Opinion / Columnist
Of Good Whites (Landless) and Bad Blacks (Landfull)
14 Jul 2014 at 07:08hrs | Views
I was born in Shurugwi, Zimbabwe and know a lot about a bad Whiteman called Ian Smith who had land. However, there were three other good whitemen in the same province:
Pastor Adams, an amazing school principal who helped build Hanke Mission School. He had good children called Rebecca and Billy. Rebecca taught me how to play guitar and piano. Billy spent his entire boyhood life as my young brother's friend.
Pastor Adams had no land, so he couldn't have been that bad!
Further afield was another Whiteman called Garfield Todd. Everyone who understood the importance of education knew that Mr. Todd was a good Whiteman who owned land and helped build Dadaya Mission - one of the historical centres of education in Zimbabwe.
Across from him there was another good Whiteman called Mr. Stockill. He owned lots of land, was good because villagers used to graze their cattle in his farms. He was an herbalist who helped my father recover from debilitating stroke.
By the time I matured, I read about many better Whitemen. Some had even helped President Robert Mugabe with his education at Kutama Mission. Even if some bad Whitemen were shooting at my brothers in the bush, many other good Whitemen supported the liberation struggle.
In 1979, good Whitemen in Britain advised bad Whitemen in Rhodesia to stop shooting at good Blackmen but go to Lancaster House to reconcile with Mr. Mugabe and Dr Joshua Nkomo. In 1980, another good Whiteman, Lord Soames, ensured President Mugabe became Prime Minister. He was so grateful he told all the good and the bad whites that he had forgiven them.
Some good blacks like my father continued to own land in the rural areas and others small commercial farms. There was plenty of food for everyone, plenty of cotton and lots of tobacco for export. President Mugabe was happy, because his political party had monopoly, after taking all of Mr. Nkomo's land.
Occasionally at the Harare Agricultural Show, he used to receive gifts of large cattle from good Whitemen. Some, like Dennis Norman, Chris Anderson and Timothy Stamps remained in President Mugabe's bad government.
By the late 1990s, some good blackmen who had no farms decided to start an opposition political party called MDC. This angered President Mugabe who had been used to monopoly. Some good Whiteman who had land decided to support MDC, while others remained on President Mugabe's side. The president was very angry that some good and bad whites with land were supporting his enemy, so he asked his fellow blacks to chase both good bad whites from their land.
By 2008, only few good Whitemen were left on farms - some had escaped, others murdered. The bulk of Mr. Mugabe's supporters got bad land, while few close to him got choice farms, which they hardly use. By 2014, President Mugabe said both good and bad whites must never own land in Zimbabwe. However, because his few bad lazy friends control most of good land, Zimbabwe now imports all its food.
Rejoice Ngwenya is an independent social and political commentator. He writes in his own capacity and this article is extracted from his personal Facebook page.
Source - Rejoice Ngwenya
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