Zimbabwe is a country located in Southern Africa. It has an area of 390,757 square kilometers and a population of approximately 14 million people. The ethnic composition of Zimbabwe is largely Shona (81%), with minorities such as Ndebele (14%), Tonga (2%) and Kalanga (1%) making up the remaining 5%. The majority of the population are adherents to Christianity, with approximately 80% following this religion. Education is compulsory for children up to the age of 16 and the literacy rate is estimated to be around 90%. The official language is English but there are also many other languages spoken throughout the country such as Ndebele, Shona, Kalanga and various minority languages. The capital city Harare has an estimated population of over 2 million people making it one of the largest cities in Zimbabwe. Check hyperrestaurant to learn more about Zimbabwe in 2009.
Social conditions
When Zimbabwe became independent, it had a relatively well-functioning economy. Paradoxically, the boycott of what was then Rhodesia had forced the country to build up its own industry and raise the level of education of the blacks. The white farms generated export revenues from, among other things. tobacco. White and black farmer’s corn accounted for staple food.
Since the end of the 1990s, Zimbabwe has been a country in crisis – the case has been faster and larger than in many other crisis-hit African countries. Visit AbbreviationFinder to see the definitions of ZI and acronym for Zimbabwe. According to the UN, life expectancy is now among the lowest in the world. It fell from 64 years for women and 56 years for men in 1991 to 42 years for women and 40 years for men in 2004, partly because of AIDS and partly because of the race in the population’s standard of living.
Current figures are missing, but the UN estimates that up to 80 percent of the population lives in poverty. Few families eat three meals a day, and in the countryside, three out of ten do not have access to clean water (2008). As many as three to four million have emigrated. Check to see Zimbabwe population.
Teachers and medical staff have moved because of poor wages and political violence in rural areas against educated people. In 2006, however, there were as many as 30 hospital beds per 10,000 residents, which was better than in neighboring countries including South Africa. Infant mortality is comparatively low; Of the 1,000 born children, about 60 die during their first year of life. Qualified help is available at 60 percent of deliveries. Although Zimbabwe, like other countries in southern Africa, is severely affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the proportion of infected people has fallen sharply since the years around the turn of the century; In 2009, 14 percent of the population aged 15-49 were estimated to be infected.
Historian Pierre Bertaux wrote: “Between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers… there are thousands of mines that have been run for centuries, patio farming that covers entire hillsides, irrigation canals, roads and water wells that have been carved up to 12 m into the rocky subsoil. ». In the vast area today there are about 300 archaeological sites. Among the most important cities today, there are only the ruins left: Khami, Naletali, Dhlo-Dhlo, Mapungubwe and the best known, Zimbabwe surrounded by its characteristic city wall. The builders of Zimbabwe were the karangas who are now part of the Shona people. They built the city in the 10th century.
The Shona people were bantu miners who came to the area in the 5th century, discovered gold, copper and tin, and developed refined techniques to process these metals. With the establishment of Arabian trading centers off the coast to the Indian Ocean from the 8th century, a significant market was created for this production, and the increased exchange of goods provided the basis for significant cultural expansion. When the ‘ shirazi ‘ people in the 10th century founded Sofala in present-day Mozambique, the karanga state was given a direct outlet for production from the mines. The king of the Karangas, “Monomotapa” quickly subjugated the Muslims and extended his hegemony to an area comprising parts of present-day Malawi and almost all of Zimbabwe.
This civilization developed extensive trade contacts with Asia and developed until the mid-15th century. At this time, rotsi forced the people of southern Monomotapa to retreat north and toward the coast. The Rotsi belonged to the same ethnic group – the Shona – as the Karangas. The Rotsi moved into the Zimbabwe city fortress and palace, and their Changamira (king) extended his dominion over the mining area, without, however, subjugating an area as large as the Karangas.
From the 16th century, the Portuguese presence in the coastal areas off the Indian Ocean destroyed the fertile trade with the East, which caused economic decline – also in Zimbabwe. The Shona miners soon recognized the grittiness of gold produced by the Europeans, therefore concealed the gold mines and confined themselves to the work of iron. The consequence of Africa’s contact with European “civilization” was a societal decline of 10 centuries.
In 1834, the Zulus arrived in the region. The Rotsi people emigrated to the west, leaving their fields, cities, palaces and irrigation systems. The ancient walls of Zimbabwe began to be covered with grass and shrubs. In the first half of the 19th century, the area was divided between the Shona people in the northeast and the Matabele Zulu kingdom in the southwest.