Zimbabwe's Biggest City Shut Down To Protest Everything Going Wrong In Zimbabwe
Activists used the hashtag #ThisFlag to help organize a near total shutdown of the capital over the lack of economic opportunity in the country.
The streets of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital and largest city, were quiet on Wednesday morning.
Philimon Bulawayo / Reuters
...Very quiet.
Philimon Bulawayo / Reuters
Zimbabwe has been in an economic tailspin for the better part of two decades now, having taken a nosedive back in the early 2000s.
It was then that longtime president Robert Mugabe seized land from white farmers, redistributing it in the hopes of gaining more political support and weakening the landed elites. That in turn sparked widespread turmoil as the international community turned its back on Harare, crop yields plummeted, and hyperinflation made life miserable for the average Zimbabwean. Things have gotten especially bad lately as four in five Zimbabweans are currently unemployed and weather patterns threaten the country with famine.
Don Emmert / AFP / Getty Images