The land issue has been a problem for over a hundred years in Zimbabwe. In 1888 white colonist under the British rule had taken some of the best land and began to to farm under colonial rule. In the 1950's the struggle for land became a major issue and even though the British agreed that the black's have voting rights the white minority did not want to share its power. In 1968 the war began for liberation and last 11 years ending in 1979. When they gained their independence in 1980 around two-fifths of the land was owned by white minority farmers while the other black farmers had to live and farm in bad areas. In 1980 the Lancaster House Agreement was made which gave Zimbabwe its independence and protected the white farmers from the government for the first 10 years. The in 1990 the government changed the constitution so that the government could have enforced land acquisitions but still most of the best agricultural land was owned by 4,500 white farmers. The Fast Track Land Reform began in 2000 and was supposed to help land equality but this process became extremely violent and caused intimidation as well as displacement. In the end of 2002 11.5 million hectares were taken from the white farmers and given to the black farmers most of the land going to government officials.
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So if most of the land was given to government officials, what does that do?
So they take the land from the white land owners, ostensibly to give to the black farmers, but it is taken by the government leaders???
That simply redistributes the problem. No wonder there is violence. What is Mugabe's stance on this issue? How has he helped/hurt the people of Zimbabwe with his actions/inaction? Why was Mugabe willing to go along with this when he became president?
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