YEARLONG HONORS THESIS COLLOQUIUM MACAULAY COLLEGE AT CUNY FALL 2010
Draft Proposal
THE IMPACT OF SANCTIONS: The Case of Zimbabwe
By:
Charlesworth Mabheka
Dr. Vincent Bodoreau
Faculty Advisor
Distinguished Professor Lee Quiby
Project Instructor
DRAFT PROPOSAL
AUTHOR: Charlesworth Mabheka
TOPIC: The Impact of Economic Sanctions: The Case of Zimbabwe
FORMAT: Research Project
DUE DATE: 29 September, 2010
Introduction Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 which was hailed as a miracle by both the local and international community marked the beginning of majority rule and the hope of transition to democracy in that previously colonized country. Sadly, twenty – eight years after independence, Zimbabwe is an economic and democratic disaster. The country’s economy is in tatters, famine is threatening, and the miracle of 1980 turned into a nightmare. Law and order has broken down; bad governance and corruption are rampant; inflation is the highest in the world; nine out of ten adults are unemployed; commercial farming has collapsed; there is virtually no public health system; a shortage of teachers has crippled the school system; and one third of the population are in exile. The repression leashed against the opposition and the denial of property rights as well as the government’s refusal to respect the rule of law shocked the international community. The questions that come to mind are: How did this happen? And who is responsible? Who is to blame for this tragedy? What has caused deepening hunger, raging hyperinflation and the collapse of health, sanitation and education services that have crippled what was once the breadbasket of Africa? Was this a result of bad economic management policies, corruption, the rule of law and bad governance? On balance, I conclude that it was due to the seizure of white-owned farms by Mugabe’s black supporters resulting in serious human rights violations that led to the imposition of sanctions causing the country’s economic crisis.
Historical Background It is important to understand that the land question has always been and remains central to Zimbabwe’s economic, political, and social development. Thus, this paper seeks to place both the current land crisis in Zimbabwe in its proper historical context by tracing the origins of the problem of the land question from the early years of British colonization, through the struggle against colonialism via the Lancaster House Agreement right through twenty years of Zimbabwe’s independence, to the farm invasions of 2000 and beyond. All these factors bear testimony to the centrality of the land issue as the reason for imposition of sanctions by the United States and its allies. Most importantly the paper will examine the social, political, and economic impact of sanctions on the people of Zimbabwe. I also dwell on the land redistribution program, a very important theme of the causes of sanctions against Zimbabwe. My main thesis on the impact of economic sanctions imposed against Zimbabwe therefore rests upon three themes; the conquest and colonization of Zimbabwe, the Lancaster House Agreement, and the land question. They are all critical to understanding the causes and impact of economic sanctions. It should be acknowledged that while it is difficult to disentangle the effects of sanctions from the effects of the land seizures, other factors such as corruption, inflation and the rule of law were at work at the same time and these factors are also to blame for Zimbabwe’s economic dilemma.
Settler Conquest and Colonization It cannot be disputed that the land question is central to Zimbabwe’s political, social and economic development. It is true that no explanation of the causes and impact of economic sanctions can be complete without an investigation of the colonial history of Zimbabwe. The economic and political crisis facing the country today is a complex situation, which has its origins in a number of factors originating from the country’s special history of colonization. When the white settlers arrived in Mashonaland in 1890, “their main hope was to find gold,” states Meredith. “Each settler was awarded fifteen mining claims,” he maintains. According to Meredith, the gold rush proved disappointing and the whites therefore turned to the next prize, land (2002, 112). The scramble for land in the 1890s became more than plunder. Farms were taken by Rhodes’s agents regardless of whether local people were living there, maintains Meredith (2002, 112). When the first whites arrived in 1890, the land was inhabited by the Shona and the Ndebele people, who claimed sovereignty. Rhodes tricked Lobengula into a treaty. He believed he was allowing a mere handful of prospectors to enter his country. But the concession which he signed was deliberately mistranslated by the Reverend Charles Helm.
War of Liberation
It is important for the reader to recognize that true that no discussion of the causes of Zimbabwe’s current economic sanctions can be complete without an analysis of the Zimbabwe war of liberation. A detailed examination of Zimbabwe’s guerilla war of the 1970s, which was fought principally to overthrow white rule and gain power is important. As noted by Hill (2007, p.118), “land grievances and landlessness, the idea of winning back lost lands provided much of the rhetoric and motivation behind the war”
Lancaster Agreement
I turn now to a review of The Lancaster House Constitutional Conference at which convened on 10 September 1979, which is important in explaining the causes of the farm invasions, an act which led to the impositions of sanctions. The road to the Lancaster Agreement was not easy and during the Lancaster negotiations, the land issue was difficult to resolve. Specific attention should be paid to the fact that the problem came when the conference presented a draft constitution which contained no reference to the land. The whites, backed by the British government, insisted that land rights should be entrenched in a Bill of Rights in the new constitution. (Hill, 2007, p.118).As noted earlier, whites, who comprised 5% of the population owned 80% of the arable land, while millions of black people scratched at a living on the rest. For Mr. Mugabe and Mr. Nkomo this was critical. During the liberation struggle, Zimbabwe’s major liberation movements called for the abolition of private property and the distribution of white owned land. ` It is therefore clear that the current economic problems started with the Lancaster Agreement itself which supported the status quo and stolen land acquired in the plunder of Zimbabwe remaining in the hands of the white minority regime instead of being transferred to the Zimbabwean peasants, the rightful owners. Chua sees Mugabe as a key reason for the economic collapse of Zimbabwe. (Miller, pp.166- 167). She points out that “President Mugabe has encouraged the violent seizure of 10 million acres of white – owned commercial farmland (qtd. In Miller, pp.166- 167). Two days after a white farmer Henry Ellsworth was killed in an ambush near his farm, Mugabe said, “This country is our country, and this land is our land,” concluding, “The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans!”(Meredith, 2002, p.121) . As one Zimbabwean explained, “The land belongs to us. The foreigners should not own land here. There is no Black Zimbabwean who owns land in England. Why should any European own land here?” Similarly, Mugabe occasionally resorted to rhetoric in addressing the land problem. “We can never have peace in the country unless the peasant population is satisfied in relation to the land issue,” he declared in 1981 (qtd.in Meredith, p.121). Mugabe whipped support over the land issue in advance of the 1990 election. “It makes absolute nonsense of our history as an African country that most of our arable and ranching land is still in the hands of our erstwhile colonizers, while the majority of our peasant community still live like squatters in their God – given land.” He promised a ‘revolutionary’ program of agrarian reform to redistribute land (qtd.in Meredith, p. 121).
Works Cited
Save//Ehonorsproposal
© 2024 Honors Thesis Colloquium 2010-11 Powered by WordPress MU
Entries
and comments
OceanWide made by Romow.com. Hosted by Macaulay Eportfolio Community
