. Unemployment rose to 80%. White people fled the country in masses taking much of the nation's capital.
https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/390/inflation/hyper-inflation-in-zimbabwe
Zimbabwe had to continually print money to pay off its debt, which it could no longer recuperate as it had near zero tax revenue. But with each sequential printing of new money, the value of
the Zim-Dollar decreased proportionally as confidence in the currency fell.
The deadly cycle meant that eventually the currency crashed in 2007. Inflation would reach meme number per day, with a basic loaf of bread costing 1/3 of the average daily wage, and most could not pay their rent.
Educated doctors, engineers and pensioners found their savings evaporate, and forced into manual labour to survive.
https://www.cgdev.org/blog/zimbabweans-have-shortest-life-expectancy
That's all I got, good night!! 
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