Zimbabwe Today Lesson Plan – Part 1 (Comprehensive Background)

by | Feb 11, 2020 | Africa, Educator Resources, Lesson Plans

Subject: World History, Government, Social Studies

Background: Zimbabwe has a unique history. The country has been inhabited by various African tribes, controlled by a Royal Charter (becoming Rhodesia under the administration of the British South Africa Company), and colonized by the British. In 1953 Rhodesia became a federation. In1965 it became an outlaw state, when it declared its independence from the UK. A war of liberation was fought in the 1970’s, and free elections were held in 1980.

The post-colonial years have been better than many people predicted. However, many Zimbabweans are still waiting for President Mugabe to fulfill some of his promises. This lesson looks at how successful democratic reform movements have been in Zimbabwe.

Introduction

  1. Tell the class that the international banking community is looking into the possibility of investing money in Zimbabwe. Before they do this they want to access how effective democratic reform measures have been in Zimbabwe. The class will break into 5 groups to create a task force to investigate the current situation in Zimbabwe.
  2. Each team will be assigned one of five topics:
    1. The Economy
    2. Agriculture
    3. Education
    4. Women’s Issues
    5. Racial issues
  3. The student teams will take on the roles of task force members assigned to the project. The students will research their area and bring the information back to the whole class in a report
  4. The class will discuss the reports and make a decision whether or not to invest funds in
  5. Following the decision, students will write a report summarizing the information found by the task force, what the final decision was, and how they reached their decision.

Here are some Suggested Sources for Students

Zimbabwe Independent Onlinehttp://www.samara.co.zw/zimin/index.cfm
BBC News Online -Zimbabwe: Special Report http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1998/12/98/zimbabwe/newsid_223000/223290.stm
World History Archives: History of Zimbabwe http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/37/index-e.html
Business Day http://www.bday.co.za/98/0331/business/b2.htm
TIME.com http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/1998/int/980216/file.mugabes_empty_baske19.html

Assessment:

Students will be evaluated on the quality of their written report. Some suggested websites to begin their investigations are: