Ethnic rivalry between the Shona and Ndebele has played a large part in Zimbabwe 's politics , a consequence of the country 's borders defined by its British colonial rulers . This continued after independence in 1980 , during the Gukurahundi ethnic cleansing liberation wars in Matabeleland in the 1980s . This led to the political merger of Joshua Nkomo 's Zimbabwe African People 's Union ( ZAPU ) with the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union ( ZANU ) to form ZANU-PF and the appointment of Nkomo as vice president
Gukurahundi
Gukurahundi
Politics of Zimbabwe