Zimbabwe's land dispute shows face of white supremacy

It has been 20 years since Zimbabwe won her independence from Britain, and native Zimbabweans still are fighting to get their land back.

Embroiled in a controversy that has made him the boogey man of the African continent in the eyes of England and the United States, the heroic President Robert Mugabe is now fighting from the halls of power rather than from the bush.

President Mugabe wants to hand over millions of acres of the country�s most fertile land into the hands of many of those who fought to win the country�s liberation. That land is currently farmed by whites, while Blacks try to scratch out an existence on some of the worst land in the country.

And why shouldn�t President Mugabe try to soothe the pain of his people who rightly feel that their land was unjustly taken and therefore they are due to have it returned? His critics, mainly white press of Europe and the United States, say President Mugabe is using the land issue as a political football to keep himself in power.

Meanwhile, some of the white farmers don�t necessarily argue that they should leave the land, they just want to be compensated. But how much did the parents of Black Zimbabweans get when the white settlers came in and took their land?

Nothing. In fact, many of them became virtual slaves, robbed of their land and forced into servitude for the likes of Cecil Rhodes (the land was called Rhodesia prior to independence), whose mentality was extended through the likes of former Prime Minister Ian Smith.

As is typical of colonial powers, when they were forced to leave Zimbabwe, the British threw a monkey wrench into the transition. The Lancaster House Agreement, signed just prior to independence, allowed whites to confiscate more land and made it difficult for Blacks to get it back from individual white farmers. It stipulated that in order for the Black government to acquire land from a "willing" white farmer, the government could use only local currency to buy the land. In order to expropriate property, the government would have to compensate the farmer with scarce foreign currency.

And Britain never came through on her promise to provide funds for land acquisition and transition.

Now, America is demonstrating how white supremacy works. In sticking by her sister�s (England�s) side, the U.S. Senate recently passed to the House a bill that would punish Mr. Mugabe�s government for confiscating land from white farmers without compensation.

The Zimbabwe Democracy Act of 2000 sets as a pretext for potential sanctions against Zimbabwe, Mr. Mugabe�s alleged systematic violence and intimidation of the opposition; the breakdown of the rule of law in the country; and the spending of millions of dollars in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, among other things.

The bill seeks to cut U.S. aid to Zimbabwe and encourage international lending institutions to do the same, in addition to canceling any debt reduction for the country.

It also allows for U.S. funds to be used to support those who challenge the acts of the government which are deemed undemocratic and encourages the use of radio airwaves to broadcast U.S. propaganda into the country.

Zimbabwe�s predicament reaffirms the fact that the forces of white supremacy will never give justice to the demand of Black power and real independence.