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I have a personal interest in what has, and is happening in Zimbabwe. This is because I spent my early years in that country. At the time my parents and I lived there, it was known as Southern Rhodesia and comprised part of a federation of countries along with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. It was never a federation of equals though, Southern Rhodesia, was known as the "breadbasket of Southern Africa" because of it's fertile soil, it's mineral reserves meant that unlike the other two parts of the federation, Southern Rhodesia was always economically self sufficient. Indeed, it was supporting the other countries.

However, in 1964, Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia were granted independence from the United Kingdom, becoming known as Malawi and Zambia respectively, while Southern Rhodesia remained as a Crown Colony, which in the hierarchy of British Colonialism, was at the bottom of the pile. Inhabitants of a crown colony had no say in the way they were governed, either at home or abroad. Not surprisingly, this action caused considerable resentment among the Rhodesian population. Personally, I believe that much of the trouble that has ensued over the past forty years could have been avoided, had Britain granted Rhodesia dominion status at that time, similar to Canada and Australia (before independence).

The mishandling of the Rhodesian question was to lead, firstly, to the White minority government led by Ian Smith, to declare a Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, resulting in sanctions being imposed by the U.N. In addition to the sanctions imposed from outside, guerrilla war broke out as opposing groups of blacks fought against the white minority. A brief coalition government was set up under the leadership of Joshua Nkomo but was soon replaced by Robert Mugabe who has been president ever since.

What many people outside Africa are unaware of, is that in the early 1990's, Southern Africa suffered its worst drought for a century. As a result, a state of emergency was declared in Zimbabwe, and it may have been this that highlighted the land issue. Despite the whites making up only twenty per cent of the population, they had control of seventy per cent of the land. A policy of land redistribution therefore began in the late 1990's, but unfortunately, it was done more to favour Mugabe's favourites rather than with any business sense. The result was that much of the land fell into the hands of those who had no knowledge of farming, and no desire to learn. Add to this, the increasing spread of AIDS, and you end up with the country in the state it is today.

Personally, I believe that the best thing that can be done by the U.K. and the rest of the world, is to do as much as it can, to ensure that when Mugabe's rule ends, that whoever succeeds him, will govern in a more democratic way.

Learn more about this author, Celia Craske.
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