Zimbabwe – a fallen state
Saturday, 10 May 2008 00:00
Robert Mugabe was once regarded as a freedom fighter
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Though blessed with natural resources that would be the envy of any nation in the world, Zimbabwe has an inflation rate of 8,000 per cent, and its people are literally starving.
There are few that would blame any other factor than Zimbabwe's long-time president Robert Mugabe, and his Zanu-PF party.
Britain's Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu, who has called on the UK to help its one-time colony free itself from its self-destructive slide into chaos, said of Mugabe: "Like Idi Amin before him in Uganda, Mugabe has rallied a country against its former colonial master only to destroy it through a dictatorial fervour."
But though reviled by many today, there was a time when Mugabe was regarded as a freedom fighter.
Mugabe's rise to power
Mugabe emerged as a leader during the Chimurenga, the bloody Rhodesian bush war fought against Ian Smith's regime during the 1960s and 70s.
He was arrested in 1964 and spent the next decade behind bars, not even being allowed out to attend the funeral of his four-year-old son. While behind bars he completed three degrees by correspondence, including a law degree.
This time spent in prison cemented Mugabe's place as a leader and increased the esteem in which he was held worldwide. When elections finally took place in Zimbabwe in 1980 he was swept to power.
During the 17 years that have passed since that time, Mugabe's reputation has suffered badly as his country has been transformed from one of the richest in Africa to arguably the most poverty-stricken.
Race, farms, poverty
Much of the antagonism during the war centered on the fact that white farmers owned most of the arable land. Though Mugabe vowed to change this, the situation remained the same for the next decade after he came to power.
However, in 1997, Mugabe announced that the white-owned farms would start to be acquired and that Britain should pay compensation to their owners, as originally the land was stolen by British colonists.
Then, in 2000, the Zimbabwe parliament passed a ground-breaking amendment allowing for the seizure of all white-owned farms without the permission or reimbursement to their owners.
Since then thousands of farms have been occupied and agricultural output has plummeted drastically.
The cost
In his book The Shackled Continent: Africa's Past, Present and Future, Robert Guest, the Africa editor of the Economist for seven years, wrote: "In 1980, the average annual income in Zimbabwe was $950, and a Zimbabwean dollar was worth more than an American one.
"By 2003, the average income was less than US$400, and the Zimbabwean economy was in freefall. [Mugabe] has ruled Zimbabwe for nearly three decades and has led it, in that time, from impressive success to the most dramatic peacetime collapse of any country since Weimar Germany".
The mismanagement of Zimbabwe's farms has led to an agricultural crisis in the country. Zimbabwe is blessed with thousands of acres of arable land and was once regarded as the "bread-basket" of southern Africa, but now cannot feed its own population.
Unless massive aid is given, it has been estimated that up to six million people are in danger of starvation.
An ongoing crisis
Renson Gasela, the shadow agriculture minister for Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, the opposition party in Zimbabwe, recently told SW Radio Africa: "They [Zimbabweans] will be slain by one of the cruelest weapons of any era, starvation. They will die slowly and painfully. They will die hungry.
"People might say we are exaggerating but I can see many deaths happening this year. There is absolutely no food. Individuals have no food."
The UN's high commissioner for refugees chief, Antonio Guterres, recently estimated that over three million Zimbabweans have fled the country.
Among these have been many of the country's most badly-needed professionals.
Both the leadership of Britain and South Africa have been criticised for their seeming inaction on the situation in Zimbabwe.
In the past there have been many instances of the world ignoring crises on the dark continent. The question now is whether the world can afford to ignore the increasingly worsening crisis is Zimbabwe. The only certainty is that this question will soon be answered.
To read about the international community's pressure on Zimbabwe since summer 2007
click here for full story
Joseph Corcos