Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe and formerly Southern Rhodesia and the Republic of Rhodesia, is a landlocked country located in the southern part of Africa. It is bordered by South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. Zimbabwe has three official languages: English, Shona (a Bantu language), and Ndebele.

There were several native kingdoms existed before Zimbabwe became as a part of the British crown colony of Rhodesia, then called Zambesia, in 1888. In 1898 Southern Rhodesia became the official denotation for the region south of the Zambezi, which later became Zimbabwe. The region to the north was later named Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony in October 1923, subsequent to a 1922 referendum. In 1953; in the face of African opposition, Britain consolidated the two colonies of Rhodesia with Nyasaland (now Malawi) in the ill-fated Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland which was dominated by Southern Rhodesia. Growing African nationalism and general dissent, particularly in Nyasaland, admonished Britain to dissolve the Union in 1963, forming three colonies. As colonial rule was ending throughout the continent and as African-majority governments assumed control in neighboring Northern Rhodesia and in Nyasaland, the white-minority Rhodesia government made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November, 1965. The United Kingdom deemed this an act of rebellion, but did not re-establish control by force. The white-minority government declared itself a republic in 1970. Southern Rhodesia dropped the designation ‘Southern’, and claimed nation status as the Republic of Rhodesia. British granted the independence to Rhodesia in 1980 and the name of Zimbabwe was formally adopted.