At the Royal African Society launch of his co-authored book, Zimbabwes Land Reform, in London the following day, Ian got his wish, when we enjoyed two hours of presentations, questions and answers without the normal ranting that emerges whenever Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe is mentioned.
At that meeting I was invited to make an historical presentation. So I referred back to my 1977 book, Land and Racial Domination in Rhodesia, long out of print and sadly never available inside Zimbabwe. In my introduction to that book I referred to a considerable mythology which had grown up around the subject of land, and went on:
While conscious of this mythology, I have felt it best to ignore it as far as possible, and to attempt to produce a sober, dispassionate study which will withstand (as well as such things can ever withstand) the ravages of time and the changes of political climate, and one which perhaps will permit future mythologies to have a somewhat firmer basis in reality. (p.1)
At the end of the book I concluded:
What can be affirmed with certainty is that the most acute and difficult question confronting the first Government of Zimbabwe will be that of land, bedevilled by its past use as a political and economic weapon by the whites, and by the consequent mythologies to which this has given rise. The problem will not be an easy one to resolve. The continuing stranglehold of the land division of the 1890s, the fact that Rhodesia is part of the Southern African regional economic system, and the lessons to be drawn from the agricultural failures of neighbouring Zambia, will all impose constraints on future land and agricultural policies. That the country possesses enormous potential is not in doubt; that such potential can be harnessed effectively and with social justice remains to be determined. (p.246)
When Nelson Marongwe, one of the co-authors of Zimbabwes Land Reform, finally completed his doctorate in 2009, I presented him with a copy of my 1977 book as a reward for his great perseverance! That single copy has since been circulated hand to hand around Masvingo with great enthusiasm, and been appreciated on both sides of the political divide which has pleased me greatly. Another co-author, B.Z. Mavedzenge, has pointed out that the younger generation now have no idea about their real history.
I am quietly hopeful that my 1977 historical study may finally be published in Zimbabwe, and so make a belated contribution to the triumph of history over mythology in this deeply and bitterly contested subject.
Post published in: Opinions