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Home Travel story Route Tips Links Who are we? About Zimbabwe Picture gallery What does it cost? Here follows short general
information about Zimbabwe. Situation Zimbabwe is a
country in Southern Africa and is a neighbour of South Africa, Mozambique,
Zambia and Botswana. It’s mainly highland between 700 and 170 meters above sea
level. Zimbabwe is a relatively small country of 390.580 km2 and has a
population of 11.200.000 inhabitants. The majority of the people (70%) live in
the countryside. Climate Because
of the highlands it has a moderate climate: the winters are not really cold and
the summers not really hot. The maximum temperature lies between 20 degrees in
wintertime and 30 degrees Celsius in summertime. In the eastern highlands it’s
a few degrees colder. It’s raining season from the end of October until the
end of March. It rains in short but heavy (thunder) showers. In
short: Zimbabwe has a perfect climate for travelling. When we were in Bulawayo it was 15 degrees one day. It was so cold that it was front-page news. In Hwange it was over 30 degrees at midday.. Government Zimbabwe is democratic since it’s independence from Great Britain in 1980. Robert Mugabe is the president since. 20 years is to long so we heard from several Zimbabwean people. The government makes the same mistakes as the other African countries did: corruption, self enrichment and a big difference between rich and poor. In 2000 there were elections. Mugabe lost his twothird majority. He ignores the dicisions of the highest court in the country and sets himself above the law. Now it is a dictator. The occupation of 1200 farms costed >20 lives so far. Economical the country is in a deep very deep recession. The inflation is high. Population The
population is mainly black, only 3% of the people are white. So as a European
tourist you are in the picture. There are a few tribes: i.a. Shona, Ndebele and
the Batonka. They live "peaceful" together. Because of the corruption there is social unrest. At the time we were there, there was a strike of the catering personnel, after that the hospital doctors and when we left the country also the nurses want to go on strike. Education In Zimbabwe there is a compulsory education. The public schools are very bad because of the underpayment of the teachers. Foreign people send their children to (expensive) private schools. Language The
official language is English although this is the mother language of only 2% of
the people. Most people speak Shona (76%) or Ndebele (18%) or another local
language. In spite of that, when you speak English you can come everywhere.
Almost everyone speaks a little bit of English. The English they speak is different from the English we know. They use words out of other languages such as South African and Shona. Sometimes they simply made new words.
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