Demographics of Zimbabwe - Ethnic Groups

Ethnic Groups

Black ethnic groups make up 98.5% of the population. The majority people, the Shona, comprise 70%. Included among the Shona are about 2 million descendants of migrant workers from Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. Also incorrectly included are the Shangaan found in Chimanimani and Chipinge Districts-they originated from South Africa in the 19th Century and were led by Soshangane.The Shangaan in Manicaland bear names like Mhlanga, Mlambo,Maphosa, Dhlamini, Dhliwayo, Hlathwayo,Sithole, Zabanyana, Mzilikazi, Makanza, Mauchaza, Muchakazi, etc. The Ndebele are approximately 20% of the population. The Ndebele are descended from Zulu migrations in the nineteenth century.The balance comprises the Kalanga, Nambya, Tonga, Venda and Suthu. The national prominence of Ndebele and Shona is due to the Education Act which prescribed these two languages for the school carricullum for both primary and secondary education. However, Kalanga and Nambya are dialectically the same as Karanga, a Shona dialect. Support for the opposition is particularly strong among the non-Shona, but is by no means confined to it. Up to three million Zimbabweans have left the country over the last five years, mainly for South Africa.

Other less populous Zimbabwean ethnic groups include white Zimbabweans, mostly of British origin (95%), but some are of Afrikaner, Portuguese and Dutch origin as well, who make up approximately 0.5% of the total population. (It is currently extremely hard to keep track of the current trends of the white population. As the last census is almost certainly inaccurate, the figure could be as high as 1.5% of the total population or as low as 0.01% of the total population.) Because of the economic climate in Zimbabwe, many whites had to make a quick escape and therefore many businesses and properties are still in the hands of white Zimbabwean citizens living abroad. It is possible that any long term change in Zimbabwe's economic and political situation may bring many white Zimbabweans home. The white population dropped from a peak of around 280,000-300,000 in 1975-1979 to about 70,000 in the mid 1990s. The 2001 census put the white population at around 50,000 although this is probably an understatement because of domicile issues. Most white emigration has been to the UK, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Australia and New Zealand. Before the economic and political crisis began in the late 1990s, there were 50,000 Mixed race citizens as well as various Asian ethnic groups (40,000), mostly of Indian and Chinese origin. They have played an influential role in the economic sector. However, both the mixed-race and Asian ethnic groups have dwindled (now each less than 0.01% of the population) as most of these people have fled Zimbabwe along with most whites and three to four million black Zimbabweans. In fact it has been estimated that one-quarter to one-third of Zimbabweans have fled en masse mostly to South Africa and neighboring countries as well as overseas to Britain as Zimbabwe's economy has imploded over the last ten years.