As President Mugabe celebates...
Last weekend, Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, celebrated his 80th Birthday. With thousands of guests gathered in his home village of Katama, the elderly President certainly felt he had a great deal to celebrate. Yet many would have felt little inclined to join Mugabe in his birthday revelries. Whilst the President was able to celebrate in style, the situation for many of his compatriots could hardly be more different. Millions of Zimbabweans are faced with a daily struggle to survive, as international sanctions waged against the country take their toll on a nation that has already for suffered for decades.
President Mugabe first took office in 1987, and the human rights abuses, unfair elections and land reforms that have since ensued have brought the country under a great deal of media scrutiny. Yet to understand the current situation, we must look beyond the decades of Mugabe's presidency and take a far longer view of the country's history.
The controversial question of land ownership in Zimbabwe has been present and pressing since the country's birth. Even by the time of the First World War 75 per cent of the land was controlled by just three percent of the population, all white settlers, whilst 23 per cent of the least fertile and productive land was designated as African Reserves. When Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980, big industrial interests and Cold War western powers did not want to see a change in this ownership of land. Thus the eventual Lancaster House Constitution had entrenched clauses that, amongst other things, continued to protect the property rights of this colonial settler community for at least ten years.
Even today, across Africa as a whole the majority of raw material output is still controlled by a small handful of companies. In Namibia, for example, 85 per cent of the land is owned by a minority of European origin, some of whom are absentee landlords in Austria and Germany. This all goes to show how powerful commercial interests still have a strong influence on government policies. Whilst they celebrate in Katama this week, things have little changed in the last 80 years.
26th Feb 2004