An estimated 700,000 people, or six percent of the population, were displaced in this operation. In total, 2.4 million people were affected directly or indirectly. It was an attempt to crush opposition among the urban working class. When the white farms were occupied, the rural workers they employed were treated with similar brutality.
But perhaps he’s already setting the stage for a new “operation.” Last weekend he publicly stated: “The land is ours, it must not be allowed to slip back into the hands of the whites.” By revisiting and repackaging an old bogeyman Mr. Mugabe is deflecting concerns that the results of the presidential elections have not yet been made public and his countrymen are in a state of political limbo with the underpinning for real violence present and accounted for.
Still, this old political canard will not work this time. That is because Mugabe can no longer posit himself as Zimbabwe’s liberator as he did, say, 10 years ago. He’s caught with his pants down this time since his record speaks volumes about the kind of liberation that he practices. And blaming the west for all of his country’s ills certainly does not hold water anymore. Indeed, his strident attacks and angry rhetoric against Britain and the United States is more for domestic consumption rather than a genuine anti-west position.
First of all Mugabe came to power in 1980 with the express backing and support of both Britain and the United States who saw him as the best choice over Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) that was aligned with the then Soviet Union. Remember also that Mugabe had split with ZAPU and joined ZANU in 1963. Given the choice between ZANU and Robert Mugabe and ZAPU and Joshua Nkoma the former colonial power decided to go with Mugabe even though he publicly stated that he was Maoist and inspired by the Chinese revolution.
Born in 1924, Robert Gabriel Mugabe was educated in missionary schools and received the first of his seven degrees from South Africa's Fort Hare University. Returning to Rhodesia in 1960 he joined Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) but left three years later to form the rival Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU).
Jailed without trial for 10 years he left Rhodesia for neighboring Mozambique in 1974 and led the largest of the guerrilla forces fighting a protracted and bloody war against the Ian Smith government. After months of negotiations the 1979 Lancaster House agreement set the seal on a Rhodesian peace deal and Mr. Mugabe returned home to a rapturous welcome from Black supporters.
He initially built a coalition government with Mr. Nkomo, whose ZAPU forces had also fought the Smith government, but the discovery of a large arms cache at ZAPU-owned houses led to Mr. Nkomo's dismissal from government. A brutal crackdown on ZAPU supporters followed, leading many commentators to compare Mr. Mugabe's own approach to political opposition with that during the time of white rule. The collapse of the coalition allowed Mr. Mugabe to strengthen his hold on power.
The political conundrum for both the British and American governments was that the then-British colony of Rhodesia had unilaterally declared independence in 1965 under a white racist regime, which refused to grant even the most modest political rights to the majority of the Black population. A violent insurgency developed, leading US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to fear that the impasse in Rhodesia would allow the Soviet Union to gain ground in southern Africa and threaten strategic American interests. He put pressure on Britain to reach an accord. Then end result was the Lancaster House agreement that helped put Mugabe in power.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
