Zimbabwe

In the central highlands of southern Africa are numerous, scattered remnants of gigantic fortresses and massive stone walls stretching over thousands of acres. These are the ruins of the majestic cities of Great Zimbabwe (1200 - 1450). This ancient African kingdom organized and controlled the gold and ivory caravans that proceeded from the interior to the southeast coast of Africa where tra de was conducted with Arabia and India for textiles, utensils, glassware and weaponry. Great Zimbabwe was eventually replaced by the Mutapa Empire (1450 - 1630) which, in its turn, was succeeded by the kingdom of Changamire.
The Mutapa king had ultimate religious authority over the Shona people. His power was symbolized by the Divine Flame that burned continuously in his court. His subordinate rulers in the countryside had their own individual flames lit from his central Royal Fire. By 1630, the Portuguese, who had been exploring the coasts of Africa for more than a century, conquered the Mutapa Empire. In 1685, though, a local ruler, Changamire, defeated, and drove out, the Portuguese and established a kingdom, named after himself, Changamire, that lasted well into the 19th century.
By the 1880s, however, the nations of Western Europe, having been vastly enriched by centuries of free African labor, were moving determinedly from their largely coastal encampments to carve the continent up into a patchwork of colonies. (The Berlin Conference of 1884 formalized the process.) Britain, of course, was a key player in all of this. Its African gold and diamond mines were essential to the development and maintenance of its globe-spanning empire.
The individual who personified British power and influence in Africa was Cecil Rhodes. In fact, the south central highland region we are referring to, which is today the nation of Zimbabwe, was for a time a British colony called Southern Rhodesia in honor of Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes consolidated the thousands of individual gold and diamond claims by white miners in South Africa, and formed the fabled DeBeers Gold and Diamond mining company which today controls the price of gold and gems worldwide. He worked mightily to create and maintain the adjacent British colonies of South Africa, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and other British holdings.
Rhodes and his followers waged a series of bitter military campaigns, supported by the British army, against the Shona, Ndebele and other African peoples. By 1895, in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), for example, the Africans were forced off all the good farmland, their movements restricted, and ultimately left no recourse but to work as laborers on "white owned" land. The white population of Southern Rhodesia, never more than 4%, completely controlled the land, the resources, the economy and the government.
During the 1950s and 60s, while most of the European colonies in Africa were gaining their independence, the southern tier of the continent remained firmly under white control. The region was fully occupied by 7 different British and Portuguese colonies. In 1965, when it appeared that Britain intended to grant independence to Southern Rhodesia, with equivalent rights for Blacks and whites, the white settler government seceded from the Empire and declared themselves the independent white-ruled country of "Rhodesia."
The UN instituted some ineffectual sanctions, and Britain looked the other way, refusing to use force to bring its former colony into line. A small, but persistent, guerilla movement soon developed. The well-equipped white Rhodesian army held its own for awhile. However, in 1975, when the adjacent Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola, won their independence with military aid from Cuba, things began to change. Robert Mugabe and other guerilla leaders were soon mounting devastating military attacks in Rhodesia. By 1980, the white Rhodesians surrendered power to the black majority led by Mugabe. They promptly renamed the country Zimbabwe.
For more than 20 years afterwards, Robert Mugabe and the government of Zimbabwe peacefully negotiated with Britain, the white settlers and other interested parties to regain at least some of the land of the Africans. But all to no avail. Finally, now, 22 years after coming to power, they are taking forceful steps to regain their land. These actions have been greeted with hostility by the white farmers, Britain and America. Despite the fact that Rhodesia is a fully sovereign nation, the US is openly threatening to topple the Mugabe government.
The land question is the ultimate question, not only in Zimbabwe but throughout Africa and around the world. Can any country anywhere really be free if its people do not own the very land beneath their feet? No one is watching events in Zimbabwe with more concern than the white minority in South Africa which, though no longer in power, still controls the land, the precious, invaluable land of the richest nation in the Motherland...

By Arthur Lewin