What I Learned Today - Do you know what's going on in Zimbabwe?

24th June 2008

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Do you know what’s going on in Zimbabwe?

I’ve been following the situation in Zimbabwe since March, and am surprised by a. how little media attention it has received (that is, until Sunday when Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the election and sought refuge at the Dutch embassy in Harare), and b. how few people to whom I ask that question say yes.

From what I have read/heard/researched, here’s the story:

Zimbabwe was a British colony since the 1880’s, then known as Rhodesia. Robert Mugabe was leader of the nationalist Zimbabwe African Union and in 1979 struck an agreement with British officials to establish a independent democratically elected government, renamed Zimbabwe.

Mugabe later became prime minister, helped unify the nation (though resulting in the death of 30,000 alleged dissidents), became president, and was re-elected numerous times.

However, during his reign, Zimbabwe became more and more impoverished. This can be attributed to the Land Acquisition Act and other similar movements which allowed the seizure of land held by white colonists to be redistributed to the Zimbabweans. The problem was the Zimbabweans did not know how to farm and properly use that land. This led to commodity shortages, a plummeting economy, and an impoverished nation where everyone is a billionaire, yet nobody is. Inflation is around 165,000%.

On March 28, 2008 Mugabe lost his first election since taking power. Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won the election. But Mugabe contested that, and despite a recount, called for a run-off election.

That run-off election was finally scheduled for this Friday. However, after Mugabe’s declaration that he would not cede power to the opposition under any circumstance, and after the death of 85 MDC supporters, Tsvangirai has stepped down stating that increasing violence had made a free and fair poll impossible.

Read about it in the Harare Tribune, the Economist, and a little history of Zimbabwe under Mugabe in the WSJ, and check out some CNN videos.