Mugabe and the White African

1. Objective: study the land reform program in Zimbabwe and share ideas about whether or not white people today should be required to make amends for historical race-based injustices for which they were not personally responsible. Mugabe and the White African Discuss the effects of colonialism in Zimbabwe. How did this country attempt to gain their independence from colonial rule, and were they successful? Gain Ideas for project

2. Note Assignment: take notes In the following categories. Who: What happened: When: Where: Why: How: What is African Colonization? Click Image for Video

3. Class Discussion What is the relationship between owning land and power? • Imagine that it is 1980 and Zimbabwe has just achieved independence. What should the new government do, if anything, to address the legacy of inequity in land ownership that resulted from white discrimination against black Africans? • Zimbabwe was a British Colony until 1980! • during colonial times, it was common for the country’s small population of white people to take the best land for farming, leaving smaller areas of less desirable land for a large population of black peasant farmers. • By the time Zimbabwe achieved its independence from Great Britain in 1980, 6,000 white farmers owned 47 percent of the country’s agricultural land, while more than 700,000 black farmers owned, leased or occupied the rest. Mugabe and the White African

4. When President Robert Mugabe took power in 1980, his government began addressing the inequity in land ownership by buying up white-owned farms and redistributing them to black peasant farmers. By 2000, however, Mugabe’s popularity was waning. In an effort to attract more supporters, he began an aggressive land redistribution policy, under which his government declared immediate ownership of all farms without providing compensation, and then began driving out white farmers through violence and intimidation. Robert Mugabe

5. • Why do the Campbells think President Mugabe is seizing white-owned farms? • Why do you think President Mugabe would want white farmers out of Zimbabwe? • Do you believe the government of Zimbabwe should be able to take away the property rights of white farmers as part of what they say is an effort to make up for policies in the past that discriminated against poor black farmers? Putting it more generally, do you think white people today should be required to make amends for historical race-based injustices for which they were not personally responsible? Explain. • Should the land reform process take into account that the Campbells purchased their farm after Zimbabwean independence, rather than inheriting it from British colonizers? Why or why not? • In your view, is it acceptable for people of different races to be treated unequally in certain circumstances? Explain. Watch Mins 20 -25 Be prepared to answer the following questions: Mugabe and the White African

6. Watch Mins 20 -25 Be prepared to answer the following questions: Mugabe and the White African Click Image for Video

7. Stop Kony