Norman Revill

Rhodesia was Africa’s breadbasket - until socialism turned it into a basket case. Once a self-governing British colony, Rhodesia declared independence in 1965 under Ian Smith. A white minority of about 250,000 governed 6 million Black citizens, but even facing sanctions and guerrilla war, the economy thrived. Secure property rights and modern farming turned the country into southern Africa’s top food exporter, shipping tobacco, maize, beef, and cotton. Mines produced chrome and gold; factories boomed. GDP per capita grew faster than most of the continent, inflation stayed low, and infrastructure - roads, rails, hospitals - rivalled Europe’s. Black wages in the formal sector were among Africa’s highest. But then formal independence arrived in 1980, as Rhodesia became Zimbabwe under new President, Robert Mugabe. Initial calm shattered when Marxist “land reform” in 2000 led to armed seizures of white farms. Commercial agriculture was destroyed; output fell over 60%. The currency collapsed and hyperinflation hit 90 sextillion percent by 2008 - prices were doubling roughly every 24 hours. Today, the former exporter relies on food aid. Rhodesia showed how markets and rule of law deliver growth, even under tension. And then Mugabe’s redistribution showed how fast central planning and envy can turn prosperity into ruin and decide a nation’s fate.