Population - 12 million (note 3.4 million living abroad as refugees)

Ethnic groups - Black 98% (Shona 80-84%, Ndebele 8-10% - up to 1 million Ndebele may have left the country, mainly for South Africa, over the last five years), white 1% (down from 275,000 in 1970 to 85,000 in 2006)

Languages - English (official), Shona, SiNdebele

Geography - Zimbabwe is land-locked, occupying the high plateau between the Zambezi river to the north and the Limpopo to the south. Recent environmental issues include land degradation, soil erosion, deforestation and poaching.

Climate - Tropical, but moderated by altitude. Rainy season from November to March. We will be there in late May.

Roads - More than 100,000 km – mostly paved and well maintained. The Zimbabwean economic crisis has had terrible consequences throughout the country, but its infrastructure has proved amazingly resilient.

THE CYCLE OF LIFE IN ZIMBABWE

We may never get to Zimbabwe. As much as we want to, and as well as the Zimbabweans need and deserve our support, the political regime under President Robert Mugabe has led the UK Foreign Office to advise taking ‘extreme caution’ before entering the country. Should the situation get any worse we will be forced to abandon this leg of the trip and pass directly from Botswana to Zambia.

Following Ian Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, years of violence saw Mugabe’s largely Shona ZANU party establish control of the country ahead of the predominantly Ndebele ZAPU party. Mugabe consistently strengthened his position, and organised land distribution from (largely) white ownership to Zimbabweans. Seen as an anti-white movement, it seems the land seizure was more likely an attempt to redistribute power in the country by limiting that of the white population in order for the Shona majority to have economic control of Zimbabwe. In the economic crisis that has followed, it has been Matebeleland and the Ndebele people that have experienced the most desperate starvation and lack of government support.

Mugabe’s hounding of the farming community, his attempts to nationalise mining and other industries, and his policies of intimidation, not only resulted in the mass departure of the country’s commercial and financial leaders, but also saw economic sanctions imposed by the western world. This resulted in a massive shortage of foreign capital, coinciding with low and dropping productivity. According to official figures, inflation rose from an annual rate of 32% in 1998 to a high of 3500% in summer 2007, a state of hyperinflation. The exchange rate fell from 24 Zimbabwean dollars per US dollar to 250,000 Zimbabwean dollars per US Dollar (official rate) or 3,000,000 Zimbabwean dollars per US Dollar (black market rate), in eight years.

The decline of Zimbabwe's economy means that the number of people living in poverty – currently estimated at more than 70 % - is increasing. On the Human Devlopment Index Zimbabwe ranks 145 of 177 countries. Unemployment has been at 80% since 2005, and the level of HIV infection is one of the highest in the world – AIDS-related illnesses account for about three quarters of hospital admissions. As a result, life expectancy has fallen to 37 years for men and 34 for women, from an historical high of 55 years.

In Zimbabwe, more than in any other country we will visit, we will see rural African at its most raw. We will see how conservation has become a secondary concern, even for conservationists, to securing a reliable meal. We will see how poaching has become a way of life for people too hungry to care. And we will see how an extraordinary level of optimism and humanity can still be found in one of the most ravaged countries in the world.

ROUTE

  • We will enter Zimbabwe on its western border, between Francistown (Botswana) and Bulawayo.
  • Moving north, we will skirt the huge Hwange (link to elephants of Hwange) National Park.
  • At the western edge of Hwange is the Painted Dog Conservation Project (project link) where we will see conservation at its most resilient.
  • Finally, we will head north into Zambia, passing out of Zimbabwe at Victoria Falls