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10 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT ZIMBABWE
Before 1980, Zimbabwe was named Rhodesia. The name Rhodesia came from the British colonialist, Cecil Rhodes, who was the ruler at the time. Rhodesia covered both the countries that is now known as Zimbabwe and Zambia. Zambia being North Rhodesia and Zimbabwe formally known as Southern Rhodesia.
Because Zimbabwe only became an independent state in 1980 there are many people (outside of Zimbabwe, and usually the older generation) who still talks about Zimbabwe as Rhodesia.
In the 1950’s the government funded an incentive to discover new beryllium and lithium mines, but instead of new metal deposits, they found emeralds.
This first stone was discovered about 5 kms west-southwest of the confluence of the Nuanetsi and Mutsime Rivers and was named “Vulcan”. After more mining at the same spot where the first emerald was found, more and more emerald stones were found and it later became the first emerald mine, called “Zeus”.
The name “Sandawana” in “Sandawana emeralds” refers to both the place and an African Folklore about a mythical tale about a “red-haired-animal”. The folklore says that the owner of one of these animals’ red hairs will have good fortune for the rest of their lives. Like the folklore, the Sandawana emeralds are said to also bear good luck to their owners.
There are also other emerald mines in Zimbabwe which still function, but the Zeus claim at Sandawana has given the most consistent flow of emeralds through time.
King Solomon, a biblical figure in the Christian faith, received a cargo gold from Ophir every three years. It is theorized that Ophir, the place from where he received his gold, could be in Africa - and could actually be Great Zimbabwe.
As further evidence, Ophir was identified in Milton’s Paradise Lost among other works of literature and science. Although not officially recognized as the mining place of King Solomon’s gold, the theory draws enough attention to make it noteworthy.
If you think South Africa’s eleven official languages were many, get ready for more, because Zimbabwe holds the record for the most official languages in the world!
Zimbabwe has sixteen official languages. Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, sign language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, and Xhosa.
English is the main language used for instruction and is also the lingua franca, meaning that it is used in business and government because of the large quantity of official languages. English in this case, is then the second language of most citizens and the first language of the population of European descent. Zimbabwe has two official currencies, the United States Dollar and the Real Time Gross Settlement dollar.
From 1980 to 2009 Zimbabwe had four official currencies, but these four currencies fell under the name “Zimbabwean Dollar”. The Zimbabwean dollar was reduced a lot over time and at a time fell to the lowest currency unit in the world. This caused the Zimbabwean Dollar to be redenominated. It was redenominated three times and officially abandoned in 2009. This introduced a multiple-currency system and the country used the South African rand, Botswana pula, pound sterling, Indian rupee, euro, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Chinese yuan, and the United States dollar. This sustained until 2019 when the currency was replaced with the new Zimbabwe Dollar only, but was only in use until 2020. Whereafter the multiple-currency system was reintroduced. Tourists are recommended to use US dollars when doing payments instead of the Real Time Gross Settlement, just to keep it simple and uncomplicated.
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Published Sep 19, 2023
