[Wonder Warthog]

"By 2000, race relations had remained surprisingly good considering that two decades after independence whites, making up less than one percent of the population, still hogged 70 percent of the prime farmland in the country, despite early efforts to correct the inequities."

Hmmm---so they "..HOGGED 70% of the prime farmland..", did they?? I wonder if it was "prime farmland" BEFORE the whites arrived and made it so.

[fire and forget]

Zimbabwe has gone to hell economically and in every other way since Mugabe began his "reforms." Soon all of European descent will leave. Mugabe and his people haven't seen nothin' yet.

[Clive]

" I wonder if it was "prime farmland" BEFORE the whites arrived and made it so."

Actually it was not.

The incoming settlers (Mainy Brits, not Africaaners) took the veldt red soil less productive land which the native farmers did not want and did not know how to farm.

The natives kept the rich black alluvial soil which they had traditionally farmed. I suspect tht the "peasant" was not a peasant as the term is usually knows. T he farm workers are in the main loyal to their employers. After all, like any employee anywhere, they get paid for their labour whether or not the farmer brings in the crop and is able to sell it at a profit.

The so-called "peasants" are actually Zanu PF thugs who have invaded the farms.

In numbers, the most victims are among the farm workers who have been displaced from their homes and are living hard in the bush and who as a result were not able to vote because they could not prove residence.