White Zimbabweans

White Zimbabweans (formerly White Rhodesians; sometimes just Rhodesians) are an ethnocultural Southern African people of European descent. Most are English-speaking descendants of British settlers; a small minority are either Afrikaans-speaking descendants of mostly Dutch originating Afrikaners from South Africa or descendants of Greek, Irish, Portuguese, Italian, and Jewish immigrants.

Following the establishment of the colony of Southern Rhodesia by Britain, white settlers began to move to the territory and slowly developed rural and urban communities. From 1923, the settlers concentrated on developing rich mineral resources and agricultural land in the area. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the number of white people emigrating to Rhodesia from Britain, Europe and other parts of Africa increased, almost doubling the white population, with white Rhodesians playing an integral role in the nation's strong economic development throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. At its height in the early 1970s, the number of white people in the region was the highest in Africa outside South Africa and Kenya, peaking at around 300,000 people, some 5% of the population.

Various social, economic and political disparities between the black majority and smaller white population were factors in the Rhodesian Bush War after the government of white Prime Minister Ian Smith implemented the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, establishing Rhodesia as a de facto independent state in 1965, although it was not recognised internationally and was technically still a British Colony. Following the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980, the white population gradually began to decline; many remained in the country, with some still identifying as Rhodesian. White Zimbabweans continued to represent a majority of the country's middle and upper classes during the 1980s and 1990s, but after 2000 the population shrank further as a result of violence, economic instability and controversial land reform policies enacted by the government of Robert Mugabe in which white-owned farmland was forcibly seized. White Zimbabweans reportedly faced increased levels of poverty following the deterioration of the Zimbabwean economy during the 2000s and 2010s. An influx of returning White Zimbabweans, including farmers whose lands had been confiscated, followed Mugabe's removal from power and replacement by Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Communities of White Zimbabweans continue to exist in larger towns and cities including Bulawayo and the Harare metropolitan area, with numerous Harare suburbs such as Avondale, Mount Pleasant and Borrowdale hosting significant white populations. According to the 2022 census, white Zimbabweans numbered just 24,888, representing 0.16% of the national population.

Present-day Zimbabwe (known as Southern Rhodesia from 1895) was occupied by the British South Africa Company (BSAC) from the 1890s onward, following its subjugation of the Matabele (Ndebele) and Shona nations. Early White settlers came in search of mineral resources, hoping to find a second gold-rich Witwatersrand. Zimbabwe lies on a plateau that varies in altitude between 900 and 1,500 m (2,950 and 4,900 ft) above sea level. This gives the area a moderate climate which was conducive to European settlement and commercial agriculture.

White settlers who assisted in the BSAC takeover of the country were given land grants of 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres); the native Black people who had long lived on the land were classified legally as tenants. In 1930, Land Apportionment and Tenure Acts displaced Africans from the country's best farmland, restricting them to unproductive and low-rainfall tribal-trust lands. It reserved areas of high rainfall for White ownership. White settlers were attracted to Rhodesia by the availability of tracts of prime farmland that could be purchased from the state at low cost. This resulted in the growth of commercial agriculture in the young colony. The White farm was typically a large (>100 km² (>38.6 mi²)) mechanized estate, owned by a White family and employing hundreds of Black people. Many White farms provided housing, schools and clinics for Black employees and their families. At the time of independence in 1980, more than 40% of the country's farmed land was made up of approximately 5,000 White farms. At the time, agriculture provided 40% of the country's GDP and up to 60% of its foreign earnings. Major export products included tobacco, beef, sugar, cotton and maize. The minerals sector was also important. Gold, asbestos, nickel and chromium were mined by foreign-owned concerns such as Lonrho (Lonmin since 1999) and Anglo American.

The Census of 3 May 1921 found that Southern Rhodesia had a total population of 899,187, of whom 33,620 were Europeans; 1,998 were Coloured (mixed race); 1,250 Asiatics; 761,790 Bantu natives of Southern Rhodesia; and 100,529 Bantu aliens. The following year, Southern Rhodesians rejected, in a referendum, the option of becoming a province of the Union of South Africa. Instead, the country became a self-governing British colony. It never gained full dominion status, but unlike other colonies, it was treated as a de facto dominion, with its Prime Minister attending the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conferences.

Portuguese explorer António Fernandes was the first European to visit the region.