Chronicle (1966)

The New Zimbabwe (1980x2)

: 30, 1980

Earlier this month Rhodesia finally became Zimbabwe. The political tensions and political battles have received massive television and press coverage. But despite this we know little more today of the country's seven million Africans than the white settler who wrote in 1897: '... we know nothing of their past history, who they were or where they came from'. This film, which includes an interview with Robert Mugabe, looks at the history and culture of Zimbabwe mainly through the eyes of black Africa. It examines the ruined city of Great Zimbabwe itself and asks why the medieval African empire declined so that Europeans, arriving in 1890, found only decay and stagnation. With the reassertion of independence, to what extent will the new Zimbabwe return to traditional lifestyles and attitudes in the aftermath of while rule?