The beginning of the end for Zimbabwe's white citizens
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Your support makes all the difference.It has been difficult to feel optimistic about Zimbabwe for some time. A nation that, for the first few years after independence, seemed to provide an example to the African continent of racial tolerance and economic progress has deteriorated over the last decade to a position where it finds itself without the rule of law and on the brink of economic and social breakdown. A land that was once a powerhouse is almost pauperised.
The white farmers have long served as scapegoats for President Mugabe's failures, and that sorry process is about to reach its climax with the expulsion of most of them from their homes. A few cling to the hope that a court ruling on mortgaged farms will afford a little respite from Mugabe's thugs; most are staying on their property to see what happens next. But all must know now that this is the beginning of the end for their way of life.
That the farmers now find themselves the victims of racism, violence and injustice makes us sympathetic to their plight. However, we must also recognise that during the 90 years until 1980 when the whites dominated what was then Rhodesia, they, too, were guilty of those things.
The white settlers did appropriate the most fertile land for themselves. There was a land problem in Zimbabwe. Successive British governments tried to resolve the issue through compensation schemes, but they could not succeed in the face of Mugabe's voracious corruption. In any case, we are past that stage. We must hope that the expulsions do not happen, and that Mugabe is swiftly overthrown by a desperate people; but ministers must now begin the grim work of preparing for a possible influx of many thousands of refugees from Zimbabwe to join those who are already here.
Given that they are our "kith and kin", in Harold Wilson's old phrase, they will enjoy a warmer welcome than that enjoyed by their black fellow countrymen who have fled to our shores or asylum-seekers from the Balkans and the Near East. But they will find the adjustment to life here scarcely less difficult. As with those other groups, we should do all we can to assist them.
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