Location and Geography

Zimbabwe, like Botswana, is a landlocked country at the base of the African continent. Its neighbors are Mozambique (to the east), South Africa and Botswana (to the south and west), and Zambia (to the north). Zimbabwe lies on a high plateau, and its terrain consists primarily of grasslands bordered on the east by mountains. The northeastern border of the country is marked by the mighty Zambezi River, along which is located the incomparable spectacle of Victoria Falls and the magnificent expanse of Lake Kariba.

History

Southern Africa's human history extends back through the millennia to the first rumblings of humanity on the planet. The first upright-walking 'hominids' established themselves in the savannas of southern and eastern Africa nearly 4 million years ago. These human-like creatures slowly developed into persons-as-we-know-'em as more sophisticated tools were produced and climatic conditions became more favorable.

The first inhabitants of Zimbabwe were probably nomadic, adaptable San groups, gradually absorbed by Khoi-Khoi grazier tribes, and slowly transmuting into a culture known as Khoisan. Bantu-speaking farmers, either Khoisan settlers or Iron Age migrants from the north, were the first occupants of the Great Zimbabwe site in the south of the country. Between 500 and 1000AD, the Gokomere (a Bantu group into gold-mining and cattle ranching) enslaved and absorbed San groups in the area.

By the 15th century, Great Zimbabwe's influence had begun to decline, due to a heady cocktail of overpopulation, overgrazing, popular uprisings and political fragmentation. The Shona dynasties fractured into autonomous states, many of which later formed the Rozwi state, which encompassed over half of present-day Zimbabwe well into the 19th century. In 1834, Ndebele raiders invaded from the south, assassinated the Rozwi leader and established a Ndebele state with the capital at Bulawayo. Meanwhile, European gold seekers and ivory hunters from the Cape were moving into Shona and Ndebele territory. The best known of these was Cecil John Rhodes who envisioned a corridor of British-style 'civilisation' stretching all the way from the Cape to Cairo. Sanctioned by Queen Victoria, white settlers swarmed in, led by the heavy-handed Rhodes.

By 1895, the new country was being referred to as Rhodesia and a white legislature was set up. By 1911 there were some 24,000 settlers. Amazingly, the Ndebele and Shona natives weren't overly delighted about the colonists coming in and telling them what was what, even though the Brits were ever so reasonable about everything and had jolly nice safari suits. Jihad-like revolts, raids and razzing in the last years of the 19th century became known as Chimurenga, the War for Liberation, but the fight stalled in 1897 when the crusade leaders were captured and hanged. Conflicts between black and white came into sharp focus during the 1920s and 30s through referenda and legislation which excluded black Africans from ownership of the best farmland and from skilled trades and professions. The effect was to force Africans to work on white farms and in mines and factories. Poor wages and conditions led to rebellion and African political parties emerged.

Ian Smith became Rhodesia's president in 1964 and began pressing for independence. When he realized that Britain's conditions for cutting the tether wouldn't be accepted by Rhodesia's whites, he made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence. The Declaration was declared illegal by Britain, and the UN imposed sanctions (mostly ignored) in 1968. The African parties opted for increasingly fierce guerilla warfare (known as the Second Chimurenga) and whites began to abandon their homes and farms. Smith tried ceasefires, amnesties, secret talks and sneaky assassinations, all of which failed to curb the fighting. Finally, he was forced to call a general non-racial election and hand over leadership to Abel Muzorewa, an African National Congress member.

In March 1980, Mugabe prevailed by a wide margin and Zimbabwe joined the ranks of Africa's independent nations. ugabe, a committed Marxist, has hung on to power ever since. He's survived resurgent rivalry and guerilla activity through a canny combination of dirty government, gerrymander and intimidation. increasingly strident demands by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and aid donors for the introduction of greater democratic measures in return for loan or aid.

Zimbabwe's citizens have become increasingly impatient with Mugabe as his large-scale mismanagement has filtered down as hip-pocket pinch. In Harare in early 1998, the dissatisfaction spilt over into open hostility, riots and looting. Although the country is recovering from the catastrophic drought of the early 1990s, the economy remains in dire straits. Zimbabwe, and Mugabe in particular, have come under increasing scrutiny due to the worrying increase in politically motivated human rights abuses and general climate of fear.

Mugabe was reelected in March 2002, but the election was controversial and marred by scandal. The rival Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has united with other civic organizations in continuing protests for a new constitution and against Mugabe's dictatorial tactics. Mugabe has accused his rivals of treason and clamped down on journalists who dare criticize his regime. International leaders are keeping a close watch on the situation and hoping to stave off further chaos through negotiations.


History and People

There is evidence of settlements in Zimbabwe dating from as long ago as the second century AD, but these early inhabitants were supplanted around the 5th century by Bantu-speaking peoples. In southeastern Zimbabwe, in 1870, European explorers came upon an impressive ruined city, which they believed to be the biblical city of Ophir, the site of King Solomon's mines.
The immediate result was a frantic, and utterly unsuccessful, search for gold deposits in the surrounding region. Archaeologists have more recently determined that the site was occupied as early as the 3rd century AD, but that its ruins date from the12th to the 15th century. Known as Great Zimbabwe, it was the capital of a Shona trading empire that collapsed for reasons that remain unknown.By the middle of the 19th century, with European influence still slight, the region's Shona states had been defeated by an invading Ndebele army from the south. Ndebele power didn't last long, however. In 1890, the fortune-hunting Cecil Rhodes arrived at the head of a private army of settlers and commenced to conquer what he thought might be a rich gold-producing region.

By 1897 the area had been completely subdued. In 1923 Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony, completely controlled by the white settlers. For much of the last half-century Zimbabwe's history has been that of the long struggle to end white rule. Finally, in 1979, a new constitution that provided for democratic majority rule was established.

Artists are highly esteemed in Zimbabwean society and a greater percentage of artists make a viable living from their trade than in most other countries. In fact, Zimbabweans seem to take a measure of artistic talent for granted. Traditional arts, most of which are still practised, include pottery, basketry, textiles, jewellery and carving. Perhaps most notable for their quality and beauty are the symmetrically patterned woven baskets and stools carved from a single piece of wood. One recurring theme is the metamorphosis of man into beast, the prescribed punishment for violations such as making a meal of one's totem animal. Most of the work is superb and a few Zimbabwean sculptors are recognized among the world's best. Zimbabwean's mesmerizing music has always been an important part of its cultural life. African legends are punctuated by musical choruses in which the audience participates, and social events (such as weddings, funerals, harvest and births) are each accompanied by unique songs.

Traditional musical instruments include the marimba, a richly-toned wooden xylophone and the mbira, a cute plinky-plonky device more commonly known as a thumb piano. The oddest percussion instrument used in Zimbabwe are the mujejeje ('stone bells'). Many stones in granite outcrops around the country have exfoliated in such a way that when struck, they resound with a lovely bell-like tone (Zimbabwe's first rock music? - ouch).

Harare is one of Africa's great musical centers, attracting South African exiles and indigenous musicians performing variations on Chimurenga music, inspired by the wars of independence. Between 65% and 75% of Zimbabweans belong to Christian churches, but their belief system is characterized more by a hybrid of Christian and traditional beliefs than by dogmatic Christianity.

The Mwari cult, a monotheistic animist belief system which entails ancestor worship, and spiritual proxy and intercession, is the dominant non-Christian religion. Mwari, the unknowable supreme being, speaks to his human subjects through The Voice of Mwari, a cave-dwelling oracle who is most often female. The oracle serves as an intercessionary between the spirits, the god and the people, especially in cases of natural disaster or outside aggression. It was the oracle, in fact, who received the go-ahead to begin the First Chimurenga (rebellion) in 1896.

English is the official language of Zimbabwe, but it is a first language for only about 4% of the population. The rest of the people are native speakers of Bantu languages, the two most prominent of which are Shona, spoken by 76% of the population, and Sindebele, spoken by 18%. Annoying co-travellers can be swiftly dispatched by dedicated practizing of the Sindebele 'clicks', made by drawing the tongue away from the front teeth, slapping it on the roof of the mouth, or drawing it quickly sideways from the right upper gum.

Zimbabwean cuisine is mostly the legacy of bland British fare combined with normally stodgy African dishes. The dietary staple is sadza - the white maize meal porridge upon which most local meals are built. The second component is nyama - meat, usually beef or chicken, but also crocodile, kudu and impala. Fruit and vegetables are limited, but don't miss gem squash, a delicious type of marrow.

The alcoholic tipple of the masses is chibuku, 'the beer of good cheer'. Served up in buckets which are passed between partakers, it has the appearance of hot cocoa, the consistency of thin gruel and a deceptively mellow build up to the knockout punch. It's not at all tasty. Chibuku is drunk mainly in high-density township beer halls - a distinctly male social scene.

Coffee addicts who want to kick the habit should think about a holiday in Zimbabwe. Although coffee is grown in the Eastern Highlands, it's mostly for export and there's not a Gaggia in sight. Most of what passes for coffee is an abomination known as Daybreak, a revolting blend of 10% instant coffee and 90% chicory.

Political History

At the beginning of the first millennium AD the region immediately to the south of the Zambezi River, which was later to become Rhodesia, was inhabited by Neolithic hunter-gatherers related to the San or 'Bushmen' people. In succeeding centuries groups of Iron Age peoples from the north began moving into the area, bringing with them knowledge of food-crop cultivation and absorbing or pushing further south the original inhabitants. It was during this period that thousands of small gold mines began to be worked and contact was established with Swahili and Arab merchants from the East African coast.

During the ninth and tenth centuries, Shona-speaking peoples (ancestors of the dominant linguistic group in present-day Zimbabwe) began to migrate into the area, intermingling with and absorbing the other Bantu-speaking inhabitants already there. By the beginning of the 12th century they had already established the basis for the civilization that was to develop into the two great state systems known as the Mwene Mutapa and Rozwi empires that successively dominated the area into the 19th century. Its greatest period of expansion was between 1450 and 1500 under King Mutota, and by the time of the arrival of the first Portuguese at the beginning of the 16th century its area of control included most of present-day Zimbabwe and large parts of present-day Mozambique.

The central government maintained its power through a system of tribute from its vassals. By the beginning of the 17th century the Mutapa empire was in rapid decline as a result of its constant struggles with the invading Portuguese, coupled with a debilitating series of internal dynastic disputes. Beginning in the 14th century as a separate state from the Mutapa empire, the Rozwi kingdom reached its zenith in the 17th and 18th centuries. Not only was it able to take control of external trade, but it was also able to drive back the Portuguese invaders. Rozwi power disintegrated in the mid-19th century after invasions from the south, the most important of which was led by Mzilikazi, the chief of the Ndebele.
In the late 1940s, moves began to create a Central African Federation of Southern and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi). Some whites opposed this as they would become a smaller minority in such a federation, since the European population of the latter two colonies was minimal and the 'winds of change' on the continent, brought about by African nationalism, were already beginning to blow.

At the same time, however, Southern Rhodesia was in transition from an economy based almost entirely on settler agriculture to one that was becoming increasingly industrialized. It was these industrial interests - both local and foreign - which, along with the British government, provided the bulk of support for federation. The vision was to combine the large supply of cheap labor of Nyasaland and the vast mineral resources of Northern Rhodesia with the capital, technological know-how and coal-supplied power of Southern Rhodesia, while at the same time maintaining European dominance over all.

Almost from its beginning in 1953, the Federation was plagued by both black and white opposition. Local and foreign industrial and mining interests wanted to limit the power of settler agriculture and of the white workers by making some concessions to Africans, so as to create a broader and more racially mixed middle stratum between large-scale capital and the masses of African peasants and workers.

1945 witnessed the first successful strike by African railway workers, resulting in wage increases and official recognition for their union. In the early l950s the All-African Convention was formed with nationalists from both the Rhodesias and Nyasaland to oppose federation. Joshua Nkomo, then the head of the Railway African Workers' Union became the Convention's president in 1952.

Sporadic acts of sabotage in the early 1960s indicated an increasing African impatience with the prospects for constitutional change.
In 1962 The Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) was banned, and most of its leadership was restricted for three months. The People's Caretaker Council was created as a temporary replacement inside Rhodesia, but ZAPU maintained its existence externally. In 1963 the breakaway Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) was formed under the leadership of Ndabaningi Sithole, reflecting tensions concerning the pace of the nationalist struggle under Nkomo.

The Central African Federation was dissolved in 1963, paving the way for the independence of Malawi and Zambia on the basis of 'majority rule'. Britain refused to decolonize Southern Rhodesia until some sort of accommodation could be worked out between black and white. Field was replaced as Prime Minister by Ian Smith, who moved rapidly to bring the crisis to a head. Both ZAPU and ZANU were banned completely in 1964, and much of the nationalist leadership was imprisoned. Another referendum showed overwhelming white support for a unilateral declaration of independence. A May 1965 general election gave all 50 upper roll seats to the Rhodesian Front, and Smith's government made a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) on 11 November 1965.

All whites' property rights would be guaranteed, and whites would be assured an influence far in excess of their numbers over any future government policy. It was also charged with writing a new constitution that would be subject to the approval of the nearly all white electorate. On both levels of the new government, the white Rhodesian Front members held veto power. The three African signatories agreed that the new constitution would include provisions giving whites 28 out of 100 legislative seats; a veto over any legislation for at least ten years; the maintenance of all white property and pension rights; and white control of the civil service, police and judiciary.

Finally, Smith would continue as prime minister during the transition period. The new Transitional Government announced an amnesty program for PF guerrillas, but within a couple of months it became clear that this effort had failed - instead the war intensified. Muzorewa and Sithole, in turn, blamed Smith and the Rhodesian Front for vetoing any attempt to ameliorate the conditions under which the mass of Africans lived. Faced with the obvious failure of the internal settlement to achieve an end to the war and the lifting of international economic sanctions, Smith made a bold attempt in August 1978 to split the Patriotic Front and bring ZAPU's Nkomo into the Transitional Government.

In late January 1979 the new constitution was submitted to a referendum of the 90,000 registered white voters. The constitution now included one more victory by Smith over his fellow Executive Council members: the name of the new country would be 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia' instead of the previously agreed upon African name - Zimbabwe. With about 70% of the white electorate voting, the new constitution received 85% approval. The 6.5 million Africans had no voice in approving the document.

The referendum took place on 30 January amid the accelerating disintegration of Rhodesian society. Reports on the previous year's economic performance were disastrous. In December PF guerrillas blew up the largest fuel storage depot in the country. The fire raged for a week, destroying 17 million gallons of fuel. In early January only 300 of a listed 1,500 men reported for duty in the first national call-up of Africans. An even more severe blow to white morale was that 30% of the whites scheduled to report for duty the same day had also joined the ranks of the war resisters.

The four-day elections for the new parliament in April resulted in the expected victory for Bishop Muzorewa's UANC, but it took a government mobilization of 100,000 men under arms to bring it off. Sithole, who had called the elections 'a great democratic experiment' several days before they began, referred to them as 'one big cheat' several days later. But perhaps the most devastating and best documented critique of the elections was that of the British All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights. The report labelled the elections 'a gigantic confidence trick' and said that a climate of intimidation surrounded the entire election with threats of death directed at anyone who urged people not to vote.
Lord Soames had no hesitation in inviting Mugabe to form Zimbabwe's first independent African government. Mugabe adopted a policy of conciliation towards his opponents. He made Joshua Nkomo his Minister for Home Affairs, though the control of the security forces was taken from him, and two other ZAPU men were given minor portfolios. Mugabe also reassured the whites by appointing David Smith as Minister of Commerce and Industry and Dennis Norman as Minister of Agriculture.

Mugabe soon revealed himself as more of a pragmatist than a Marxist. He consistently followed policies designed to achieve the maximum national unity. This meant leaving the existing economic structure largely untouched while concentrating his efforts on the problems of resettling up to a million refugees who had left Zimbabwe during the war and reintegrating the guerrillas, who remained in their camps until jobs could be found for them. Most whites accepted the new political situation. Though white emigration continued as it had done throughout the UDI era, it was far less dramatic than most expected. Those whites not prepared to live under an African government steadily drifted away, mostly to South Africa.

Terrorism and violence in Matabeleland aggravated by the worst drought for more than a century and acute land problems became particularly bad in 1982, especially after the discovery of the arms caches in February. In March, two senior commanders of Nkomo's former guerrilla army were arrested, and Nkomo, after getting permission to address public meetings to calm the situation, remained defiant and accused the government of trying to overthrow constitutional government. On 8 March 1983 Nkomo fled from his Bulawayo home, took refuge in Botswana and then went into exile in Britain. He had been in hiding from government security forces since a weekend raid on his home in which his chauffeur was injured and 1,000 of his supporters were detained.

On 8 August 1984 ZANU-PF held its first congress in 20 years and adopted a new constitution which greatly enlarged the central committee from 26 to 90 members and introduced a new 15-member Politburo, whose members were to be selected by Mugabe and the Deputy Prime Minister. This was seen as strengthening Mugabe's position. ZAPU held its party congress on 14 October. Nkomo was re-elected as President, a post he had already held for 20 years. He attacked the government's record in Matabeleland and firmly rejected its plans for a one-party state. He also rejected the idea of a united opposition front with the other opposition parties.

The election finally took place on 27 June 1986 for white voters and on 1-2 July for black voters. ZANU-PF won an overwhelming victory, increasing its share of the seats from 57 to 63 out of the 79 seats on the common roll, and taking 77% of the votes cast. ZAPU held only 15 of the 20 seats it had in 1985 and all these were in the Matabele area. The UANC of Bishop Muzorewa won no seats at all. Sithole's ZANU party won a solitary seat. On the white roll, Ian Smith's Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe (CAZ) won 15 of the 20 white-reserved seats on an extremely low poll in which only 33,000 of the 65,000 whites bothered to vote.

In April 1986 Mugabe, addressing parliament on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of independence, said he planned to abolish the 20 white reserved seats within the next 12 months. 'Racial representation will just have to go,' he said. The white seats were abolished in September 1987. He also declared that he planned to change the constitution to allow the creation of a one-party state, but he made no mention of the unity talks with ZAPU.

On 23 December 1985 it was announced that the government planned to enact a new law that would give the President sweeping powers to allow him to adopt regulations to deal with any urgent situation involving defense, public order, safety, morality, health or the economy. Parliament's only role would be to endorse cabinet decrees. The bill was intended to help the government handle difficult situations if the 20-year state of emergency were lifted.

In October 1987 parliament adopted the proposed constitutional reform, creating an executive presidency with wide powers including all those previously wielded by the prime minister. Prime Minister Robert Mugabe was the only candidate nominated for the new post and formally became President on 31 December 1987. Deputy Prime Minister Simon Muzenda became Vice President. Former President Canaan Banana retired. Mugabe reiterated his call for Zimbabwe to become a one-party state; his drive towards this end became known popularly as 'perming', with reference to the permanent hold on power for Mugabe that a one-party state would bring. Mugabe also proposed that the next elections would be for seats in a new 150-seat unicameral legislature, replacing the existing bicameral parliament. The one-party chamber was to go ahead, but Mugabe had to fight the March 1990 elections against four other parties.

The run-up to the 27-28 March poll was marred by violence, but the two-day voting period was relatively calm. Mugabe was re-elected to a third five-year term with 78.3% of the votes cast, as against Tekere's 16%. The united ZANU Party won 116 of the 120 elective seats, and ZUM took only two. The Sunday Mail reported that of the 4.8 million Zimbabweans who were eligible to vote, 2.6 million actually voted, for a voter turnout of 54%. Mugabe immediately declared that his victory in the elections constituted 'a firm mandate' for his proposed one-party state.

The government embarked in a policy of taking over large tracts of commercial farmland under the Land Acquisition Act passed in March 1992. Over 70 farms, mostly owned by whites, had been designated. Twenty-seven of these were to be taken against their owners' will. This raised a storm of protest from farmers' organizations, opposition politicians and foreign donors. The government pointed out that 4,300 white farmers owned half of the country's farmland while 7 million blacks lived on less viable land.

In September 1996 a 14th amendment of the constitution provoked a row over the continued erosion of human rights. The amendment imposed strict regulations on foreign spouses who no longer had the right to automatic citizenship. On 28 October ZANU-PF formally dropped Marxism-Leninism as its guiding principle because it no longer reflected the practical and realistic aspirations of the country.

Land War in Zimbabwe
Angry and impoverished blacks say they're taking back the farms whites stole in the first place. But are they fighting the wrong enemy? Since mid-February 001ndless blacks have invaded more than 1,000 white farms, claiming to be ex-guerrillas from the brutal 1970's war who are simply collecting their just rewards. The squatters said they will remain on the land, but peacefully allow farmers to harvest their crops. The conflict comes a time when Zimbabweans face a heavy decision about the future of their nation: whether or not to reject the leader who gave them their independence, but who also, many say, has been a party to its degradation.

In Zimbabwe, land has transformed every life. Acres, not dollars, have long been the real measure of a person's wealth. Since the farm invasions began this year, about 12 people -- including two white farmers -- have been killed. Almost all of the dead were known supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which is trying to oust President Robert Mugabe in elections that are to be held sometime before August. The current violence threatens to topple Zimbabwe into anarchy and economic collapse.

Exactly 20 years after Mugabe's guerrillas finally routed the whites from power, millions of blacks are now unemployed and desperate for money. Added to that, Zimbabwe now has one of the world's highest AIDS infection rates: about one in four adults, further crippling the economy. Meanwhile, whites -- less than 1 percent of Zimbabweans -- own at least 40 percent of the productive farmland, and earn almost the entire commercial agricultural revenues.

With incredible cunning, Mugabe has managed to deflect the anger of millions of blacks, conveniently placing it squarely with the tiny minority. But observers say the leader clearly shares the blame for his country's sad state. Early on in his presidency, Mugabe gave hundreds of farms to close associates and party faithfuls, who knew almost nothing about agriculture. From there, inefficiency, cronyism and simple intransigence has kept the status quo in place.

Through decades of white rule, millions of blacks were stripped of their farmland, mostly without compensation. Now, many of their children and grandchildren earn minimum wages working on the large white farms, while others are eking out precarious livings in the cities. When I ask an ex-guerrilla near Gweru what the violence is all about, he shouts at me: "We went to war for land. What did they think we wanted? A country in the air?" "They" are the whites, not Mugabe's officials.

British Colonialism, Zimbabwe's Land Reform and Settler Resistance

ZIMBABWE'S Black majority gained independence from British colonial rule over 20 years ago, after a long war of African resistance. It culminated in the Lancaster House agreement, following protracted negotiations in London between the liberation armies and the newly elected Tory government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1979. The outcome ensured Black majority rule, based on the Lancaster House Constitution, which sealed the fate of the racist Rhodesia regime led by Ian Smith. An independent Zimbabwe ('Large House of Stone') was born, and the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) formed the government under President Robert Mugabe.

The roots of the current conflict over land reform and the Zimbabwe Government-backed campaign by the War Veterans Association to expropriate white settler land, lead back to that agreement. Liberation leaders were determined to ensure that Britain, which backed the Rhodesia Government, would not prevent Zimbabwe from beginning the battle to address the huge vested interests of white farmers in any agreement. The roots of that crisis, of course, go back to colonial days.
Colonial land theft

There was a time when fertile land was said to be plentiful and freely available in Zimbabwe, as in many African states - a time when, by comparison, 'life was easy' and tribal lands were worked relatively free of interference. British empire builders, invading troops and colonial rule put paid to that.

Over a hundred years ago, in 1890, British forces occupied a part of Africa that would long be associated with its 'founder': The cunning and ruthless imperial merchant Cecil John Rhodes, after whom Rhodesia was named. This was part of Britain's unholy mission to bring the 'uncivilized worlds under British rule.' Rhodes' view was that the English had an inherent right to imperial rule because they were the "first race in the world and therefore the more of the world [they] inhabited, the better it would be for the human race." Such racist justification for empire-building echoes on white-owned farms in Zimbabwe today.

Over the next ten years or so, as the take over of land unfolded, white settlers hemmed in the majority Black population on what they called Native Reserves (known today as communal areas). This began the division of African peoples' land. They got small, largely infertile tracts while expropriated land in the hands of white farmers was the biggest and best. Conquest through land grab and livestock seizure brought stiff resistance. The first major national Chimurenga (uprising) soon exploded in 1893. It was bloodily suppressed, but the tide that would turn decisively against settlers today was rising.

In the years to the start of the First World War the white settlers and their administration created and entrenched a system of racial segregation to reinforce the unequal farmland distribution. In a relatively short period of time to 1914, the division of land became vastly disproportionate: Just three per cent of the population controlled 75 per cent of the land, while most of the rest were harshly restricted to a mere 23 per cent of the worst land in designated Reserves. There were only 28,000 white settlers to nearly one million Africans in Zimbabwe at this time.

To this day, 70 per cent of the best land is still held by white farmers, despite the fact that many thousands of Africans have been allocated land. In the main, it aimed to protect and strengthen the huge privately-owned settler farms that were largely situated in high rainfall areas. In the 1950s the Rhodesia Government imposed conservation standards on communal Black small holdings, causing an eruption of resistance that drew them closer to the growing guerrilla movement. The rising Black population, with many moving into the communal areas having been dispossessed by white farmers elsewhere, could barely eke out an existence on poor soil that became little more than 'homelands'.
Discontent over such treatment gradually took shape within the guerrilla movement which emerged as a major challenge to the Rhodesian state and its army in the early 1960s. Fighters of the liberation forces roused the country to defy the colonial order.

The armed struggle moved from the towns into the villages and communal areas, involving Black trade unionists as well as peasant communities in the national uprising. They advocated an end to colonialism and called on communal farmers to refuse to implement conservation measures in the government's battle to prevent communal farmers from cultivating any neighboring wetlands. The crops on dry lands with poor soils invariably failed.

And carrying out the conservation measure was seen as slave labor. Nevertheless, the problem of the liberation was that it was not a revolution, even though it was a major advance for Black national development. In the Cold War era Western interests were forever fixed on Soviet and Chinese influence and assistance which was reflected in the political struggle for liberation.

The West did not want a major upheaval in Rhodesia, in the context of southern Africa, with Zimbabwe socializing the land and economy and developing anti-Western international political allegiances.

Zimbabwe 'structurally adjusted'

In 1980 the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) intervened in Zimbabwe's economy to disastrous effect and since then it has undermined the country - bringing it almost to the brink of social and economic collapse in the 1990s. As part of the trap, the IMF ordered that the state push its privatization program to the limit supposedly to offset those unattainable obligations. Zimbabwe's chief industry is mining, contributing about 20 per cent of GDP, while agriculture dominates at 60 per cent. This underlying factor of social and economic destabilization is crucial to the progress of the land reform program and, ultimately, for the farm invasions. The IMF has reacted to Zimbabwe's defensive approach by terminating all loans in 1999 for supposedly defaulting on its obligations. No debt 'forgiveness' here it seems.

Mugabe, ZANU-PF demonized

The media focus in Britain on the way the Zimbabwean Government has handled the land reform, has been to suggest that President Robert Mugabe is an unhinged, corrupt and cynical tyrant who is out for white settler blood. In conducting the campaign he is said to be trampling over opposition 'democratic' rights to secure his re-election early in 2002. The ZANU-PF War Veterans' actions, the British Government decided, should be stopped.

Not surprising then that the Zimbabwean Government's own analysis and efforts at land reform is ignored and its formal decisions are given no credence. The extent of internal legal opposition through the courts has also been a factor in hampering the conduct of real change and the resolution of the farm seizures.

The attack on Zimbabwe's leader and its Government is a familiar approach that we continue to see in the denigration of political leaders in all countries targeted by US and British imperialism. It is all done under the guise of promoting 'democracy', the 'democratic opposition' and safeguarding 'human rights'. But it is no accident that African human rights should suddenly be discovered after so many years.

Or, for that matter, that farm invasions - which have resulted in some farmers' deaths - should appear like a bolt of lightening with chaotic brutality. The forcible expropriation began four years ago in 1997. At any given moment in Africa, one country's human rights record is elevated above others in order to exercise pressure, in this case against Zimbabwe, as part of the strategy to keep Western interests safe and prevent any African state from falling out of line or standing in the way.

President Robert Mugabe, it is now said, was looked upon as someone with whom the Western powers could do business; an instrument of African stability for Western capitalist interests while allowing certain limited reforms. But over the latter part of the last 20 or so years, he and the Zimbabwean Government have begun to assert an independent role that does not reflect the blueprint Big Business and the British Government have decided for Zimbabwe. The whole point of building this increasingly demonic picture of President Mugabe and ZANU-PF that is now emerging, is to prepare for and to encourage the undermining and wrecking of the Zimbabwean Government. This is the barely concealed British concern, not the militant treatment white farmers are receiving from the War Veterans.

Even the Sunday Telegraph (August 26, 2001) had to admit that while there were "decent, likeable" farmers (as if the issue were about manners!), there were those who were not "innocent victims of the Mugabe regime."
It pointed out: "Some are openly racist; some even undisguised fascists, with paintings of Mussolini over the fireplace and dogs named after Hitler's generals."

In general the degree of racism still runs very deep among the 50,000 or so white people and farmers (about 4,500 of them). Many fail to recognise the negative impact of years of Rhodesian segregation and because they have persisted in maintaining their exclusive control of prime land, they have remained separate themselves from African people. On those big farms, the Black farm workers invariably live in run-down, inadequate conditions. But meanwhile, the British Government is handling white farmers' compensation - as required in the Lancaster House agreement - and the dispute over it with the Zimbabwe Government with care. This is partly because of the effect the War Veterans are having beyond Zimbabwe's borders, especially in South Africa and Namibia. But also there could well be repercussions from the move by white farmers to other African countries, such as Mozambique.

'Democratic' Subversion

According to The Guardian (March 31), MDC is being used and supplied by US and British sources - euphemistically called "well-wishers" - to undermine ZANU-PF in the countryside. It reported that millions of pounds worth of equipment have been allocated for its campaign. But the key institution behind this in an 'advisory' role, The Guardian said, is the London-based Zimbabwe Democracy Trust (ZDT) whose patrons include former Tory foreign secretaries Douglas Hurd, Malcolm Rifkind and Geoffrey Howe, together with major business interests linked to Zimbabwe.

The Guardian said: "The British High Commission in Harare denies that the UK is officially involved in the operation, Mr Whitehead [a Zimbabwe retired mining engineer running the show] has been in regular contact with one of its members, a man regarded by the diplomatic community as an intelligence officer."

The Commonwealth, meanwhile, has been pushed by Britain to interfere; and increasingly there are calls for direct US-led intervention. Financial services groups like Abbey National have launched international anti-Mugabe campaigns aimed at lobbying US President George Bush and calling for his direct intervention. In the event of the election of the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai against President Mugabe, this would bolster British control - in an attempt to exclude competing interests - and provide one of many routes into tapping African resources for the West's profit amid the turmoil. There is, in fact, nothing unusual in this as we can see with the corporate vultures' agenda unfolding in former Yugoslavia.

According to the South African Mail & Guardian (May 13) the Zimbabwe Government has passed legislation outlawing the raising of funds from foreign sources by its political parties. It was enacted in the teeth of opposition from MDC - the intended target - as fears grow that a concerted international effort is being mounted to bring down ZANU-PF. That will have been reinforced last weekend with the hundreds of MDC supporters who demonstrated outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London, demanding that the British Government support sanctions against President Mugabe. Ahead of the demonstration MDC supporters had appealed for US and British funding for their campaign.

MDC is no doubt getting bolder here given the comments of the Labor Government's present Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. He told BBC radio last week that at next month's meeting in Nigeria with Zimbabwean ministers and six other Commonwealth countries, he hoped "a process to try to put further pressure [on Mugabe] and to resolve the issue of land reform..." would be discussed.

"wider issues of the economic state and need for economic reform in Zimbabwe and the issue of the rule of law, because they are linked." The imperial tone resonates. The sanctions road is part of a pincer movement with the IMF/World Bank and so-called 'democratic' opposition undermining Zimbabwe from within. Any effort by Britain to promote this would fly in the face of developing African unity and would undermine its struggle to reach out of its crisis existence that often borders on extinction.