Zimbabwe

a country in south central Africa, south of Zambia and north of South Africa. Population: 13,182,908 (2014). Capital: Harare. Zimbabwe was formerly called Rhodesia, and its main products include tobacco, cloth, and minerals. It was ruled by the British from 1889. In 1965 its white government announced that it was independent, but the British government regarded this as an illegal claim. In 1980 Zimbabwe became officially independent under a new mainly black government, and Robert Mugabe became the prime minister. When he was elected president in 1987, Mugabe began a process that made it legal for the government to take control of land that was owned by white people without giving them any money for it. This land was usually given to ‘ war veterans’ who had fought to make Zimbabwe independent. After Mugabe’s reelection in 2002 Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth because many countries thought the election was not fair or honest. In 2003, Zimbabwe officially decided to leave the Commonwealth. Mugabe was reelected in 2005. The opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), again complained that the elections had not been fair. In the 2008 elections, the Zimbabwe election commission announced that Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party had lost control of the Parliament. This was followed by a disagreement about who should be president. → see also Mugabe, Robert

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