White Zimbabweans (formerly White Rhodesians) are an ethnocultural Southern African people of European descent. Most are English-speaking descendants of British settlers; a small minority are either Afrikaans-speaking descendants of mostly Dutch-originating Afrikaners from South Africa or descendants of Greek, Irish, Portuguese, Italian, and Jewish immigrants.
Following the establishment of the colony of Southern Rhodesia by Britain, White settlers began to move to the territory and slowly developed rural and urban communities. From 1923, the settlers concentrated on developing rich mineral resources and agricultural land in the area. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the number of White people emigrating to Rhodesia from Britain, Europe and other parts of Africa increased, almost doubling the White population, with White Rhodesians playing an integral role in the nation's strong economic development throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. At its height in the early 1970s, the number of White people in the region was the highest in Africa outside South Africa, peaking at around 300,000 people, some 5% of the population.
Various social, economic and political disparities between the Black majority and smaller White population were factors in the Rhodesian Bush War after the government of White Prime Minister Ian Smith implemented the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, establishing Rhodesia as an de facto independent state in 1965. Following the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980, the White population began to decline; many remained in the country, with some still identifying as Rhodesian. White Zimbabweans continued to represent a majority of the country's middle and upper classes during the 1980s and 1990s, but after 2000 the population shrank further as a result of violence, economic instability and controversial land reform policies enacted by the government of Robert Mugabe in which White-owned farmland was forcibly seized. White Zimbabweans reportedly faced increased levels of poverty following the deterioration of the Zimbabwean economy during the 2000s and 2010s. An influx of returning White Zimbabweans, including farmers whose lands had been confiscated, followed Mugabe's removal from power and replacement by Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Communities of White Zimbabweans continue to exist in larger towns and cities including Bulawayo and the Harare metropolitan area, with numerous Harare suburbs such as Avondale, Mount Pleasant and Borrowdale hosting significant White populations. According to the 2022 census, White Zimbabweans numbered 24,888, representing 0.16% of the national population.Current Africanist Research: International Bulletin. La Recherche Africaniste en Cours; Bulletin International - International African Institute. Research Information Liaison Unit - pg. 367
Background Present-day Zimbabwe (known as Southern Rhodesia from 1895) was occupied by the British South Africa Company (BSAC) from the 1890s onward, following its subjugation of the Matabele (Ndebele) and Shona nations. Early White settlers came in search of mineral resources, hoping to find a second gold-rich Witwatersrand. Zimbabwe lies on a plateau that varies in altitude between 900 and 1,500 m (2,950 and 4,900 ft) above sea level. This gives the area a moderate climate which was conducive to European settlement and commercial agriculture.This is a journey: the geography of Zimbabwe
White settlers who assisted in the BSAC takeover of the country were given land grants of ; the native Black people who had long lived on the land were classified legally as tenants. In 1930, Land Apportionment and Tenure Acts displaced Africans from the country's best farmland, restricting them to unproductive and low-rainfall tribal-trust lands. It reserved areas of high rainfall for White ownership. White settlers were attracted to Rhodesia by the availability of tracts of prime farmland that could be purchased from the state at low cost. This resulted in the growth of commercial agriculture in the young colony. The White farm was typically a large (>100 km2 (>38.6 mi2)) mechanized estate, owned by a White family and employing hundreds of Black people. Many White farms provided housing, schools and clinics for Black employees and their families. At the time of independence in 1980, more than 40% of the country's farmed land was made up of approximately 5,000 White farms. At the time, agriculture provided 40% of the country's GDP and up to 60% of its foreign earnings.Multinational Monitor, April 1981 :Zimbabwe's government wins confidence Major export products included tobacco, beef, sugar, cotton and maize. The minerals sector was also important. Gold, asbestos, nickel and chromium were mined by foreign-owned concerns such as Lonrho (Lonmin since 1999) and Anglo American.
The Census of 3 May 1921 found that Southern Rhodesia had a total population of 899,187, of whom 33,620 were Europeans; 1,998 were Coloured (mixed race); 1,250 Asiatics; 761,790 Bantu natives of Southern Rhodesia; and 100,529 Bantu aliens.Official Year Book of the Colony of Southern Rhodesia, No. 1, 1924 (Art Printing and Publishing Works, Salisbury, 1924) The following year, Southern Rhodesians rejected, in a referendum, the option of becoming a province of the Union of South Africa. Instead, the country became a self-governing British colony. It never gained full dominion status, but unlike other colonies, it was treated as a de facto dominion, with its Prime Minister attending the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conferences.
History Portuguese explorer António Fernandes was the first European to visit the region.
Settlement In 1891, before Southern Rhodesia was established as a territory, it was estimated that about 1,500 Europeans resided there. This number grew slowly to around 75,000 in 1945. In the period 1945 to 1955, the White population doubled to 150,000, and during that decade 100,000 Black people were forcibly resettled from farmland designated for White ownership.Selby, Angus (2006) "White farmers in Zimbabwe 1890-2005." PhD Thesis, University of Oxford: p. 60 However, some members of the White farming community opposed the forced removal of Black people from land designated for White ownership. Some favoured the transfer of underutilised "White land" to Black farmers. For example, in 1947, Wedza White farmer Harry Meade unsuccessfully opposed the eviction of his Black neighbour Solomon Ndawa from a irrigated wheat farm. Meade represented Ndawa at hearings of the Land Commission and attempted to protect Ndawa from abusive questioning.Selby thesis: p52
Large-scale migration to Rhodesia did not begin until after the Second World War. At the colony's first comprehensive census in 1962, Rhodesia had 221,000 White residents. At its peak in the mid-1970s, Rhodesia's White population consisted of as many as 277,000. There were influxes of White settlers from the 1940s through to the early 1970s. The country saw a net gain of 9,400 White immigrants in 1971, the highest number since 1957 and the third highest on record.Rhodesia Immigration Rises The New York Times. 23 April 1972 In the immediate postwar period, the most conspicuous group were former British servicemen. However, many of the new immigrants were refugees from Communism in Europe; others were former service personnel from British India, or came from the former Kenya Colony, the Belgian Congo, Zambia, Algeria, and Mozambique. For a time, Rhodesia provided something of a haven for White people who were retreating from decolonisation elsewhere in Africa and Asia.Selby thesis: p58 In 1974 the Smith government launched a massive campaign to attract one million Europeans to settle in the country.RHODESIA: MASSIVE IMMIGRATION PLAN LAUNCHED AS ACCOMMODATION FOR EUROPEANS LIES VACANT IN SALISBURY. (1974) British Pathe. 1974
Post-World War II Rhodesian White settlers were considered different in character from earlier Rhodesian settlers and those from other British colonies. In Kenya, settlers were perceived to be drawn from "the officer class" and from the British landowning class. By contrast, settlers in Rhodesia after the Second World War were perceived as being drawn from lower social strata and were treated accordingly by the British authorities. As Peter Godwin wrote in The Guardian, "Foreign Office mandarins dismissed Rhodesians as lower middle class, no more than provincial clerks and artisans, the lowly NCOs of empire."If only ... , The Guardian, 25 November 2007
Various factors encouraged the growth of the White population of Rhodesia. These included the industrialisation and prosperity of the economy in the post-war period. The National Party victory in South Africa was one of the factors that led to the formation of the Central African Federation (1953–1963), so as to provide a bulwark against Afrikaner nationalism. British settlement and investment boomed during the Federation years, as Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and Nyasaland (now Malawi) formed a powerful economic unit, counterbalancing the economic power of South Africa. The economic power of these three areas was a major factor in the establishment of the Federation through a British Act of Parliament. It was also apparent as early as the 1950s that White rule would continue for longer in Rhodesia than it would in other British colonies such as Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) and Kenya. Many of the new immigrants had a "not here" attitude to majority rule and independence.Selby thesis: p59
Rhodesia was run by a White minority government. In 1965, that government declared itself independent through a Unilateral Declaration of Independence ('UDI') under Prime Minister Ian Smith.BBC report: UDI of Rhodesia, 1965 The UDI project eventually failed, after a period of United Nations economic sanctions and a civil war known as the Chimurenga (Shona) or Bush War. British colonial rule returned in December 1979, when the country became the British Dependency of Southern Rhodesia. In April 1980, it was granted independence as Zimbabwe.
The White Rhodesian community kept itself largely separate from the Black and Asian communities in the country."From Civilization to Segregation: Social ideals and social control in Southern Rhodesia, 1890–1934" by Carol Summers, Ohio University Press, 1994, Urban White Rhodesians lived in separate areas of town, and had their own segregated education, healthcare and recreational facilities. Marriage between Black and White Rhodesians was possible but rare, and interracial marriage remains to the present day very rare. The 1903 Immorality Suppression Ordinance made "illicit" (i.e. unmarried) sex between Black men and White women illegal – with a penalty of two years' imprisonment for any offending White woman.Gender and History, 2005 :article by Lucy Bland on black-white sex, see p3 The majority of the early White immigrants were men, and some White men entered into relationships with Black women. The result was a small number of mixed-race persons: 1,998 out of a total 899,187 inhabitants, according to the 1921 census, some of whom were accepted as being White. A proposal by Garfield Todd (Prime Minister in 1953–1958) to liberalise the laws regarding interracial sex was viewed as dangerously radical. The proposal was rejected and was one factor that led to the political demise of Todd.Guardian: Obituaries: Sir Garfield Todd