A Crisis with an Origin: Proposing a Framework for Local and International Engagement in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This chapter discusses some of the historical and political perspectives leading to the current economic crisis in Zimbabwe and proposes a framework to reconstruct its economy. From the early inception of colonialism to contemporary Zimbabwe, there are three major contending forces. The first is the claim by the Zimbabwean government embedded in the discourse of “ patriotic history,” in which the acquisition of land is seen as the third phase in the liberation of Zimbabwe. The second is the assertion by the land-occupying European settlers, who insist that the land acquisition violated their constitutional rights to land ownership. The third force is the land factor, which has drawn much international attention and has two dimensions: the Euro-American and Pan-African. The Euro-American perspective actively advocates the position of the European farmers and democratic governance. The Pan-African position silently endorses President Robert Mugabe’s land acquisition program, regarded largely as irreversible; a ratio decidendi in fluid, colonial Africa; and a continuously unfolding drama of Africa’s engagement of its colonial legacy. Today, at least 90 percent of the land has been redistributed to Zimbabwean citizens who, at best, have neither the capacity nor the resources to sustain the comparative cost ratios that once made the country Africa’s breadbasket.