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 countrys most experienced farmers for help.
There was only one complication: They were white.
In Zimbabwe, farmland has been a central issue in the African nations 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 Zimbabwes independence in 1980.
We cant 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, Mugabes 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 ...
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.
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......
Some 245T would work for a bit too ^_^
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
Reversion to savagery, kleptocracy and atrocity is the hallmark of every post colonial African state.
black is different from brown.
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.
Sure; it was a lot more trouble than it was worth.
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....
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!
Many were killed.
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.
And that’s why virtually every South American economy comes pre-wrecked.
Precisely.
Where commies rule, famine follows.
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.
Courtesy of the Pakistani-Peruvian axis, of course.
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...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.