Two countries in the region, Zambia and Zimbabwe (zim BAHB way), have tried with some success to keep themselves out of South Africa's long-reaching shadow. In spite of this shared goal, they have fared very differently. Zambia has over 880 million tons of copper reserves in an area known as the Copperbelt, which adjoins the Democratic Republic of the Congo. When Zambia achieved independence in 1964, the new president, Kenneth Kaunda, counted on copper to provide the country with a solid source of revenue. And in fact, after Zambia's independence, the country prospered. The government, certain that revenues from copper would always provide the nation with money to buy food, allowed Zambia's agricultural economy to decline.
In the long run, however, Zambia's reliance on copper proved to be a mistake. During the 1980s and 1990s, the price of copper on the world market plunged, and Zambia could not make enough money to feed its people. The country became poor just as fast as it had become rich.
In 1991, President Kaunda, who had held office for 27 years, was defeated by Frederick Chiluba, who initiated reforms to kick-start the economy. He relaxed agricultural policies and allowed businesses to privatize. Unfortunately, he also began to erode the rule of law for which he had campaigned. This corruption left many Zambians discouraged as they looked to the future.
The experience of Zimbabwe was different, in part because the country's citizens learned to work together. In 1965, the white minority government of Rhodesia—as Zimbabwe was then known—declared independence from Britain. But Britain and the United Nations demanded that Rhodesia's white leaders first respect the rights of the black majority. After years of conflict and negotiations, free elections were finally held in 1980. Later that same year, Rhodesia became the fully independent nation of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe's new leader, Robert Mugabe, was very cautious about making changes. At the time of independence, white farmers owned most of the nation's land. For this reason, Mugabe pursued a policy of land redistribution in which land was taken from those who had plenty and given to those who had little or none. According to Zimbabwe's constitution, white farmers had to be paid for their land, and they had to be willing to sell it. Land redistribution took place slowly in Zimbabwe, and this schedule gave the government more time to develop the necessary infrastructure for the new farmers. An infrastructure is a country's basic support systems, such as transportation, education, water, electricity, and other necessities.
However, Mugabe's care and caution were not to last. In 2000, President Mugabe announced that Zimbabwe planned to seize thousands of white-owned farms and give them to black Zimbabweans. He refused to compensate the white farmers as the law required. As squatters began to camp on white-owned land, violence erupted. When people criticized Mugabe's moves, he began to knock down two important pillars of democracy: freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The government arrested anyone who criticized it, including judges and journalists, and the peace that blacks and whites had shared was shattered.
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