Posted on 11/04/2014 8:51:13 AM PST by Academiadotorg
There might be a reason why academics don’t dwell on the specifics of life in post-colonial Africa.
In a panel discussion at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, prominent human rights activist, author and farmer, Ben Freeth, and Craig Richardson, an economics professor at Winston Salem State University, discussed their experiences in Zimbabwe.
Freeth’s story is sadly compelling, having survived several separate attacks on his family farm that left one of his farm workers seriously injured with a skull fracture and himself beaten severely. His father-in-law did not survive after being beaten “about sixty times and never recovered.” His mother-in-law was also brutally beaten, and Freeth said, “[It was] by God’s grace we survived that abduction.” They were attacked even after an international court in Namibia ruled in his favor in November 2008, where he “managed to get there in a wheelchair.”
But, after Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe unilaterally announced he would disregard the court’s decision, Freeth’s farm was “reinvaded, we had thugs come and chase my parents-in-law out of their own home, one of our farmworkers was very severely beaten that night…by the thugs and put in jail.” A dozen other farm workers were also jailed, and the thugs went to “steal all our tractors… diesel… to steal our personal possessions and finally, to burn down first of our house and several of our workers’ houses and my parents-in-laws’ house.”
Freeth told the audience how the U.S. has been “blessed with an amazing constitution” and in his own life, “we learned in Zimbabwe in that time, what it was to not have protection of our lives, not have protection of our individual liberties, no have protection when it came to our private property, the rule of law was overthrown.” To make matters worse, Freeth said, “The president called us the enemies of the states…the invasions carried on with complete contempt with no one ever getting arrested.”
He tried to visit other friends on another occasion, and described how “men had come to invade the farm” and suddenly, “rocks were come at us from all sides…it was an absolute miracle that we were unarmed.” He added, “It was our beginning of the Kristallnacht that we read about that took place, in Nazi Germany.” Two of his friends, other farmers, were killed by mobs; one was abducted, “beaten very badly and was shot dead” while the other “held out for several hours…his house was set alight and he was shot in the bath and his body was brutally beaten to a pulp.”
He asked the audience, “So how do you protect yourself without the rule of laws?” Freeth said, “Imagine that in your home in Washington, D.C…imagine your desperation; imagine what you would do.” In Zimbabwe, his life showed how “property rights and the rule of law were systematically destroyed” by the government. Property rights, said Freeth, “is how we became the breadbasket of Africa.” Before, Freeth estimated private farmers owned 50% of the land during the 1980s and 1990s, but by 2000, they only held 25% of the land. Today, “We’re looking at over 90% of the land being controlled…by the state.” And, Freeth added, “We’ll have to send out the begging bowl to have our people fed.”
Richardson noted how many farmers have been driven out of Zimbabwe, and said, “There are only several hundred left out of two-to-three thousand.” And, based on the data he gathered, the Zimbabwean economic collapse was “timed with the seizures of farms.” He reminisced, “In the 90s, it was called the jewel of Africa,” and found it puzzling how farms composed 18% of the country’s economy yet it contributed to such a substantially large and “very quick” economic collapse.
How did that happen? Richardson pointed out, “The answer is that these farms were tied to many other things. They were tied, for example, to fertilizer companies. They also were tied to the cotton companies…the banks were tied to the farms.” Richardson continued, “Although these 3,000 farms were expropriated, they actually caused this cascading, ripple effect that caused the Zimbabwe economy to collapse very quickly.”
He said farms were “a significant part of their [the Zimbabwean government’s] tax revenue came from the sales of exports like tobacco which created hard currency for them.” But, the farm seizures “knocked out a significant part of their sector; they lost tax revenue” and had to “begin printing money” to get out of the financial hole.
On a trip to Zimbabwe in 2007, Richardson said he rang up a dinner bill numbering in the millions of Zimbabwean currency and tipped the waitress in the six digits as well. He noted, “It really wasn’t worth that much; the money was losing value day by day.” Richardson said, “By 2008, the notes were in the trillions of dollars, the end of the road was coming fast…and Zimbabwe couldn’t print money fast enough” to make up the deficit. “The inflation,” he pointed out, “made the record books, second highest in history…I think prices were doubling every single day.”
Without any other options on the table, Zimbabwe turned to the U.S. dollar and South African rand as their currency options, which “shut off” the country’s unhealthy inflation and “it stopped the free fall.” Yet, Zimbabwe is “one of the worst performing countries in the world” when compared to the “Lion Kings” of Africa; primarily the rapidly growing economies of the likes of Angola, Chad, Mozambique and Ethiopia. For example, it takes 90 days for a Zimbabwean to open a business, but only 3 in Rwanda, 13 days in Mozambique and 9 in Ethiopia.
Summary: Marxism is bad. All you need to know.
Summary: Marxism is bad.
This is well known to all but the most inept...e.g., university lib arts “professors”.
Africa always
Wins Again”.
There is little to no hope for that continent.
Best to let the “indigenous persons” kill each other off and then the land can be put to productive use.
Africa always
Wins Again”.
There is little to no hope for that continent.
Best to let the “indigenous persons” kill each other off and then the land can be put to productive use.
“...and Craig Richardson, an economics professor at Winston Salem State University...”
Winston-Salem State is a Black University, so I’m a little surprised, and pleased, to see them covering this.
This is just a guess, but I'll bet that reason is NOT "because the entire continent became a utopian paradise as soon as the last colony was turned over to the natives".
...
Racism sucks also.
It is doubly surprising, because I think Craig Richardson is white.
“Post-Colonial Evils in Africa”
I’m confused. The headline seems to imply that massive Zimbabwean inflation, complete absence of the rule of law, dictatorship, and deliberate destruction of the the national economy due to government theft of the private farms that had been the foundation of the economy are all somehow the fault of colonialization.
Are you referring to things like the confiscation of farmland from white farmers in Zimbabwe? Because it is well established that blacks cannot be racists since racism is about power and only whites have power.
And before you say "but in Africa the blacks DO have the power" I will have to remind you that since a black man became President of the US the definition of racism was officially changed. Refer to the Daily KOS where it lays it out. Racism, it turns out, is the application of institutionalized power, established over centuries, to impose their prejudices and preferences on the majority culture.
So Obama and holder cannot be racist and even in Zimbabwe, where blacks have been in charge for decades, they really can't be racist until they run the place for centuries .
Racism sucks also....Never saw racism there. But there WAS leadership. Now, NO leadership. Just tribal warfare and black on white racism.
I don’t understand. You said you never saw racism there, but then you said there is racism there.
What did you mean?
Wow!
By the Daily Kos definition, no individual can be racist.
No, because institutionalized power is shorthand for “white people”.
I am referring to the liberals idea of racism: White on Black. I never saw that. Once the communists took over, racism raised it’s ugly head with Black on White racism. When I was there, the work force was 90% employed (the workforce, not the population). When the communists took over that rate dropped 2%.
Obama has less respect for rule of law than perhaps any president since FDR, or maybe any president. It so nice to have Africa’s mindset brought here. Not!
The moral of the story: a country populated mostly by people with IQs around 65 will be disaster for civilized people. Decolonization was the worst thing to happen to Africans.
I’ve actually read quotes by black people who said that black people can be bigoted, but they can’t be racist.
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