The Zimbabwean travesty

A young child looking at what is left of his house in Porta Farm, west of Harare, after the Zimbabwean government razed it in 2005 as part of "Operation Murambatsvina," a campaign to eliminate "illegal" structures and shantytowns.

Between 1985 and 1988 I made several trips from Kenya into Zimbabwe. If you have never been to Zimbabwe you are unaware of the beautiful fruitful land that it is. The early white settlers in the region came in 1890 under the direction of Cecil Rhodes, hence the name Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia)

Britannica tells us: "By 1892 about 1,500 settlers from the south had arrived in Rhodesia. The railway reached Bulawayo in 1896 and Victoria Falls in 1904. By the following year there were 12,500 settlers in the country, and in 1909 gold exports were worth more than £2,500,000. Agricultural development, however, was slower, and it was not until 1907 that steps were taken to facilitate the acquisition of land. By 1911 nearly £35,000 worth of tobacco was being exported annually, and the European population had risen to 23,600."

Mugabe became the first prime minister of the new independent nation of Zimbabwe on April 18, 1980. Mugabe's government was determined to correct the inequality that existed between whites and blacks. The land was to be redistributed. During the 1980s the economy began to seriously decline, first because of drought conditions, and second, because many of the white farmers chose to leave the country.

The economy of Zimbabwe continued to worsen throughout the 1980s and 1990s. At the beginning of this period 4,000 white farmers controlled about one-third of the arable land of Zimbabwe. Most of these farms were either taken over by squatters or forcibly taken by the government to be redistributed. It turned into a very ugly time in Zimbabwe. The end result was that the farming system was effectively destroyed and now millions of Zimbabweans are on the brink of starvation, totally dependent on outside food supplies because essentially very little is being grown in Zimbabwe.

And Mugabe remains in power. The picture included is one of his gentrification projects. Mugabe ordered bulldozers to level the slums around Harare driving thousands of people into the streets. What a solution for food shortages!

Zimbabwe needs to be returned to people who understand how to farm. Sounds racist, I know, but it is reality. What they have now is progressively starving the nation to death. The white farmers could progressive train Africans in the skills they need, but in the meantime provide the needed food for the land.

Unfortunately, Zimbabwe has no oil, so why should we care. After all the dying are just more Africans.