1980 — Zimbabwe Independence

At midnight on April 18, 1980, the white-minority state of Rhodesia was reborn as the Republic of Zimbabwe, ending a ninety-year colonial project and a brutal fifteen-year liberation war. The 1979 Lancaster House talks had settled the terms, and Robert Mugabe's party won the first democratic election. A new flag was ready to rise over the capital, Salisbury, as the old order closed.

Mugabe was sworn in as prime minister with a promise of reconciliation. He watched the new Zimbabwean flag rise over Salisbury. For a nation born through long war, that midnight moment carried both victory and the hard work of beginning again together.