Abstract
Archaeological evidence shows human settlement dating back several thousand years. The Khoisan people were early inhabitants of the region, followed from around AD 500 by the Bantu-speaking Gokomere. Trading civilizations fourished from the 9th century, culminating in the Mwene Mutapa Empire (Empire of Great Zimbabwe) from the 15th century. Its stronghold was a fortifed stone town known as Great Zimbabwe (‘houses of stone’), which was founded around 1000 and had a population of up to 18,000 at its peak. During the 16th and 17th centuries the area came under partial control by the Portuguese until the Shona people defeated them in 1693 and established the Rozwi Empire. Tis fell to the migrating Ndebele (Matabele) in 1834.
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Further Reading
Central Statistical Office. Monthly Digest of Statistics.
Hill, Geoff, What Happens After Mugabe? Can Zimbabwe Rise From the Ashes? Zebra Press, Cape Town, 2005
Meredith, Martin, Mugabe: Power and Plunder in Zimbabwe. PublicAffairs, New York, 2002
Weiss, R., Zimbabwe and the New Elite. London, 1994
National Statistical Office: Central Statistical Office, POB 8063, Causeway, Harare.
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© 2008 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Turner, B. (2008). Zimbabwe. In: Turner, B. (eds) The Statesman’s Yearbook. The Statesman’s Yearbook. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-74027-7_302
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-74027-7_302
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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