Images show Zimbabwe when it was Africa's bread basket

These fascinating pictures show a time when Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa long before it was left impoverished by Robert Mugabe.

Pictures from the late 1890s and early 1900s show farms, mines and railways being constructed in the southern African nation, when it was known as Rhodesia.

They also show protests calling for independence from colonialist rule as the 20th century progressed before a bloody liberation war started in 1972, led by Mugabe.

The dictator, now 93 and having been in effective control of Zimbabwe since 1980, is facing an uncertain future after he was placed under house arrest and put under pressure to end his 37-year rule.

Zimbabwe still has the world's third largest reserves of platinum and was once a huge agricultural exporter sending wheat, tobacco, and corn to the rest of the continent and beyond from its fertile farmland.

But under Mugabe's leadership, the country's mining and tourism-driven economy has been laid to waste. Hyperinflation has wiped out savings, unemployment is sky-high and economic output has halved since 2000 while seven in ten in the landlocked country of 16million are stuck in poverty.

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