Author: Hannah Edinger, Christopher Burke.

Rhodesia’s struggle for independence began in 1964 and ended with the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979 that paved the way for democratic elections in early 1980 and the birth of Zimbabwe. Ethnic rivalry has long been prominent in the country’s politics and played an important role during the struggle for independence. The Soviet Union provided support in the form of weapons and military training to the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), led by Joshua Nkomo. The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) under Robert Mugabe was predominantly Shona and made several attempts to solicit support from Moscow in 1978 and 1979. These approaches were rebuffed and ZANU then turned to the People's Republic of China (PRC). Mugabe first met with Chinese officials in Mozambique in January 19791. When elections were held in February 1980, ZANU won by a landslide and China established diplomatic relations with the Republic of Zimbabwe on the Independence Day of Zimbabwe - 18th April 1980. Zimbabwe experienced a low-intensity civil war for the following eight years until ZAPU merged with ZANU to form the ZANU-Patriotic Front (PF) and Joshua Nkomo was appointed Vice-President. Mugabe was extremely popular in the West and wholeheartedly implemented World Bank and IMF structural adjustment programmes between 1991 and 1996. These programmes were poorly conceived and quickly led to increased unemployment and broad social unrest2.