Educational Media Reviews Online

In the 1980's Zimbabwe was considered to be one of the most prosperous and progressive states in Africa. In the last several years however, the county's image and well-being have declined dramatically! Under the leadership of its long time President, Robert Mugabe, it has become a destitute and repressive dictatorship. This film examines the conditions in Zimbabwe today, the causes of its current troubles, and the people's attempts to end Mugabe's rule.

Throughout the 1960's and 70's Zimbabwe (then know as Rhodesia) had an apartheid-like system in which the Black majority was dominated and ruled over by the White minority. This repressive system lead to a civil war between the White-lead government and Black independence groups. Both the war and the political system that had given rise to it ended in 1980, when an independence movement lead by Mugabe took control of the country. He gave political power back to the majority, and established a system that was, at least superficially, democratic. Stability returned to the country, the economy grew, and an informal accommodation was reached between the White and Black populations. The latter would control the political system, and the former would continue to have primary control over the economy. Whites owned most of the country's businesses, and the vast majority of arable farmland. Although Mugabe had initially made some attempts to redistribute land from rich Whites to poor Blacks (who's need for farmland is great), the steps taken were small and largely ineffective. He seemed unwilling to upset the status quo while the economy was growing. However, drought and his increasingly corrupt government would lead the country to decreasing levels of economic growth in the 1990's, and eventually to the skyrocketing inflation and unemployment which characterize Zimbabwe today.

In a small attempt to deal with these problems, but more so to deflect attention away from them, he turned to the long neglected issue of land redistribution. He announced his government’s intention to seize White owned farms, without compensation, and give them to Blacks. To do so he has encouraged armed thugs, who refer to themselves as "war veterans", to use violence and intimidation to drive Whites farmers off the land. The primary responsibility of these "veterans" however, is to physically attack Mugabe's political opponents, whose popularity has grown substantially as the economy and Mugabe's own support have declined. This film deals primarily with these recent developments, the reasons for the apparent change in Mugabe's personality from liberator to despot, and the often -desperate measures he has used to keep himself in power. The political situation in Zimbabwe is changing rapidly however, and this film does not address the impact of the most recent events, such as Parliamentary and Presidential elections in 2000 and 2002 (which had evidentially not occurred at the time of production). These events have shaken Mugabe's grip on power, but not broken it, and the future remains highly uncertain. Therefore this film is less useful as an explanation of current events, as it is to provide the background of those events, and as such I would recommend it.

The body of the film is made up of short interviews with those most affected by Zimbabwe's current political and economic situation, which includes Mugabe's opponents (primarily the leaders of the MDC, the Movement for Democratic Change, and White Farmers), his supporters, his former supporters who have now turned against him, and even the President himself. These are tied together with an informative voice-over narration, and are frequently punctuated by scenes of protest and political repression. The interviews and narration are all in English, and as a consequence there are no subtitles. The picture and sound qualities are both good. The length of the film is only 20 minutes, so it should only be used as an introduction to the topics in question, and not as an in-depth exploration of them.