Lets not forget climate change and stupidity. Zimbabwe used to be a food exporter. Drought in the 1990s was a real problem, then transferring commercial farms to new owners without capital or training in the last 5 years has had the predictable result. Meanwhile mines and other natural resources have apparently been sold cheaply to the Chinese. Without huge foreign (western) aid, it seems that millions of educated Zimbabweans (literacy rate is >90%) are doomed to poverty for the rest of their lives.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
