by Roberto Alvarez-Galloso

Created on: April 05, 2008

Since 1980, the fortunes of Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe have been tied closely together. It has been a dance of death, destruction, and desolation for the nation and people of Zimbabwe while Robert Mugabe and his cronies are living the good life. It did not have to be that way since Mugabe had promised a Zimbabwe for all people born in Zimbabwe [including those born in Rhodesia the predecessor nation of Zimbabwe]. The African American Singer Stevie Wonder in his song titled "Jammin" stated "Peace has come to Zimbabwe".Regardless, there were people who decided to leave Zimbabwe and go elsewhere instead of risking financial, physical, and psychological stability under a guerrilla fighter who could one day show his true colours.

From 1980 to 2000, Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of Southern Africa and there was food because of people [including the white Europeans that remained because of reassurance from Mugabe] willing to work the land. Regardless, Mugabe had shown his true colours by arresting and harassing former rival Joshua Nkomo. In 1981, Mugabe signed an agreement with the Dictator of North Korea Kim Il Sung to train a group of loyal followers called the Fifth Brigade. In 1982, The Fifth Brigade, the ZANU-PF Youth Corp, the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), and the Police Internal Security Intelligence Unit (PISI) were involved in a massacre of an ethnic group [Matabele] within Zimbabwe. The operation was known as Gukurahundi [which is Shona for cleaning up after the rain fell]. It was also the first time that food was used as an object to eliminate an ethnic group.

In the year 2000, Zimbabwe had a referendum and Mugabe lost. The response of Mugabe was to complain of foreign "colonialists" out to destabilize his government and he started a programme of nationalisation of white owned farms. While it is understood that the White Europeans unjustly stole land from Africans during their conquests, there were other ways to resolve the land issue. Unfortunately, Mugabe did not have patience for legal issues and went ahead and confiscated land even at gun point and turning the land to people who needed the training but never received it. It was during the land reform programme in which Didymus Mutesa a Minister for Mugabe once said: ""We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle. We don't want all these extra people."

Robert Mugabe and the ZANU-PF continued to use "colonialism" as a pretext to repress

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>