A documentary highlighting the Zimbabwean regime of Robert Mugabe’s battle with a white Zimbabwean farming family, who were forced out off their land, has emerged as an Oscar contender.
Mugabe and the White African opens in London this week after being named best documentary at the British Independent Film Awards in December 2009.
The movie tells how Mike Campbell, his wife Angela, daughter Laura, son- in-law Ben Freeth and their black Zimbabwean workers battled to keep hold of Mount Carmel, the mango farm 70 miles south-west of Harare where his family had lived for 30 years, in the face of beatings by militia gangs loyal to Mugabe.
The family lost a long battle to hold on to the farm last year despite winning an unprecedented court case against the Zimbabwean government.
The Campbells and Freeths were chased out of their homes in August and Mount Carmel Farm was occupied by Nathan Shamuyarira, an octogenarian former cabinet minister and President Mugabe’s official biographer.
Mr Freeth, his wife and their three children now live in a friend’s house about 10 miles away in the town of Chegutu while Mr Campbell and his wife live in the capital Harare.
Months earlier, Mr Campbell, 76, was subjected to a horrendous beating after he petitioned the tribunal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which rule against Mr Mugabe’s efforts to seize white-owned farms.
After a nine-hour ordeal at a militia camp, Mr Campbell was so badly injured that he could not attend the hearing in Namibia ; Mr Freeth, whose skull was fractured, managed to be present in a wheelchair with his head bandaged.
“We knew there would be consequences, taking on Mugabe,” Mr Freeth said.
“He’s a dictator ; he doesn’t brook any opposition or anyone trying to bring him to book in any way.
“But we felt it was very, very important to ensure the world really knew what was going on in this country, so it had a chance to put an end to the suffering.”
Mugabe once declared : “The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans.”
But the tribunal’s ruling in Mr Campbell’s favor was an unprecedented reverse for this doctrine – effectively determining that Mr Campbell and others like him had the same rights as Zimbabwe’s majority black African population.
However, in February last year, President Mugabe declared that he would ignore the SADC ruling and the forcible seizures would continue.
Mike Campbell, 76, hopes it will force the international spotlight back on the campaign of violent, state-sponsored farm evictions which has continued under Mr Mugabe even though he was forced to form a new power-sharing government.
Source African Press Agency
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