RHODESIA TO ZIMBABWE: Peace at Last? - Gene H Hogberg - May 1980

Gene H Hogberg

A bloody guerrilla war comes to an end/after seven years; elections sweep a revolutionary leader into power. What does the future hold for this war-weary land and the rest of troubled southern Africa? April 18, 1980: The proclaimed birthday of Zimbabwe, Africa's newest independent nation. Behind the celebrations lay many unhealed scars, legacies of the seven-year-long guerrilla "bush" war: • 25,000 people killed, most of them under the age of 15. • The physical maiming - and often brutal mutilation - of an additional 10,000. • More than 800,000 made homeless. • A nearly depleted national treasury. • A 25 percent drop in living standards over the past four years and an emigration of 15 percent of its skilled white population - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library