By Tim Palmer

1. The Zimbabwe Constitution By Tim Palmer

2. Colonial History • Zimbabwe was colonized by gold and diamond field seeker, Cecil John Rhodes from Britain. • Rhodes lied to the British Government about his intentions as to why he wanted to go into the Zimbabwean plateau but evidently he’s a good liar because he got the charter to run a colony under the name of the British Monarchy in 1890 • That year Rhodes and his Pioneer Column of 500 people marched onto the plateau and claimed the land for their own. • Soon enough the settlers realized there was no massive gold fields or diamond deposits but they did find another treasure they decided to stay for • The land on the plateau was very fertile and the local tribes had very little military power against British guns • Rhodes and his men took the best land and relocated the Ndebele to less valuable land

3. The Shona were a less war-like tribe and the white settlers sought to create a working class out of these natives • To do this they imposed taxes on them so that they had to work on the farms in order to pay for the land they owned • In 1896-97 the Shona revolted, and to maintain control, an army from Cape Colony had to be called in • This first initial uprising was call the first chimurenga, or “rising of the ancestral gods of the soil” • After the uprising, the Shona were also put on land with little rainfall and poor soil.

4. New Rules • The land Appropriation Act of 1930 drew lines where the whites owned land and where blacks owned land and put everything into legal writing • As it turned out, of the 96 million acres of Zimbabwe, one third of the land, surprisingly with the best soil and most rainfall, would go to 50,000 whites while 1.5 million Africans would share one third, low rainfall and crappy soil • The remaining third was either “set aside for a later date to be determined or set up as national parks

5. More New Rules • The tribal Trust Land Act or 1961 set aside land for Black Farmers • Unfortunately this land was assigned land and farmers could barely grow enough to live on so they couldn’t make a profit. • The few farmers that had money could go to African Purchase Areas where they could buy land to farm on • The Maize Control Act of 1934 stated that African-grown grain was not to be sold on the open market • The Native Land Husbandry Act of 1951 cause the mandatory destocking of African cattle

6. Breaking Free • In 1923 the land that in now Zimbabwe was allowed to form a self-government so that in was no longer a colony • It became Southern Rhodesia • It was to be understood that this self-government would be purely white and above that Britain would still have veto power over any law passed by this government although it was never used

7. A Voice in Government • Africans started many appeals to try to get a voice in the new government as early as the mid 1920’s but not until the 1940’s and 50’s did two nationalist groups emerge that had a majority of the population and they wanted independence • In 1965, on Nov. 11, prime minister Ian Smith announced the Unilateral Declaration of independence, breaking political ties with Britain • At this time all nationalist parties were banned and their leaders imprisoned (whites still in control) • Two main groups stepped up to fight for the people, the ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union0 and the ZAPU (Zimbabwe African People’s Union)

8. Fighting Back • In 1966 the4 first shots of the war were shot at Chinhoyi, starting what was named the “Second Chimurenga” • This lasted 14 years • Blacks fought for their ancestral land back and whites fought to keep the land they “rightly” owned by law • In 1980 a diplomatic resolution was created • Both sides were cautious since blacks thought that white minority rule would continue their tyranny and all the fighting would be for nothing and whites feared that black majority rule would mean that they would be kicked out or punished for their mistreatment

9. The Lancaster Constitution • Western Powers wanted to help stabilize southern Africa and yet they wanted to keep their traders and businessmen there to continue economic gain • The Lancaster Constitution stated that whites voted in 20 representatives to a 100 seat senate and the blacks voted in the remaining 80 representatives • Private Property was established • When Robert Mugabe of the ZANU party was elected Prime Minister, he surprised people with his reconciliatory beliefs and his advocacy of nonracialism and unity in “national comradeship”

10. False Hope • The new constitution still had many flaws since 3% of the total population earned 60% of the total wages and they happened to be white • They owned Large Scale Commercial Lands (LSCFs) which took up nearly two thirds of all high productivity land • The new government stated that the government could buy land from a willing seller and the redistribute it to the poor • The problem was the new government had very little money, and very few farmers were willing to sell some of their land • Most of the land sold to the government was the worst land they owned and they were not very sad to see it go

11. New Hope • Under 1992 Land Acquisition Act the government no longer had to pay market price but could set their own “reasonable compensation” • A high land tax most aimed at LSCFs was enacted to persuade more farmers to sell more land

12. Conclusion • Black Zimbabweans still fight for equal land distribution and the government has not made much headway since 1992 • Prime Minister Mugabe, once a leading idealist, has fallen out of favor after he repeatedly linked race and land to the nation’s problems • A new leader will probably come soon and with him or her new ideas but, since the purse is still controlled by outside powers and the world’s economy, change will be slow but progressive