MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN
I remember growing up believing that Robert Mugabe, now seemingly president for life, was one of Africa’s great post-colonial heroes. I would meet well educated Zimbabweans and think of it as one those countries that one could perhaps relocate to if one wanted to live in Africa. But as we have all seen in recent years, the country once celebrated as a model of economic and cultural success has become quite something else at the hands of a leader who cannot relinquish power.
This film is a close-up examination of one farmer, Michael Campbell and his family’s attempt to hold onto their farm. Although Campbell purchased his farm long after colonial rule had been routed in the 1980s, neither he nor any of his white counterparts were given exception to Mugabe’s violent land reform policy begun in 2000. Mugabe claims the policy is meant to put white-owned land into the hands of poor black Zimbabweans, yet it has gone to Mugabe supporters, politicians and civil servants who often do not in fact farm it. One result has been the inability of Zimbabwe to feed itself or export food, with the resulting reliance on imports and inflation.
The film tracks Campbell and his son-in-law’s attempts to litigate their ownership rights before the South African Development Community’s international tribunal. In between delays and continuances used by Mugabe’s legal team, we see the way in which the Campbell’s live in constant fear, of violent attack. Without giving anything away there is no real happy ending in the Zimbabwe situation, and probably won’t be until Mugabe is out of the picture.
The film is purely informational, a straightforward and polemical cinema verité examination of how violent and corrupt Zimbabwe has become, this time with whites as the victims. I guess there isn’t much room for subtlety or art when one is facing death or serious bodily harm daily but I would have liked a little bit more context. A film like this past year’s Disgrace offers much more room complex analysis of the conundrum of “white Africans” who won’t leave their land in the face of threats by an overwhelming black majority. It might also be interesting to consider how and why the notoriously anglophilic Mugabe became such a brutal dictator? Maybe he fancies himself a latter day Henry VIII.
Mugabe and The White African is now playing.
Directed by Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson; produced by David Pearson and Elizabeth-Morgan Hemlock; Director of Photography, Andrew Thompson; edited by Tim Lovell; music by Johnny Pilcher. Released by HanWay Films. Running time: 94 minutes.
