July 3, 2002 - August 12, 2002
Mugabe orders white farmers to leave
Posted: Monday, August 12, 2002
BBC - "All genuine and well-meaning white farmers who wish to pursue a farming career as loyal citizens of this country have land to do so," he said, adding that "no farmer need go without land".
Mr Mugabe also attacked former colonial power Britain and Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he labelled a gangster and said had "gone insane". MORE
• BBC's Guide to Zimbabwe's land question
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Peacefully, Nigerian Women Win Changes From Big Oil
Posted: Monday, August 12, 2002
Last Thursday, women blocked the entrances of two oil company facilities, the latest in a month of protests.
by Michael Peel
LAGOS, NIGERIA - The town museum in Calabar, southern Nigeria, contains a striking section on a 1929 Niger Delta protest known as the "women's war." The conflict, which stemmed from opposition to British colonial rule, escalated after villagers in the Owerri province clashed with a mission teacher carrying out a tax assessment. Local women sent folded fresh palm leaves to neighboring communities as a signal to begin attacks against buildings symbolizing the imperial presence.
Hundreds of Ijaw women protest inside a fuel station in Abiteye, Nigeria in this photo taken on Tuesday, July 16, 2002. The Ijaw women took over the flow station soon after the Itsekeris had taken over the ChevronTexaco oil terminal in Escravos, to ensure that their tribe got a better deal from Chevron and did not have to lag behind the Itsekeris. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
"The white men should return to their own country," says a piece of contemporary propaganda quoted at the museum, "so that the land in the area may remain as it was many years before the advent of the white man."
More than 70 years later, the women of the oil-rich delta are stirring once more. On Thursday, hundreds of women blocked the gates of ChevronTexaco and Shell offices in the southern port of Warri. For several hours, workers at the two locations were kept from entering or leaving the facilities. By Friday, the protest had ended peacefully. MORE
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Land reform to take centre-stage at summit
Posted: Monday, August 12, 2002
Herald, By Wisdom Mdzungairi
ZIMBABWE'S Land Reform Programme, expected to be emulated by most African countries as a means of ending poverty, will take centre-stage at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa later this month.
The discussion of the issue at the world summit might become a springboard to ending the world's discontent over agrarian land reforms in Africa.
Over 100 world leaders have confirmed their attendance at the summit.
United Nations Development Programme director of communications Mr Djibril Diallo told The Herald last week that the land redistribution issue and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) would be high on the agenda at the World Summit. MORE
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More farmers leave
Posted: Monday, August 12, 2002
Herald Reporter
MOST of the 1 600 white commercial farmers who have lost ownership of their pieces of land through the land resettlement programme left their properties over the weekend without any protest.
However, it is believed that a handful of the farmers, who had up to Saturday night to leave their farms, might have ignored the Government deadline although no such cases have been identified yet.
Police have also not handled any such cases although they have said they are on the lookout for those who break the law.
Police spokesman Assistant Commis-sioner Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday said most of the commercial farmers who had up to Saturday to leave their properties had complied with the Government’s directive while others were still packing their belongings.
"We have not received any reports of resistance from commercial farmers who have been served with the eviction orders to vacate their properties so far. We can safely say that the process is going on smoothly,’’ said Asst Comm Bvudzijena. MORE
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'Hottentot Venus' laid to rest
Posted: Friday, August 9, 2002
BBC - The remains of an indigenous South African, who was paraded around Europe in the early 19th century, have been laid to rest as part of the country's Women's Day celebrations. The burial ceremony for Sarah (Saartje) Baartman - who was dubbed the "Hottentot Venus" in Europe - took place in a remote valley in the eastern Cape where she was born more than two centuries ago.
Her remains were brought back to South Africa from France where they had been on display at the Museum of Mankind.
A celebration of diverse South African cultures began the burial ceremony.
Sideshow attraction
Sarah Baartman - a Khoisan, or indigenous woman - was taken from her homeland in 1810 and paraded around Europe as an oddity.
She became a sideshow attraction investigated by supposed scientists and put under the voyeuristic eye of the general public. She died in 1816 aged 26, a pauper.
Today's ceremony formed the centre-piece of Women's Day.
Sarah has become an icon for South African women who continue to suffer abuse and exploitation in a country with one of the highest number of rapes in the world.
That was the theme touched upon by President Thabo Mbeki when he addressed the ceremony.
"Sarah Baartman should never have been transported to Europe," he said.
"Sarah Baartman should never have been stripped of her native, her Khoisan, her African identity and paraded in Europe as a savage monstrosity.
"Today we celebrate our national Women's Day to ensure that we move with greater speed towards the accomplishment of the goal of the creation of a non-sexist society."
The burial ceremony began with the burning of a traditional Khoisan herb to purify her spirit.
Her coffin was lowered into the ground near the place where she was born.
Khoisan tribal chiefs broke a bow and arrows and scattered them into the grave in a traditional ceremony honouring their ancestors.
It was a final resting place after two centuries, giving her dignity in death that was missing from her short life.
Khoisan chief Joseph Little told dignitaries around the grave: "We are closing a chapter in history. I feel her dignity has been restored."
Reproduced from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2183271.stm
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Who owns the land?
Posted: Thursday, August 8, 2002
Population: Black 99.4%, White 0.6% Best Farming Land: 70% White 'owned'
Zimbabwe's white farmers own much of the country's best agricultural land.
According to government figures published before the current crisis, some 4, 400 whites owned 32% of Zimbabwe's agricultural land - around 10m ha - while about one million black peasant families farmed 16m ha or 38%.
But much of the white-owned land is in more fertile areas with better rainfall, while the black farming areas are often in drought-prone regions. So in terms of prime farming land, whites own a disproportionate share.
Where they do exist side by side, huge, modern, mechanised estates are divided by a mere fence from subsistence farmers living in mud huts.
The situation was created in colonial times when blacks were forced off their ancestral lands.
"The land question" was a major cause of the guerrilla war which led to Zimbabwe's independence in 1980.
Twenty years later, little has changed.
Who pays?
Land reform and redistribution is expensive: farmers asked to give up some of their property demand compensation; and infrastructure, such as roads, bore-holes, schools and clinics, is needed for those who are given the land.
President Robert Mugabe says Britain should pay because it was in charge when the problem was created.
He also points out that the colonialists did not compensate Africans when they first took the land.
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's government responds that £44m has been provided for Zimbabwe's land reform since 1980, and that much of the redistributed land has so far ended up in the hands of cabinet ministers and other government officials. MORE
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$1,8bn food aid for Zimbabwe
Posted: Wednesday, August 7, 2002
THE Government has stepped up efforts to avert hunger by diverting $1 billion from a special fund set aside for the revival of closed companies towards mitigating the effects of the drought while the European Union yesterday announced a €35 million ($1,8billion) food aid package for Zimbabwe.
A senior official with the Ministry of Industry and International Trade confirmed that $1billion of the $2billion special fund had been diverted towards drought relief.
The official said the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development took the decision to meet pressing drought requirements. MORE
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Focus on agricultural productivity, locals urged
Posted: Wednesday, August 7, 2002
SINGAPORE Prime Minister Mr Goh Chok Tong yesterday said land reforms in Zimbabwe should succeed to ensure the country’s food security.
He said what now remained was the need for Zimbabweans to put land to good use and focus on productivity.
Mr Goh was speaking to President Mugabe during a meeting between the two leaders here.
Mr Goh said, for Singapore, what was crucial was to make the land reforms an agricultural success and that the land could turn green and secure the country’s food requirements.
President Mugabe said land acquisition was over and the Government was now preparing the new farmer for the coming season. MORE
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NGOs pursue agenda of Western governments
Posted: Friday, August 2, 2002
By Wanjiku Ngugi www.herald.co.zw
A few years after the attainment of independence in most African states, it soon became clear to the majority of the people that the neo-liberal policies advanced by the ruling class were in complete contradiction with what they had struggled for during colonialism.
For instance, the land question, which had been the driving force for most of these struggles, remained unresolved.
The non-reversal of the ownership of the means of production meant that the people’s economic status did not change even after independence.
The people, therefore, felt provoked by these policies.
In Kenya for instance, people started regrouping in order to challenge what they perceived as continuation of colonial injustices.
The government, not happy with the new developments, responded by placing most people in jails, detention and putting them through other daunting experiences.
Around this time, a few Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) started sprouting all over the developing nations purporting to back weak government policies in order to enhance them.
They also portrayed themselves as advocates of the poor and marginalised, and denounced human rights violations and dictatorships, largely supported by Europe, the United States and international NGOs.
This created a rather favourable image of NGOs, which explains today’s confusion regarding their political nature, because then, they had successfully manifested themselves as advocates of the underprivileged.
These international NGOs went further to complement their new-found role by establishing strong links with liberal national NGOs in various countries.
What is interesting is that even in their denouncement of human rights violations, these NGOs never explained to the people they supported the relationship between their government policy and Western states.
Indeed, they refused to recognise the historical context of the issues they criticised and supported.
Of course, by virtue of their being funded by their imperial governments, it was naive of us to think that they would have pursued our genuine struggles.
Having noted their limitations and hideous intentions, we are able to see that these NGOs could not therefore halt or manage the increasing dissatisfaction among the people who still wanted land and socio-economic issues resolved.
Today, these issues are still at the centre and as pressure from the people mounts, so do NGOs increase.
Zimbabwe is a case in point. As Zanu-PF, war veterans, Government as well as the citizens demanded correction of past injustices, so did the NGOs multiply.
These NGOs can be linked to imperialism as they openly pursue the agenda of the former colonial masters under the guise of the people’s struggle.
What then is the relationship between radical social solutions and the so-called NGOs?
It is important to note that most international NGOs, despite their claim to be non-governmental organisations, are in fact aligned to their governments.
After all, their funding is from Western governments. As we all know, all governments have local and foreign policies and they will not give money to any NGO or social movements or organisations that seek to promote policies or issues that are in direct contradiction with their foreign policy.
We, on the other hand, have allowed these liberal funds to penetrate our countries without much checking and created avenues through which those in direct conflict with us have room to interfere with policies in our society.
We need to ask questions like who is funding these NGOs? What are they preaching? What are their short-term and long-term objectives?
In other words, people must question NGOs in much the same way they question motives of say political parties or donor agencies. We must have a politically conscious approach to NGOs.
In most cases, international and local NGOs are entities that will rarely, if ever, align themselves with a genuine class struggle or with the struggle to control the means of production.
In most instances and very recently in Zimbabwe, the NGOs subvert issues like the land policy by creating and fabricating issues to sway the people’s focus.
Instead of supporting the poor as they claim, they instead undermine issues of national importance meant to subvert the hand of imperialism.
It is rather sad that these NGOs have managed through monetary means to lure activists whose once revolutionary zeal has since been tamed.
These organisations, packaged as "people based" or "participatory" are, in fact, meant to and do replace radical ideas.
They will not get involved or align themselves to issues such as education, overhaul of IMF policies, and will not campaign against structural adjustment policies whose outcome every African is aware of.
They, instead, tackle issues from very simplistic and superficial angles. For instance, they will not take up real issues affecting the population. A case in point is the women’s struggle (a favourite of NGOs).
They only embark on sectors of women’s concerns, usually by setting up self-help projects, or approach women’s concerns only at a cultural level, which at the end of the day leads to misunderstanding of women and their real concerns.
In order to empower women one has to empower them not only culturally but also economically and politically. The women’s struggle has to be seen in whole, as a struggle against sexism, imperialism, neo-colonialism, and located within a class struggle.
An NGO purporting to advance women’s rights has to situate women within a global framework and fight the continued monopoly and dominance of countries over others.
The agrarian revolution taking place right here in Zimbabwe is an area that NGOs, if genuine about change in women’s social status, should have embarked on.
There is also the problem of dependency being created by these NGOs. They do not teach people how to fish so that tomorrow they can be able to fish for themselves but provide fish so that people are continuously dependent on them.
By the nature of their structures, they cannot provide long-term services to communities. We have witnessed NGOs claiming to support local initiatives but withdraw development assistance in the middle of programmes, leaving the people they sought to help in dire straits.
Usually it is not a problem with the way the project is being carried out but rather a shift in funding priorities.
The beneficiaries and their projects are usually dumped after scanty evaluations meant to justify and arrive at already drawn conclusions.
In other words, NGOs are less accountable to the poor people but rather to their governments, the source of their funds.
In most instances these projects are set up in such a way that a pullout of funds results in collapse. One wonders why international NGOs would rather spend billions on self-help projects rather than spending the same on building institutions which would in turn be self-sufficient.
In countries such as Kenya and Uganda where NGOs enjoy a rather enthusiastic haven, one notes that the radical social movements have decreased as the conservative NGOs have increased.
Their training programmes and workshops have depoliticised people and turned their once genuine concerns into self-help projects and "killed" movements that would have had a larger and more direct bearing on people’s predicaments.
As pointed out earlier, these NGOs have cast themselves as alternatives to radical change. They have adopted the language of genuine revolutionary movements and ideas and reduced them to a marginal level.
By failing to paint the larger picture, these organisations have failed nation states and their citizens who are struggling to fight imperialism.
We really ought to re-assess this NGO dependency syndrome and continue to raise radical consciousness and find real solutions.
Reproduced from:
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=12791&pubdate=2002-08-02
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Another opposition MP up for murder
Posted: Friday, August 2, 2002
From Bulawayo Bureau, www.herald.co.zw
ANOTHER MDC legislator has been indicted for trial to the High Court on charges of murdering two senior Zanu-PF officials.
The opposition MP for Lobengula-Magwegwe, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, together with two other MDC activists were implicated in the murder of Bulawayo war veterans’ leader and national hero Cde Cain Nkala and Cde Limukani Luphahla of Lupane District.
Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice George Chiweshe, yesterday dropped the provisional order, which barred the Attorney General’s office from indicting for trial the three on two counts of murder.
In his judgment, handed down by Justice Maphios Cheda, Justice Chiweshe said the reasons for discharging the provisional order would follow later.
The ruling means that the State can now lock in remand prison the trio — Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, Sony Nicholas Masera and Army Zulu until their trial at the Harare High Court on 11 November.
The trio can now remain in remand prison until the trial date.
This comes in the wake of the pending trial of former MDC spokesman and MP for Kuwadzana Learnmore Jongwe for killing his wife with a kitchen knife last month.
Last week, Justice Lawrence Kamocha granted Dulini-Ncube, Masera and Zulu a provisional order stopping the State from indicting them for trial pending the determination of the matter by the High Court.
The judge further ordered that the Attorney General should show cause why the three should not be removed from remand.
The trio had argued that the evidence submitted by the State in its indictment papers did not implicate them at all in the commission of the offences preferred against them.
They further argued that there was no evidence in the papers that would justify that they be indicted for trial.
It was also their contention that the State had no right to continue placing them on remand and asked the court to order that they be removed from remand.
The AG’s office in reply argued that the trio’s application should be dismissed, as it had no basis in law.
It was their contention that the application was frivolous, vexatious and went against the provisions of the country’s Constitution and sections of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act as it sought to usurp the powers of the AG.
The trio’s lawyers, Mr Josphat Tshuma and Mr Nicholas Mathonsi, both of Webb, Low and Barry Legal Practitioners, indicated soon after the judgment that they would appeal to the Supreme Court against the High Court’s decision.
Mrs Mercy Moya-Matshaga of the Attorney General’s office appeared for the State.
The three are some of the suspects alleged to have been hired by MDC to murder senior Zanu-PF officials to avenge the alleged kidnapping and disappearance of Mr Patrick Nabanyama in the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary elections.
Mr Nabanyama was the election agent for Bulawayo South Member of Parliament, Mr David Coltart.
After their recruitment, the State alleges Masera, the party’s deputy national secretary for security, taught them the skills to kill people using strong strings or fishing twine.
Dulini-Ncube allegedly provided them with a motor vehicle, which was used in the murder of national hero, Cde Nkala and Cde Luphahla of Lupane district.
Cde Nkala’s body was found buried in a shallow grave at Norwood Farm near Solusi University outside Bulawayo.
Three other suspects, Augustine Khethani Sibanda, Remember Moyo and Sazini Mpofu have already been indicted for trial and are now in remand prison.
They had all been granted bail but the indictment meant that they had to be placed in prison.
A seventh suspect, Gilbert Moyo, is on a warrant of arrest after he skipped bail.
However, the State has since dropped charges against Direen Spooner, who was suspected to have taken part in the murder of Cdes Nkala and Luphahla.
Reproduced from:
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=12798&pubdate=2002-08-02
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Victory for a new kind of women’s power at Escravos
Posted: Friday, July 26, 2002
By Wole Akande, YellowTimes.org
The recent news of the successes of Nigerian village women protesting against the excesses of Chevron-Texaco (the multinational oil company) captured headlines worldwide. Every news organization, major or minor, reported the unusual drama as it developed.
However, I doubt if any news report captured the essence of the story better than D'Arcy Doran’s report for the Associated Press: "Village women carrying straw mats, umbrellas and thermoses left Chevron-Texaco's main oil terminal on Thursday, ending a 10-day occupation that paralyzed most of the oil giant's Nigerian operation." Not only does it capture the essence of the news, but the delivery is so elegant that I can see the protesting women right before my eyes.
There are key lessons to be learnt from the Nigerian women's experience of negotiating with a giant conglomerate. Think of the detail for a moment: You have this bunch of women who have no education to speak of and with babies strapped to their backs, they have barely enough English to ask for water. But they know that someone somewhere is cheating them out of very fundamental rights. And so they set about putting it right in the only way they can: turning the mundane into the political.
As protests go, it doesn't get much more political than a confrontation with the multinationals and international funding agencies, which have long exploited Africans on the grounds that the poor have no bargaining power and must accept investment under any terms. Yet these women, who have probably never before even considered standing for elections or any other political activity, achieved the undreamed of. And after the success of the women’s protest at Escravos, a town in the oil-producing Niger delta region of Nigeria, where will African governments and political leaders hide?
Far too often across Africa, the interests of local people have been shunted to the side in the interests of keeping multinational bucks flowing. Indeed, there have been times when the very health of the African people has been compromised, especially in the horticulture industry, just to keep giant investors happy. Well, now we know blackmail of this kind can cut both ways.
The Nigerian village women's takeover served one key purpose: it proved that women have the power to change African politics. At Escravos, we saw village women armed with no more than determination taking over negotiations for jobs and better social facilities for their people.
Indeed, Doran notes "a departure in Nigeria, where armed men frequently use kidnapping and sabotage to pressure oil multinationals into giving them jobs, protection money or compensation for alleged environmental damage."
Of course, the recent drama at Escravos is not the first time Nigerian women have revolted.
In her new book The Bluest Hands, Judith Byfield, a history professor at Dartmouth College, highlights the political consciousness and political activism of women indigo dyers in Abeokuta, a prominent town in southwestern Nigeria. In the mid 1930s, the women dyers successfully mobilized themselves to protect their industry. However, this recent incident is the first time women in Nigeria have collectively confronted the authority of the all-powerful multinational oil companies.
Yet the people of the oil-producing regions of Nigeria can now bank on a new era of power relations with some of the world's most powerful countries. Under the deal that these women negotiated, Chevron-Texaco will hire 25 villagers over five years and help build clinics, schools, fish and chicken farms.
The second great achievement of these women is their success in turning the female body into a political tool. It has been done before, of course, but not quite in the same manner. Often, we are more likely to hear of women using their sexual allure to entrap political leaders into disclosing the top secrets of their governments. And the biblical tales of Samson and Delilah and of Jezebel capitalize on the so-called treachery of women using their beauty to unleash terror.
In modern times, we are inundated with skimpily dressed women being used to sell just about anything.
The protesters in Nigeria have given us a new take on the power of a woman's body, getting their side of the story heard by the simple expedient of threatening to strip to their bare essentials. It seems no one wanted to see that which could be something to do with the fact that the women were aged between 30 and 90 - over the hill in terms of sexual exploitation. They like them young and firm in all the right places in the advertising and power games, you see.
So, it is in their maternal roles that women can hope to pull off the naked-body threat. Indeed, it is the ultimate curse in some African cultures if your mother should ever point at you with the same breast that fed you in infancy. I don't know whether this is really an effective curse but some things are best left untested - as the village women protesters at Escravos decided early in the occupation.
The experience in Nigeria could herald a new form of governance based on respect for the wishes of the people. In a country that has known more military rule than democracy, the two forces of authority - government and multinational - took the time to consider the legitimacy of the claims being put on the table. And when the retreating Nigerian women expressed reservations about some elements of the agreement, the Chevron-Texaco side promised to visit their villages for further discussions and ferried them peacefully back to their homes without a drop of spilled blood or any broken bones.
For women and other ill empowered people across Africa and elsewhere, desperately lacking in political power, the Escravos drama offers a useful lesson: strategy pays. The village women in Nigeria had one agenda and one agenda only - to get their voices heard, whatever it took, however long. They did their homework, and it showed.
[Wole Akande, a former opinion columnist with Ireland's Irish Examiner newspaper, is a freelance journalist. In addition to his work with YellowTimes.org, Wole also maintains http://www.abeokuta.org, a Nigerian community website.]
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EU explands Zimbabwe sanctions blacklist
Posted: Monday, July 22, 2002
BRUSSELS, July 22 (AFP) - The European Union on Monday added the names of 52 associates of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, including that of his wife Grace, to a blacklist of officials facing "targetted sanctions".
The sanctions by the world's biggest trading bloc, initially applied to Mugabe and 19 close associates. They bar the individuals from obtaining visas to travel to EU member states and freeze any assets they may have in the eurozone.
In a joint statement, EU foreign ministers said the sanctions would apply to Grace Mugabe, and include all remaining cabinet ministers, politburo secretaries, deputy ministers, and assistant politburo secretaries in Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe National African Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). MORE
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Reparations must be paid
Posted: Wednesday, July 17, 2002
by Alleyne George, Wednesday JULY 17,
newsday.co.tt.
African slavery was perhaps the worst form of terrorism of the last 500 years, with the physical subjugation and economic hobbling of countries running a close second. Sometimes it was difficult to differentiate between the two groups, the horror of it all. Western European nations have been the greatest colonisers and enslavers in world history.
Yet, ironically, they have been able to do a mental sleight of hand with respect to the enslavement and colonising of Africa and similar positions vis a vis the African Diasporas, as against their being overrun and their economic and industrial growth crippled by the Germans during World Wars 1 and 11.
The Allies, having defeated Germany at the end of World War 1, established a Reparations Commission, which just under two and a half years later in April of 1921 required reparation payments from Germany to the tune of US$33 billion! The British, who were part of the Allied Forces, which defeated Germany, had paid at the abolition of slavery 20 million pounds sterling, not to the slaves, but to those who had enslaved them. I write this without bitterness, without rancour, but merely to demonstrate why any seeking of the redressing of the imbalance of history, with particular reference to reparations to the descendants of African slaves, as well as to former colonised Africans, has validity.
The position of Allied Europe, immediately following on World Wars 1 and 11, clearly approximated that of colonised Africa, not merely after slavery, but during the long depressing night of colonialism.
Let us begin with World War 1. Germany, which had declared war on and had fought the Allied nations had crushed France for the second time in a little over 40 years. At the end of the war, France, had demanded and received reparations from Germany, not only in the form of money, but raw materials. France, whose economic and industrial growth had been set back by the war, sought and won the ceding for a period of 15 years the extensive Saar coal mines of Germany, as well as the return of Alsace and Lorraine, with its vast coal mines, which Germany had seized from it years earlier in 1871.
Germany's rapid industrial development had been made possible by the vast mineral resources in the Saar, the Ruhr and Alsace and Lorraine. The reparations received by the European countries, which had been occupied and ravaged by Germany had set a precedent for the manoeuvre to help similarly affected countries back on their feet.
It had been Europe's colonies in Africa and India which had forged the industrial growth and economic expansion of Western Europe. Industrialisation of European occupied Africa was deliberately discouraged, even to the extent, at once ludicrous and sad, of a Governor rejecting a proposal to establish a factory in Uganda to produce blankets! "The estimated levels of per capita industrialisation around 1750" in what is today called the developed world and the now so-called developing world, saw the developing world responsible for 73 percent of the world's manufactured goods, while the developed world produced 27 per cent: Paul Bairoch, "Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes".
By 1860, after more than a century of cruel exploitation and deliberate underdevelopment by Europe, the situation had been reversed. The developing countries now produced 36.6 percent of the world's manufactured goods, and the developed nations 63.4 percent.
By 1900 the developing world, with the colonies largely restricted to being primary producers, turned out 11 per cent of the world's manufactured goods, and the developed world 89 per cent.
This was not due to hurricanes, earthquakes and pestilence, but part of an almost diabolical policy of Western Europe. But even these sad differences in production levels slipped yet further in 1953 to 7.2 percent and 93 percent respectively, rising a bit to 16.7 percent developing world and sliding back a mere whisper to 83.3 percent for the developed world.
Germany's policy, as it sought to colonise Tanganyika, about 1880, instituted a scorched earth policy to subjugate the area. There was "the systematic destruction of houses, crops and storages, as well as the capture of available stock....The military command found that famine was its most useful weapon....Troops were stationed in a strategic food production location to prevent any farm activity during the main seeding periods. The local people were faced with the cruel choice of surrendering or facing death by starvation": Helge Kjekshus, "Ecology Control and Economic Development in East African History: The Case of Tanganyika 1850-1950".
As a result of this, the man made famine, Kjekshus would note in Pages 143 to 146, became the strategy relied on almost entirely by the German Army as it sought to overcome resistance. Indeed, so proud were the Germans of this strategy that they went so far as to incorporate it in their standard military handbook at the time. It was, the handbook cynically described it, a cruel but useful ally which the Army should not refrain from putting to use.
When German military operations ended in August of 1907, one estimate, put 75,000 Africans as having died during the war. In another estimate, 120,000 were supposed to have died mainly from famine.
If it was all right for the European Allies to demand and obtain reparations from the Germans after World War 11, is it not in order for East Africa to demand reparations from Germany. And for Africa and the African Diaspora in the Caribbean and the Americas to demand and expect reparations as well for, where relevant, slavery and colonisation and all that went with it?
Following the end of World War 11, total reparations demanded of Germany and Italy by principally Russia, Greece, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia totalled US$1.27 billion, plus raw materials and what have you. At the end of World War 1 the sum of US$33 billion had been demanded and agreed to for the restoration of Belgium, France.
If Europe (the Allies) could demand and receive reparations from Germany, then why can’t Africa and the African Diaspora not be able to demand and receive reparations from their former colonisers who had suffered far worse. Reparations, Africa and its Diaspora should insist, must be paid.
Links:
• Reparations Discussion
• Depths of Global Apartheid Exposed
• Small Reparations FAQ
• An Estimate of Unpaid Labor Wages to American Slaves
• The Economics of Chattel Slavery
• Did U.S. laws mandate the economic oppression of African-Americans?
• Lynchings by State and Race, 1882-1968*
• Ten reasons why reparations for slavery are a bad idea for black people
• Princeton University An online video of the reparations debate
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15 farmers charged
Posted: Saturday, July 6, 2002
FIFTEEN white commercial farmers in Chiredzi, south of the country, have been charged with defying a Government directive to cease farming operations on designated farms as a High Court judge granted one farmer a 10-day reprieve to challenge the directive.
The farmers, who recorded warned and cautioned statements at Chiredzi Police, were charged for contravening the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act.
In one of the warned and cautioned statements sent to The Herald and signed on Thursday, the police noted that the farmers had contravened section 8 (7) of the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act.
The ban to cease farming activities on the land came into effect last week.
Police were not immediately available for comment. MORE
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$37m foodstuffs recovered
Posted: Wednesday, July 3, 2002
Herald Reporter
POLICE recovered basic foodstuffs worth a staggering $37 million in a crackdown on hoarding, black market trading and illegal exports in June alone.
The basic goods recovered were sugar worth $967 147, salt valued at $31,9 million, cooking oil worth $1,6 million and maize meal valued at $2,5 million in nine of the country’s 10 provinces.
Police did not recover any basic commodities in Matabeleland South.
Sugar, cooking oil, maize meal and of late salt have been in short supply. The commodities are not available in retail outlets but readily found on the black market where they are sold at exorbitant prices.
According to a police report, the shortages began to worsen after the March presidential election won by President Mugabe. "This unprecedented development initially manifested itself through shortages of maize and mealie meal.
"While concerted efforts were being made to address the maize problem, sugar and cooking oil also became scarce on shop shelves. The latest commodity to be in short supply is salt," the police report said.
It said while there might be various reasons proffered by stakeholders for the shortages, "it is believed that the underlying cause is economic sabotage maliciously intended to discredit the lawfully elected Government of Zimbabwe".
"The artificial shortages in the minds of the detractors would ferment or agitate the masses to engage in looting and defiance of law.
"The unimaginable dream theory would lead to an ungovernable state or anarchy, which would pave way for the overthrow of the Government."
According to the report, the opposition MDC was also hoping to gain political mileage "by orchestrating artificial shortages".
In line with its mandate to maintain law and order in Zimbabwe, police impounded goods being sold on the black market in order to ensure the continued availability of basic commodities and promote peace and stability.
The force established price control inspectorate teams tasked with monitoring activities of manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. The teams also helped enforce price controls.
Roadblocks were mounted countrywide to cut off supply routes and trafficking routes by dealers. Police also tightened border security to curb illegal exports and launched special operations to monitor black market trade of basic commodities.
The police recommended that the Government make concerted efforts on total control of the production and distribution systems of all basic commodities because they formed the backbone for the sustenance and survival of any sovereign nation.
Police also urged the Government to ensure key positions in parastatals and board memberships were offered to patriotic Zimbabweans who have the nation at heart.
"Serious collusion in these clandestine dealings or hoarding of basic commodities should be nipped in the bud."
Some notorious wholesalers and retailers were known to be profiteering from illegal dealings in basic commodities. These should be considered for suspension from trading by revoking their licences, police said.
Security forces should also be adequately equipped to be able to screen all baggage to enhance tight control on all goods leaving or coming into the country.
Police also called on the Government to re-visit foreign currency regulations and operations of bureau de changes as some dealers were illegally exporting basic goods.
"The lucrative foreign currency earned from outside the country is largely contributing to the illegal exportation of basic commodities.
"Basic commodities meant for local consumption end up being smuggled out of the country due to the profitability of foreign currency sold on the black market."
President Mugabe has said that the Government would not hesitate to take over companies that hoard basic commodities after it was discovered that National Foods was keeping salt at some of its depots countrywide.
While salt was not available in most retail outlets last week, hundreds of tonnes of the commodity were discovered stashed away at National Foods depots promoting allegations of hoarding.
However, National Foods has denied that it was hoarding the commodity saying it could not import adequate supplies due to the shortage of foreign currency, which is available at black market rates.
The company has since suggested that the Government take over stocks of the commodity it currently has and distribute them.
The company however said the take-over would be on the understanding that the Government would replace the stock, without National Foods incurring any costs.
"It would be necessary for packaging, distribution and direct packing costs to be charged to the Government so that we return to the status quo," National Foods managing director, Mr Ian Kind said in a letter to the Permanent Secretary for Industry and International Trade, Mr Stuart Comberbach.
Mr Kind also suggested that the Government immediately approve price increases of the commodity for his company to release onto the market, stocks it is holding.
He said the cost of importing salt had risen dramatically over the past month and was continuing to rise on a daily basis.
Delays in the approval have resulted in the shortage of salt on the market, he said, as National Foods hung on to stocks at its depots and plants.
Mr Kind claimed that his staff at depots were now being "roundly abused" by the public, politicians and subjected to "forced entry" by ZBC.
"This position is unacceptable and can only lead to future decision making by National Foods being based on no imports till price increases.
"This will lead to no stocks being available at all and delays even the price increase approvals until the material can be brought in, packed and distributed to outlets,’’ he said.
© Copyright of Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Limited 2001.
Reproduced from:
http://www.herald.co.zw/index.php?id=11824&pubdate=2002-07-03
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