Zimbabwe's(1) 391 thousand square kilometers are in eastern southern Africa. It is vaguely roundish, except for a western point. All of it is plateau, divided between the Zambezi's(2) and the Limpopo's drainage, except for a small part in the west that tilts towards Botswana's Makgadikgadi salt pans, and another part in the southeast that creates Mozambique's Save River(3). The boundary between the two basins follows the 'High Veldt'(4) from the southwest to the north center, and then east to the Mozambique(5) border. There it meets a north-south range that reaches nearly 3,000 meters. A spur of the High Veldt, the Muuri Range, heads north from the north center.
The Zambezi constitutes the northwest border and includes Victoria Falls and Lake Kariba(6) before heading into Mozambique. It receives the Gwai and the Sanyati, with the upper streams of its tributary, the Luenha, heading into Mozambique.
The Limpopo forms Zimbabwe's southern boundary.
More than 12 million people live here (2007). More than two in three speak Shona as a first language(7). About one in ten the speak Ndebele, and one in 20 each, Manyika and Ndau. Most of the rest speak other Bantu languages, although the former colonial language, English, is official.
Probably three-quarters of the people consider themselves Christians, although most of them blend indiginous beliefs into the world religion.(8) Less than one in four follow the older local religions exclusively. Among both the Shona and the Ndebele are people who believe in the active participation of spirits of the deceased in material causation, in people who can communicate with and influence spirits (for good or ill), and in the existence of a background creator/ sustainer god: Mwari for the Shona; uMlimu for the Ndebele.
Only one city tops a million: the capital, Harare(9). It has 1.6 million in the city proper and 2.9 million in its metropolitan area (2007). Besides modern skyscrapters, the city boasts an Anglican cathedral and fountains in African Unity Square(10).
Speakers of Central Southern African Khoisan languages preceded the Bantu speakers, perhaps by thousands of years. Today there are still a few speakers of a language in the group: Hietshware.
The Bantu arrived no later than the first millenium, perhaps earlier. The Shona, or their ancestors, are associated with the archaeological remains with the same name as the nation, dating from the 8th or 9th century.
A Zulu invasion immediately preceded the British one in the 19th century. Forced and incented assimulation resulted in the spread of that group's language: Ndebele.
The Enlgish-speaking white supremacistgs discouraged the use of English by people with dark skin tones, favoring instead a Zulu pidgin, Fanagalo, which is still current as a second language for use in ordering servants and physical laborers.
northwest
east
south and southwest
(1) Formerly Southern Rhodesia.
(2) Spelled Zambeze in some other countries.
(3) Locally called the Sabi.
(4) The rest of the country being Middle Veldt except for some river valleys that comprise the Low Veldt.
(5) Moçambique in official (Portuguese) spelling.
(6) Perhaps Africa's fifth largest lake.
(7) Including Manyika and Ndau as Shona dialects instead of distinct languages would bring the total up to nearly eight in ten.
(8) For example, Jesus is considered by many Shona as a universal ancestral spirit, Mudzimu Mukuru (Hilde Arntsen, Religious Syncretism, www.usp.nus.edu.sg/post/zimbabwe/religion/arntsen4.html, accessed October 29, 2007).
(9) Formerly Salisbury.
(10) Formerly Cecil Square.