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Zimbabwe seized white farmers’ land. Now some are being invited back.
Washington Post ^ | September 14, 2015 | Kevin Sieff

Posted on 09/14/2015 5:22:29 PM PDT by TroutStalker

HARARE, Zimbabwe — When Tracy Mutinhiri struggled to get her tobacco crop to grow, she turned to some of the country’s most experienced farmers for help.

There was only one complication: They were white.

In Zimbabwe, farmland has been a central issue in the African nation’s violent struggles over race. Fifteen years ago, the government began seizing property from thousands of white farmers and giving it to blacks as recompense for the abuses of colonial rule. But now, as agricultural output stalls, black landowners are quietly reaching out to white farmers who were thrown off their land.

“The problem now is that we have the land, but they have the experience,” said Mutinhiri, a black landowner. “We need to help each other.”

President Robert Mugabe has warned that forging ties with white farmers is a step backward. He initially won fame as a guerrilla fighter against white minority rule, which ended with Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.

“We can’t have another war to liberate a country we have already liberated,” Mugabe said last month, speaking about the increasing number of white farmers now advising or managing black-owned farms.

For whites who were stripped of their property, Mugabe’s policy of land reform amounted to theft. For blacks who profited from the redistribution, it was justice after nearly a century in which a small group of British settlers and their descendents controlled the country. The rift between those perspectives has long appeared unbridgeable.

But with the economy spiraling downward, the “joint partnerships” are becoming more common. Black landowners retain their leases but share the profits with whites, who live and work on the farms as managers or consultants, sometimes bringing their equipment as well.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: zimbabwe; zimbabwefarms
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To: Stand Watch Listen
...And after a few growing seasons, with the black landowner gaining experience...what then???

The land seizures were 15 years ago. If the black landowners were going to gain experience, they would have done so long before now.

The land was not given to the sharpest tacks in the box.

* * * * * * * * *

But, I do not see where any white person has a place in Zim. Better to leave now than to wait for the mob to kill you in the future. They have seen this first hand not that long ago.

61 posted on 09/14/2015 9:25:44 PM PDT by CurlyDave
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To: TroutStalker

uh...perhaps the interim caretakers didn’t know what the hell they were doing and folks began to starve?

Also, possible they didn’t try actual “farming” and just waited for food to spring up outta the ground?

They thought it was a gov’t farm......


62 posted on 09/14/2015 9:28:40 PM PDT by G Larry (Climate change is responsible for melting the logic synapses of leftists.)
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To: Farmer Dean

Some 245T would work for a bit too ^_^


63 posted on 09/14/2015 9:57:27 PM PDT by Bikkuri (Get ready to defend yourself..)
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To: TroutStalker; All
tobacco crop

Let's see, a white farmer thrown off his farm is being asked to compassionately help a TOBACCO FARMER?

UH, Of course I feel for the Tobacco farmer.

/Naught

64 posted on 09/14/2015 10:58:16 PM PDT by CptnObvious
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To: Lucy Hamilton

Reversion to savagery, kleptocracy and atrocity is the hallmark of every post colonial African state.


65 posted on 09/14/2015 11:45:46 PM PDT by Noumenon (Resistance. Restoration. Retribution.)
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To: Ouderkirk

black is different from brown.


66 posted on 09/15/2015 12:32:34 AM PDT by Cronos (ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: TroutStalker

I would not run their farms under those (or any) conditions. They stole the land, let them farm it. I’d leave and never return.


67 posted on 09/15/2015 3:01:23 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: umgud

Sure; it was a lot more trouble than it was worth.


68 posted on 09/15/2015 3:36:32 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: TroutStalker

We “quipped” about it years ago - it was obvious they had nobody qualified or interested in farming and making good use of the confiscated lands. We figured it would be a matter of time and they would be begging the Whites to return to save their sorry butts. I think that any who go back are nuts....


69 posted on 09/15/2015 3:44:11 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Farmer Dean

Nothing has grown there for the last 25 years why have to put any chemicals down. Zimbabawe is an example of what America could yet become - a once thriving country that surrendered to basically mob rule and is not basically a defunct communist hellhole!


70 posted on 09/15/2015 3:45:16 AM PDT by hondact200 (Donald Trump is No Ronald Reagan. Conservative, Christian, and Gun Owner since 1982)
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To: TroutStalker
“The problem now is that we have the land, but they have the experience,” do I really have to say it???

71 posted on 09/15/2015 5:05:43 AM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -w- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: umgud

Many were killed.


72 posted on 09/15/2015 6:33:52 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: Noumenon

No reason to produce ANYTHING if there is a high likelihood that it will simply be stolen.

That’s the problem with all societies that do not respect private property.


73 posted on 09/15/2015 6:35:31 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: MrB

And that’s why virtually every South American economy comes pre-wrecked.


74 posted on 09/15/2015 7:13:41 AM PDT by Noumenon (Resistance. Restoration. Retribution.)
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To: WENDLE

Precisely.


75 posted on 09/15/2015 8:49:58 AM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: TroutStalker

Where commies rule, famine follows.


76 posted on 09/15/2015 9:21:49 AM PDT by Trumpinator (You are all fired!!! TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP! TRUMP!)
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To: TroutStalker
"“The problem now is that we have the land, but they have the experience,” said Mutinhiri, a black landowner. “We need to help each other.”"

Well ma'am, first of all, those evil honkies don't "need" to do a thing for you. A person from which you steal a car at gunpoint is under no obligation to instruct you on the safe and efficient use of the same vehicle. That's now your problem.

Second, this outcome was preventable with forethought, thinking, and reasoning, but emotionally driven "kill whitey" rage ruled the day and still does in your garbage can country. More important to stick it to the crackers then feed oneself, I suppose.

I'm not Rhodesian, never known any. But I rather hope you all starve. If I had been there during your dumb revolution, your male relations would have murdered me because I'm white. I have zero sympathy for you bigoted scum.

77 posted on 09/15/2015 10:10:20 AM PDT by mbennett203 ("Bulrog, a tough brute ninja who has dedicated his life to eradicating the world from hippies.")
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To: Noumenon

Courtesy of the Pakistani-Peruvian axis, of course.


78 posted on 09/15/2015 10:52:41 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: usual suspect
Wow! I was just up there visiting family and no one told me about a white mayor for Detroit. The only people who would want that job is a corrupt insider who knows how to siphon from the meager revenue stream.

I got out of MI as soon as I could because of the Marxist thugs destroying a once rich metro area and state. Between the unions and Social Justice warriors, I knew the economic engine that great industrialists like Henry Ford built, grew a prosperous middle class, and saved democracy - would die a swift but agonizing death. Huh - that sounds familiar...

79 posted on 09/15/2015 11:23:23 AM PDT by uncommonsense (Liberals see what they believe; Conservatives believe what they see.)
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