English is the official language of Zimbabwe and it has around 376,000 first-language speakers. Eighteen other languages are spoken, all of which are Bantu languages (see Niger-Congo Languages) except for Fanagolo (a Zulu-based pidgin) and Hietshware (a Khoisan language). The most important Bantu languages are Shona (6,225,000 speakers), Ndebele (1,485,000), and Ndau (391,000).
E Education
Education is compulsory. Before independence, the majority of the black population was excluded from all but the most basic education, while facilities for the white minority were on a par with much of Western Europe. A priority of the government after 1980 was to redress this inequality, and spending on education increased hugely, becoming one of the largest elements in the budget. The policy was very successful: by the early 1990s, 85 per cent of the population aged 5-19 was in school, and literacy had reached almost 75 per cent. By 2004 it was 91 per cent. The need to constrain costs, however, led to the introduction of school fees for primary education in 1991; parents have always been expected to contribute to secondary school costs. In 1999–2000, 11.1 per cent of gross national product (GNP) was spent on education.
In 2000 approximately 2.46 million students were enrolled in primary schools and 844,183 in secondary schools. There are a large number of private primary and secondary schools, some of them run by Church bodies. The large commercial farms are expected to establish primary schools for the children of their workers, which must be registered with the ministry of education. Higher educational institutions include ten teachers’ colleges and several agricultural and technical schools. The University of Zimbabwe (1957) is in Harare. There were around 48,894 students in higher education in 2000–2001.
IV ECONOMY
interactivity Statistics Centre
Zimbabwe has the most diversified economy of any African nation apart from South Africa. Mining, agriculture, and manufacturing are all well developed, and the country’s financial services sector and infrastructure are highly sophisticated. Following the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) by the white government in 1965, trade sanctions were imposed against Rhodesia by the UN (see History below). They did not, however, seriously damage the economy; during the 1970s numerous local industries were developed to provide substitute goods, and the country became self-sufficient in, and an exporter of, food. The economy suffered a negative growth rate in the late 1970s, but expanded at a real rate of 2.9 per cent a year during the first decade of independence despite recurrent severe droughts.
Partly because of high population growth, per capita incomes were little better than at independence in 1980. The economy faced severe problems, primarily inflation and devaluation of the currency. There was a growing need to attract investment, and to create new jobs to accommodate the thousands of well-educated school-leavers joining the job market. In the early 1990s, the government began to move towards a market-oriented economy and embarked upon a radical reform programme, backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to liberalize the economy and encourage foreign investment. Trade controls, inherited from the pre-independence era, were removed, and government spending was cut heavily. There was some new investment, but the immediate result was a rise in the balance of payments deficit as new imports flooded in, and increased unemployment as civil service jobs were cut and domestic industries, formerly protected, retrenched in the face of competition from cheaper imports. The tourist industry, an increasingly valuable source of revenue, suffered from the turbulent political situation in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The unemployment rate in 1994 was estimated at 45 per cent of the workforce. By 2001 the GNP was about US$6,164 million (World Bank figures), equivalent to US$480 per capita.
A Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing
Tobacco Farming, Zimbabwe Agriculture is central to the economy of Zimbabwe, employing more than two-thirds of the working population. Tobacco is still the most important cash crop in Zimbabwe, although other crops have gained in significance in recent years.ALLSTOCK, INC./Chad Ehlers
Around 26 per cent of Zimbabwe’s economically active population is engaged in agriculture, which contributes about 60 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). The principal cash crops are tobacco and maize, which are grown mainly in the northern and central regions. In 2003 annual production totalled about 4.70 million tonnes of sugar cane, 0.80 million tonnes of maize, 100,000 tonnes of wheat, 200,000 tonnes of cotton, and 174,000 tonnes of tobacco. Other major crops include tea, coffee, cut flowers, peanuts, citrus fruit, and sorghum.
One of the priorities after independence was to improve the access to agricultural services and markets of the country’s black farmers, who farm small plots, and are called in Zimbabwe “peasant” or “communal” sector farmers. The result of these policies was astonishing. From being marginal contributors to the production of marketed maize, peasant farmers by the mid-1980s were contributing almost 50 per cent of the total. Total marketed production also soared, enabling Zimbabwe to become a major regional exporter of the crop. All this occurred despite severe drought, which had led to famine in neighbouring states, but which Zimbabwe survived because of its large stockpiles of grain. The picture changed at the end of the 1990s, however, when internal political turmoil curtailed the export market and raised the threat of food shortages. President Mugabe’s controversial land reform programme that expropriates land from white farmers, largely by force, to re-distribute among blacks has been divisive. See History below.
By the late 1980s large-scale commercial farmers, the main growers of tobacco, were shifting out of maize and tobacco into new crops like green beans and other vegetables, and flowers, which are exported to a number of countries. Livestock-raising and dairy farming are also of major importance. Beef, which is of high quality, is exported to the EU. In 2003 the country had about 22.1 million chickens, 5.75 million cattle, 2.97 million goats, 610,000 sheep, and 605,000 pigs.
Zimbabwe’s annual roundwood cut in 2002 was about 9.11 million cu m (322 million cu ft); most of it was used for household fuel. The fish catch in 2001 amounted to 13,200 tonnes mainly from Lake Kariba. Trout, prawns, and bream are farmed.
