"The Truth About Zimbabwe" Special Reports from Organized C.O.U.P. Members about their journey to Zimbabwe and assesment of this modern Pan-African struggle for land and nationhood.
In the fall of 2002 four of the founding members of Organized Community of United People (Organized C.O.U.P.) visited Zimbabwe with a delegation of independent black journalists, philanthropists and activists. The trip was organized to help expose and educate African-Americans, Caribbean nationals and others in the Diaspora about Zimbabwe's tourist product as well as the current political development relating to the land re-distribution process in Zimbabwe.
For more than a week, Organized C.O.U.P. founding members Roxanne Lawson, Maleena Lawrence, Jared Ball and Suzette Gardner traveled the length and breadth of Zimbabwe interviewing a wide cross section of Zimbabwean society: from Government ministers to Hip-Hop artistes, from entrepreneurial women to white land owners. Since our return to the United States, in co-operation with Funktionaries Production, we have produced a short video highlighting our trip and are working on news, commentary and reflective writing about this important and awe-inspiring trip.
The following is a transcript of an interview with two black Zimbabwean farmers who were allocated land through the (heavily western press criticized) land redistribution process the Zimbabwean Government has been implementing in their country. Mr. Meynard Muzariri and Mr. Webster Bepura are new landowners in the Mashonaland Province of Zimbabwe. Delegates from Organized C.O.U.P. as well as other members of the delegation conducted this interview.
We are presenting the transcript without further commentary so that you can draw your own conclusions and join us as we dialogue about modern Pan-African struggles for nationhood at our teach-in and discussions.
"THIS LAND BELONGS TO US"
An Interview With Re-Settled Farmers In Zimbabwe
Meynard Muzariri: Zimbabwe is born out of a bitter war. And people should ask themselves, why the people chose to go to war? The reason is that the indigenous people decided to go to war because their land has been taken from them by the British who came to Zimbabwe… we were removed from our land and we were settled… I don't want to dwell much on the history of the liberation struggle… but the reason why the war… it was on the understanding that the land was going to be re-distributed… and of coarse you are aware of the commitment that was made by the British Government and the United States during the Lancaster House Conference in 1979 and subsequently, the war ended…so we came back to Zimbabwe and people came back home… we saw some monies that came in the early stages of 1980s… 81, till about '85. The first re-settlement that took place in this country, and we thought that was going to continue, but by the change of Government in Britain…the coming in of Tony Blair and his Labor party… the money seizedcoming [to fund the land re-distribution process]. But by then, themajority of our people who were looking forward to be re-settled…to be given some pieces of land, we were still hoping that Governmentwas coming with a particular program. Government was continuing to tellhis people, no, wait, we are still negotiating with the British soonmonies will continue to come, but virtually up until about 1997, thatmoney never came. And the British then had the gut to tell our Governmentthat, 'no, we don't think we are going to honor that because apparentlywe went into that agreement with the conservative party of MargaretThatcher, John Major and so forth...' and it was at that note that peopleagain went by to the drawing board and said, 'by the way, which landare we buying, who is the owner of that particular land?' and again I think, we refreshed our mind and said, 'no, no, this land belongs to us.' So, if we talk in terms of payment, paying for compensation, we must talk of compensating improvements, and improvements I am talkingof the shade we are standing under, I am talking of a farmer who decidedto construct a dam… a farmer who built a house… those arethe improvements I am talking about… also taking recognition that,for the long years he was sitting on this land, he was also freely benefitingfrom this land. So the Government then looked for money, and the peoplesaid to the Government, 'go ahead and take the land… but what wedon't have is the money to pay for those who are claiming to be theowners of this land, because apparently, the land is ours.' But whatwe are prepared to pay for is the improvements that have been put in place.
OurGovernment then was under pressure from the (people) of this country…what are we still waiting for? The British, it has come out in the openthat they are not going to give us money to fulfill this settlementprogram… so, while the Government was trying to control these emotions,people go on demonstrations. So they moved from the villages where theyare overpopulated, and they moved into farms. This was the big amountof pressure on the Government, to show the Government that it is hightime that we have to re-settle. So the people of this country demonstrated… but they didn't demonstrate in the streets, they moved into what negativepress today qualified as the "white owned commercial farms."That is not correct. It is the land that belongs to Zimbabwe.
Reporter: Did you protest in these demonstrations?
Meynard Muzariri: Yes,I also took part in the demonstrations. In my own right, I am a warveteran. But when a war veteran is being reported you know, in the negativepress, you are talking of any animal, you are not talking of peoplewho went to school. I participated in the liberation struggle from whenI was 18 years old.
Reporter: Your ancestors, can you identify the land where they were taken fromand can you tell the progression of where your ancestors went with regardsto where they were displaced… and what they owned originally?
Meynard Muzariri: I don't know if I can trace all that. But the short answer is that we were scattered.
Reporter: How was it decided that you would have access to this property?
Meynard Muzariri: What happened is that when Government decided toformalize the land re-distribution, there were two phases we went through.That is the villagers phase, which we will call Phase I. People werebeing allocated land and these people are living in villages, but withenough land space that you can work on and produce some food for yourpeople. And then we have what we call the Phase II, because even thoughwe realize the importance of re-distributing land to Zimbabwe, we wantto maintain the commercial status to enhance our mass production in terms of food for the nation. So the phase II is what caters for the A2 model. The A2 model is the three phases, the small-scale farms, themiddle-scale farms and the large-scale farms and they differ in termsof sizes. And this is according to the individual's capacity to be ableto use the particular size of land. And what the ministry of land didis that they produced forms. And they sent out forms to everybody freelywho wanted to get land from Government through that particular process.You fill in the request, which ask to give the status of the individual…if you were able to produce and utilize that particular land in theevent that it was allocated to you. And I also applied through the same.And I think out of 92,000 who applied for the model A2, 54,000 peoplequalified, and I was among the 54,000.
Reporter: Can you describe your farm and tell us what youdo, what is yourproduce and where your market is?
Meynard Muzariri: Yes, my farm consists of 467 hectares, of the 467 hectares, I have about 240 hectares arable, and theother part I useit for grazing my livestock. Here I produce maize, the property wasallocated to me on 3rd of December 2001. I practically came to thisproperty on the 9th of December, which was almost too late for the normalseason, but though I came late, I managed to do what I could do on thisproperty. I went into maize and I got about 30 tons of maize thoughit was under plowed. I've sent in about 36 tons of soybean, and I have about 178 bales of cotton, which I delivered to the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe. Livestock, at the moment I have about 200 heads of cattle on this farm.
Most of the input we are getting is from Government. Government has beensupporting the resettled farmers by giving seeds, like wheat. But Governmentis assisting newly resettled farmers by giving assistance in the formof seeds, supplies, and we have what we call the Livestock DevelopmentTract which Government is again funding, and I got some of my cattlethough that, but some of my cattle I brought them from my own villagewhere I came from.
Reporter: What the Government has given you, is it a loan or a grant?
Meynard Muzariri: No, its loan.
Reporter: In the western press they are reporting that there is a food shortagein Zimbabwe and it is because of the land re-possession, how would yourespond to that?
Meynard Muzariri: Thank you very much. I would liketo say that nowthat you are here for yourselves. You are in Zimbabwe; Zimbabwe is apart of Southern Africa. The hunger that we are facing this year isbecause of the natural drought that has attacked this region in general.And the World Food program has been coming up with assistance to Zimbabwe,and not only Zimbabwe, I am quite aware that Zambia is also under thissame program, Malawi is even worse than us. Mozambique is also gettingfood from well-wishers worldwide. And Namibia, Botswana as well as Angola. Angola, people may want to say it is because of the war, but what ofthese other countries? Are they engaged in this land reform program?No, they are not. It is natural drought that has been hitting southernAfrica.
Reporter: Can you dispel some of the charges from the westthat farms are beinggiven to "cronies" of the Government?
Meynard Muzariri: Well I can't qualify that. What I just want tosay is that is very, very untrue. People like those who are going underthe A1 Phase, they are actually identified by their headmen… theircouncilors, and their names are submitted by their district administratorwho is the chairman of this particularprogram, he is in charge of thedistrict. So he gets these names-whichhe does not choose, and whichare not chosen by a cabinet minister,but down within the society. Theychoose who is in the need; how many children do we have in this area, how many do we want to be allocated land. They identify those who submitted their list up to the district administrator, the district administrator accepts those people with his committee and they re-settle them. Theyonly advise the Central Government through the local Government andthe ministry of land for record purposes to say that in my district,we have settled that number.
Reporter: The stereotype of the war veterans in the western media is to say thatmany of them are too young, that they use gangs to violently re-settlethese farms. What is your opinion on that?
Meynard Muzariri: Do I look young? I think that type of propagandais simply meant to demonize this particular program. I said I am a warveteran, this tattoo [points to tattoo on his fore-arm] I did this in1976 when I was in the bush, (with the) Zimbabwe African National LiberationArmy, that was 1976, you see? We have war veterans as part of thosepeople we have been settled. We have ordinary villagers who have beensettled in this program, we have vendors who have been settled, we haveteachers who have been settled, professors who have been settled, wehave soldiers, policemen-all who are serving but, they have also been given piece of this land.
Reporter: What was your job before you were given this farm?
Meynard Muzariri: I was a freedom fighter.
Reporter: What are the major problems you are facing?
 |
| Organized C.O.U.P. founding member Maleena Lawrence on a visit to a recently re-distributed Zimbabwean farm |
Meynard Muzariri: The major problems we have been facing, particularlywhen you want to go into wheat crop, was the equipment for irrigation.Most of the newly re-settled farmers who are going in for the firsttime were not aware of the number of things which will be required whenyou are going into things like wheat which needs irrigation most ofthe time-and I am talking of irrigation pipes and so forth. Other farmersbefore they (the whites) left the properties they vandalized it. Irrigation,infrastructure, they destroyed everything. As an example, my swimmingpool which was vandalized…
Reporter: Are you able to sell the farm legally, for example if you face financialdifficulties? Do you have a title for it?
Meynard Muzariri: No, I don't have a title, this land now after this acquisition program, the land belongs to Government.
Reporter: How many farmers have benefited from this program?
Meynard Muzariri: From reading from newspapers, I understand now that over 300,000 families have been resettled under the A1 remodeled,and about 54,000 under the A2 model.
Reporter: Can the Government resettle someone else on this property if they choose to and move you out?
Meynard Muzariri: No, we have entered some lease agreement, which I signed. The Government offered this land to me, I accepted, and wedid that through some agreements.
Reporter: What are the stipulations in the agreement, how long is the lease?
Meynard Muzariri: 99 years, and well I don't think I am going to live beyond that.
Reporter: How can the black farmers in help you, we have agricultural schoolsin America run by blacks, how can we help you?
Meynard Muzariri: Well, I think if we could get some expertise to help in various areas.
Reporter: Like what?
Meynard Muzariri: Production in crops and even in livestock. When we talk of farming, we are not talking of rearing cattle only, or producingcrops only… and also to consider resettlement.
Reporter: Your agricultural schools here, are they working with the farmers,or do they need help with new methods as well?
Meynard Muzariri: I think they need new methods as well.
Reporter: Has HIV and AIDS affected the supply of farm labor, have you lost a lot of workers on the farms?
Meynard Muzariri: Yes, the AIDS is a problem everywhere. We are losing people everyday, that one is not a secret. People are dying of AIDSeveryday and we need help.
Reporter: Are you paying the same wages as the white farmers did?
Meynard Muzariri: We are doing even better than that.
Reporter: What are the nationalities of the workers on your farm?
Meynard Muzariri: We have people who come from our neighboring countries, some from Mozambique, some from Malawi and of coarse our own Zimbabweans.
Reporter: What happened to the white farmer that owned this farm?
Meynard Muzariri: The white farmer who used to own this farm, apparently he had around 10 farms in this area. This one alone was 840 hectares.
Reporter: Is he still in the country?
Meynard Muzariri: He is still in the country, yes.
Reporter: Does he own any property?
Meynard Muzariri: Yes, he has been left with some of the property; I think he still has more than one farm.
Reporter: Did he reluctantly give this up?
Meynard Muzariri: Well, he didn't argue.
Reporter: You said that the Government approved people for the A2 model, can yousay a little more about that?
Webster Bepura: We make the application and there were many, but the onus was on the Ministry of Land to seeif he (the applicant) had all that was needed.
Reporter:What was needed?
Webster Bepura: The fact that he got the skills, he got the ability to work, the capacity, what is your background or family.
Reporter: But he (Maynard Muzariri) was a freedom fighter, he wasn't a farmer?
Webster Bepura: Me, I have been a civil servant.
Reporter: Do you want the white farmers all to give all the land away, or should they have a little land to stay...
Webster Bepura: The white farmers were given an [inaudible word] where they should co-exist with the blacks,and many of them didn't want. And this is why many of them are goingto court to say they don't want to move from their farms. There are a number of farmers in this Bendura, who have applied to say, give me the small size where my house is and give me acreage of average whereI can work side by side with the other farmers and I will teach themof knowledge and equipment, and those people are to be considered.
We are settled here, the loans that we have been given we will pay back,that is why we are working to get out the crops we have grown, it isnot to put money in our pockets, we want to profit and give money backto the Government so that we can assist other farmers.
Reporter: Do the workers who worked on the farms before they were re-distributed,do they still work on the farmland?
Webster Bepura: Yes, we have retained them. If he is good at irrigation, he is minding my irrigation, if he is good at cattle, he is working with my cattle.
Reporter: What kind of is being done jointly with blacks that are farmingand whites who want to continue to farm to help get Zimbabwe's produceunto the world market, is there any kind of co-operative effort withthose who want to work?
Webster Bepura: I think your questionis a little too early, we have just moved here in December 2001, weare only eight or nine months on the farm and we are trying to settledown. But Government has the road open, very.
Reporter:How big is your farm?
Webster Bepura: My farm is 430 hectares.
Reporter:What is the biggest problem you are facing?
Webster Bepura: My biggest problem is equipment because the farmer who was here drove out all his tractors and we have to start from scratch to get equipment.
Read Jared Ball's "First Thoughts" on his trip to Zimbabwe CLICK HERE!
All feedback can be posted by clicking here,
or emailing organizedcoup@onebox.com
For a brief history of Zimbabwe, please CLICK HERE!