Zimbabwe - Countdown
August 2003 - 52 min 00 sec
This is my home town.... Harare - capital of Zimbabwe.
Michael - OFF : “You see the Pearl Assurance Company up there! I remember going right to the top as a kid and thinking : what an amazing experience - just the height and the sense of power. And on the left there, the Anglo-American building, the red building, great symbol of the stranglehold of international monopolies.
ON : All these buildings are new since Independence, this whole place really took off after Independence, and only now is there this colossal reversal… and stagnation…”
This film you’re watching now will be condemned outright by the currrent Government, and as a result I shall be compelled to go into exile.
MICHAEL : This is the Reserve bank here. Just introduced a $500 note which is almost small change now.
Ironically, this will be my second enforced exile - the earlier one took place in colonial times.
PICS COLONIAL DAYS
When I was a kid my country was still called Rhodesia - a stronghold of the British Empire and paradise for a happy few – the settlers who wanted to cling on to it forever.
GARDEN PARTY
WHITE LADY :
I’m not prepared to sacrifice everything I’ve worked for just because Britain wants us to have black majority rule before its time. But the black majority rule will come and so it should, but they must be ready for it, I feel."
That was not my mother, but it could well have been.
CARD : ‘RHODESIA COUNTDOWN’ - 1969’
MICHAEL: "Boys come here quickly. Come on; come on, up, up, up. Did you see anything (No sir) did you ? (No boss) Did you ? (No master).”
This is me, in the first film I ever made.
QUESTION : Sir, are you a Rhodesian ?
MICHAEL: Yes, I’m a Rhodesian, born and bred. If there’s anybody here in this country who should know these black people it’s me. I’ve been brought up in this country I’ve worked with these guys my whole life, I know what they want, I know for instance that they respect the tough man, they respect… they like the man with the strong arm. That’s what they like. They don’t want to much of this ‘freedom’ - does them no good."
Well it’s me and it’s not me. I’m acting a bigoted colonist. If you think IT is a caricature, then take a look at the real thing :
1ST MAN: The point is the average African doesn’t know what a vote is. He can’t eat it, he can’t sleep with it and he can’t spend it, so he’s not interested.
2nd MAN : When the white man came to this country, they didn’t know anything else but grass huts and grass fires, the majority of them couldn’t make a wheel.
MUGABE IN ROLLS ROYCE
The direction my life has taken over the years is closely bound to one powerful political figure - arriving here today to open parliament.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe, hero of my youth as the man most responsible for sweeping away the colonial era, and head of Zimbabwe for well over two decades.
CARD : ROBERT GABRIEL MUGABE - President of Zimbabwe
MUGABE : We will work hard… work hard to forge the unity, the peace that we have created; and work hard to further the positive programmes that have sustained us in the past, and improve on those on which there have been failures. We are as yesterday we were - our own redeemers, our own liberators. Let’s stay that way. I thank you.
Up with Zimbabwe !
Forward with unity !
Let us win the elections !
Down with british imperialism and neo-colonialism !
CARD : ‘RHODESIA COUNTDOWN’ - 1969’
My film predicted that dialogue would never get anywhere with the colonists. It supported the African Nationalists and Robert Mugabe who had just been imprisoned by the Rhodesian leader, Ian Smith...
CARD : IAN SMITH – Prime Minister of Rhodesia 1964-1980
SMITH : We are in complete control in Rhodesia today... We, the Europeans, we are all-powerful. We have the reins in our hands and we can pretty well do what we like.
In my film, the countdown was to war. This is why, not surprisingly, I was kicked out of the country.
SHOOTING
FARMER : What the hell do you want!
As the guerrilla war against Smith gathered pace, Robert Mugabe escaped from the country, soon to spearhead the Zimbabwe Liberation army.
WAR HELICOPTER
CARD : LIBERATION WAR – 1970-1980
Forward with unity !
Long live our party ZANU !
GUERILLA
The struggle was for a democratic multi-racial society free of colonial oppression.
It took ten years of war to achieve this goal and give birth to independent Zimbabwe – and at last we all came home.
RHODESIAN GENERAL :
We fought each other - that is history. Let this be a good start to our future together.
FLAG FOLDS
MUGABE : This is a great moment - it’s a moment of our victory. The culmination of our national struggle... conferring upon all of us, the people of Zimbabwe -- whether we are black or white -- full sovereignty, full democratic rights. We will ensure that there is a place for everybody in this country."
CARD – INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS - 1980
MUGABE : I, Robert Gabriel Mugabe do swear that I will well and truly serve Zimbabwe in the office of minister of the Government, so help me God !
The Celebrations featured the guerrilla army choir led by Comrade Chinx …
CARD : ‘JIT’
Several years later here’s Comrade Chinx once again now playing a leading characters in my movie Jit...
My objective with this comedy was to put over the optimistic and vibrant spirit that carried us through two whole decades of independence.
JOHNSON : "Hey, UK, UK! Two double Scotch, two double vodka and a Coke for my princess! And move it now, I haven’t got all day!"
Everything was on the move - the economy, education, health services Mugabe became the most prestigious African leader, and Zimbabwe a model of a post-colonial nation.
We were able to build new lives, settle in and feel secure.
RIOT - UNREST
Rage - riots - killings - starvation - doom. This is where we are today. The collapse has been sudden and fast - a matter of months.
Imagine the shock : your world falls apart - nothing is as it used to be - the future is a tunnel of despair.
Imagine the sense of betrayal - this is not at all what our fight for freedom has been about.
And all this because of one single man.... My image of Robert Gabriel Mugabe as hero has been destroyed....
REFERENDUM
The countdown to chaos began in February 2000.
Mugabe held a referendum - behind a smokescreen of constitutional changes lay his real intention : greater personal control of government.
CARD : REFERENDUM february 2000
Mugabe and his party ZANU PF had been the driving force of the guerrilla war – both through military tactics and their political vision. Ever since independence all attempts to build an oppostion party had failed abysmally.
ZANU HQ
MUGABE : My opinion is that the people are going to vote yes, by and large, and that they will support therefore the draft constitution.... But a constitution like this, sacred as it is, is not above the will of the people. And those who go into parliament, go into it carrying with them the mandate given them by the people - and they have the right therefore to amend the constitution in the future without consultation."
But the people were becoming wary. The MDC – the Movement for Democratic Change – had sprung from nowhere just before the referendum. This party was the mouthpiece of the urban youth who hadn’t lived the liberation war and couldn’t stomach the President’s autocratic style. Their leader was Morgan Tsvangirai.
CARD : MORGAN TSVANGIRAI - LEADER OF THE MDC
TSVANGIRAI :
Change !
Change your conduct !
Government of murderers !
This is the issue !
We are gathered here to declare…
This is enough of corruption !
We are gathered here to declare…
This is enough of brutalities and abuses in Zimbabwe :
We are gathered here to declare…
This is enough of poverty !
We are gathered here to declare…
This is enough of ZANU PF !
Change !
Your conduct !
MORGAN TSVANGIRAI :
It is an unfinished agenda. We have gathered here today because it’s enough of corruption.... We have gathered here today because we’ve had enough of brutality and abuse of Zimbabweans... We have gathered here today because we’ve had enough of poverty…. We have gathered here today because we’ve had enough of ZANU PF.
Mugabe lost the Referendum. He was in total shock. Never had Robert Gabriel Mugabe known defeat on any front.
Up till then the MDC had not been unworthy of his attention.
Card : GABRIEL CHAIBVA – MDC MEMBER OF THE PARLIAMENT
GABRIEL singing :
This is the country of our birth
We love Zimbabwe with all its riches
Gabriel Chaibva of the MDC was once a supporter of Robert Mugabe. As a kid he even ran errands for the guerrilla movement.
Rise, Zimbabwe our motherland !
Rise ! Your day has come !
Heros of Zimbawe !
Your day hay has come !
Gabriel’s singing a liberation song from my book “Black Fire” which came out at the height of the war for independence.
CARD : Launch of ‘ BLACK FIRE’ - London 1978
The book shamelessly sided with the guerrillas. It was inspired by Mugabe’s utopian socialist vision of the future Zimbabwe. Black Fire was launched by the American civil rights author James Baldwin.
GABRIEL: At one point I thought personally that this song was going to be the national anthem. And if you remember in 1980 we didn’t have a national anthem when we raised down the Union Jack. And what we have now is not a national anthem. You can’t have a national anthem that talks about war, that talks about whites, that is essentially divisive. You can’t have that....
But let me tell you one thing you must know – there is one single big problem in this country and that problem is none other then Robert Mugabe the president. He cirumvents his ministers, he disregards opinion from anybody else except himself.
And of course, what they are pursuing today is not what had been part and parcel of the broad political agenda of the liberation war effort. It was never about Mugabe being a perpetual leader. It was never about creating a one party state.
With a General Election due only three months after the referendum, the MDC went on a campaign through the commercial farming districts. Our chief source of foreign currency is tobacco and most of it is grown by 4000 white farmers.
Card : MORGAN TSVANGIRAI - MDC LEADER
MORGAN TSVANGIRAI :
Why waste our time going to elections, if that is the intention. He can not continue to be president overseeing a parliament where the majority of the people come from the oppostion. How do you rule?
Up till now, many of these farmers had been card-carrying members of Mugabe’s party Zanu PF… and Mugabe’s message had always been clear : “You stay out of politics and we’ll leave you alone.”
WHITE FARMER :
I’ll tell you what I want to invest in, I want to invest in the MDC, this is what we’ve got to invest in now. ...
Change !
Your conduct !
Burn the cockerel of ZANU PF
PEOPLE STANDING/PAYING
When these very pictures appeared on local TV of the farmers supporting the MDC, Mugabe read them as an unforgivable betrayal of trust.
But there was also huge advantage to be gained from the event and Mugabe jumped at it. Here for all to see were his political rivals hob-nobbing with the descendants of colonists. This mixing with the farmers, enabled him to accuse the MDC of undermining the peasants.
Panicked by the shortness of time to the general election, the President knew he needed to take drastic action to rout theopposition. He made state broadcasting endlessly repeat the pictures of the white farmers in cahoots with the MDC so that the two faces of the enemy could sink into the public mind.
PHOTOS EARLY DAYS
Then he looked to history to lend weight to his strategy and provide it with a name. His strongest card was the undeniable fact that the British stole the land in the first place when they came looking for gold in the 1890s.
The colonists had barely arrived when the native inhabitants rose up against them in what is called the First Chimurenga - the First Liberation War.
The repression that followed gave the British total control for the next eighty years in the territory they named - Rhodesia.
The Second Chimurenga -- second Liberation War -- was the one spearheaded in the 70s by Mugabe who acknowledged that he could never have won without the crucial assistance of the peasant population.
So now the President decided to flood the media with these images of colonial repression and rally the people back to war for what he himself proclaimed – the Third Chimurenga !
The hour of the War Veterans had come... For 20 years these 50,000 ex-combatants of the guerrilla war had been in limbo – now Mugabe put them back on centre stage. Having had Mao Tse Tung as his ally, he knew just how useful it could be to have a Red Guard at your beck and call.
Readopting his nom de guerre once used to terrify the colonists - ‘Hitler’ Hunzvi, head of the War Veterans, became the man of the moment.
Card : HITLER’ HUNZVI - HEAD OF THE ‘WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION
HUNZVI : The land issue must be corrected. And if the legal means has failed, then we as War Veterans -- the war has not been finished! -- we are advancing towards our land and we are taking it, we are not invading it !
We want enough food,
Oh father of the nation !
We want to eat !
The farms’ invasion was triggered by a programme called "fast-track resettlement".
Hunzvi : You are a Zimbabwean, I presume ?
(Farmer - "Yes")
So it’s land for all Zimbabweans, not land for a few. Land must go to the peoples of Zimbabwe. We want to take our land. Willing-giver/willing- taker - we changed it from willing-seller/willing-buyer - it’s willing-giver/willing-taker…"
MUGABE : The war veterans are… according to ignorant people
They say they are squatters on the whiteman’s land - whiteman’s land here in Africa ! - where is the blackman’s land in Europe ?
It’s a blackman’s land, and therefore the blackman must have the right to determine who shall have it and who shall not.
It was quickly determined that those who should have land should be supporters of the ruling party.
VETS : Up with ZANU PF !
Down with foreigners !
Down with our enemies !
Down with supporters of the MDC !
But during the months ahead chaos would gather pace as people from the cities came out and grabbed plots… And Party chiefs took over whole farms lock stock and barrel.
NICHOLS : We have not come here because we have abused each other. We are explaining to each other the method of settlement of land. We have been settled on these kind of lands which we call commercial lands, you people were settled on what they call communal lands.... I have no legal instrument to allow you people to take the land. I can not give land.
WAR VET : No ! We are taking it ! We are taking it all !...
Up with ZANU PF !
Up with the War Veterans Association !
Forward withe the land seizure ! .....
Quiet ! Mr Nichol! Nichol ! We defeated Smith in the bush where he was so strong ! We are going to defeat you !
FARMER 1 : We’re born and bred Zimbabweans. We’ve got every right to be here. We’ve got just as much right here as anybody else. We’re single farm owners, we’re not multiple farm owners. What is the reason for all of this?
TRASHING OF FARMS
MUGABE LEADS VETS INTO STADIUM
Mugabe parades his War Vets in triumph.
He had won the June 2000 election.
The promise of land got him the peasant vote. But he only scraped a majority because the constitution allowed him to appoint 30 Members of Parliament of his own. It had been a close shave with the MDC.
The President’s ultimate target was the opposition. He was itching to teach them that he was not a man to be disrespected. The MDC’s Gabriel Chaibva turned out to be one of the first to experience the lesson.
TO PICK UP GABRIEL
GABRIEL : Don’t use your camera here! It’s a sensitive area !
MICHAEL : So what kind of harrassement was there in Bindura ?
GABRIEL : A lot of electioneering teams were arbitrarily arrested, detained essentially to slow down our electioneering process. I’ve got names of police officers who were responsible for torture of some of our young men there. But I reported the matter to the officer commanding, to the duty inspectors, and no action was taken. I was personally present. It was a military type of an ambush where they actually allowed us to go into the thick of them, and then we started to be attacked.
MICHAE L: Who were these people who attacked ?
GABRIEL : Zanu PF youths - you saw it in the Daily News...."
EDWIN : We’ve come to see Dave.
GABRIEL : The farm manager. Where is he ?
Dave, the man we’re looking for, has two things against him: he supports the MDC, and he’s a black man managing a big commercial farm - in Mugabespeak that makes him a traitor.
EDWIN : Do you know where we can find Dave. He’s staying in a cottage ?
Dave had gone into hiding in a safehouse.
A mob of about 150 War Veterans dragged Dave away in the night, took him to the local ZANU PF headquarters where they struck him and whipped him with barbed wire, then left him for dead.
GABRIE L: So what happened ? What happened ? Did they come to your house ?
DAVE : There was just blood all over. You can see the stiches here. I was hit with a machete.
MICHAEL : A machete !
DAVE : And you can see this one here.
MICHAEL : And four ribs! Four ribs broken!...
DAVE : Yeah.
GABRIEL : This was on Thursday. They beat you up, they carried you to Epworth, and dumped you there.
DAVE : Yeah, in the bush.
MICHAEL : Is there anything you can do now, Gabriel ?
GABRIEL : You see, what I’ll have to do is to take this matter, to report it back to the party, and to the parliamentary caucus...
There’s absolutely nothing he can do. In practice the opposition is powerless as long as Mugabe has complete control of the armed forces.
MICHAEL : So what are you going to do now ?
DAVE : Well, as soon as I’m back on my feet I’m going back to the farms. I’m just going to continue farming.
Another worker on the same farm was not so lucky. He refused to swear allegiance to ZANU PF. So he was beaten to death. A few personal possessions remain untouched like a shrine outside his house.
WORKSHOP
CHARACTER ONE :
"You made our land red with blood!"
CHARACTER TWO :
"Say what you like you can not change history with your words.
The settlement of Rhodesia. Mr Cecil John Rhodes wanted to spread the civilizing influence of Britain from Cape to Cairo.”
CHENJERAI : The settlement of Rhodesia! Mr Cecil John Rhodes ! – we must make… like you know, because he had big dreams – from Cape to Cairo !…
Chenjerai Hove is an internationally renowned author. We held this workshop together on a screenplay we wrote on the chimurenga wars going back to the 1890s.
MICHAEL : We’re going to do another run-through now, with much more feeling. Right? Are you happier now ? That was just a read-through.
CHARACTER ONE :
"The coming of the whiteman made wise people look at bravery with different eyes. I am not a coward."
CHARACTER TWO :
"Sometimes I think his head is full of water."
The screenplay shows the impact of Mugabe’s so-called 3rd chimurenga war on traditional rural society.
TALKS
Card : CHENJERAI HOVE – writer
CHEN : A chief’s position in the village is a very personal matter. If you want to remove a chief it’s very personal because he’s traditionally entitled to that post. So as soon as we elect our leaders they begin to think they are entitled - it becomes personal instead of being public.
CARD : Chido Makunike - journalist
CHIDO : Except in Zimbabwe even before we elected them they thought they were entitled. We won this country – your right to write this article Chenjerai Hove would not have become about if I had not spent my time in jail. So in our particular case it’s even more serious because our President and our ruling clique believe that they are entitled not because we elected them but because of what they brought about.
CARD : Albert Chimedza - traditional musician.
ALBERT : There’s no civil progress, there’s no civil entitlement, everyone thinks to be ruled is a privilege not a right.
CHENJERAI : No, everyone thinks to be ruled is to be frightened....
CHIDO : You see, fathers are not elected. The Womens’ League: all the women are the wives of the leader, the President, so they can dance, and then they can sing all the praises... the youth become the children of the President... the soldiers become a personal militia to defend the leader not the nation."
ALBERT : I think the thinking starts in the family - it starts with how you raise your kids.
Why I think the family is important is because the African family has been traumatized for hundreds of years. If you have a traumatized family you’re going to have traumatized society. If you want to correct -- don’t know if it’s the right word - then you go into the family and you ask the man: how do I treat my wife, how do I treat my kids, how do the kids treat their mother, how does the mother treat the kids ? Right! Then you evolve your society from there.
CHIDO : The vast majority of people to whom you ask that question will think you’re crazy to even ask me that question. I tell my wife what to do, I tell her what to cook and so on and so forth and you’re telling me I’m abusing my wife !
ALBERT : So if I think that my wife is my property and she can’t ask the questions, if you make me managing director, I think that my deputy managing director is my property and he can’t tell me what to do !
PAN TO ZANU HQ
It was from here at the head quarter of the party, that the President stepped up his campaign of terror to win the 2002 Presidential Election.
Delighted by Hitler Hunzvi’s vigour in dealing with the land seizures, the President now asked his favourite puppet to broaden the definition of the enemy.
HUNZVI : The British ! You are not supposed to give directions to our President and Government. Take care of your Government and we’ll take care of the Zimbabwean Government. This is our Government and we are here to protect it and protect the gains of Independence.
HUNZVI : You are always thinking that the War Veterans are going to move... move to where ? Why can’t you move your settlers out of Zimbabwe. Get them out of here !
Language is key to Mugabe’s machiavellian plan: Zimbabwean whites constitute barely 1% of the population, so why not make them more dangerous by labelling them “settlers” and stooges of Tony Blair.
HUNZVI :
Forward with political consciousness !
Forward with hard work !
Down with Tsvangirai !
Down with the bristish !
Forward with the liberation forces !
Forward withe women who fed the guerrillas !
Forward with underground network !
Back to war we go !
You’ll be sorry !
The rhetoric of Hunzi unleashed the dogs of war. It was like a time warp – going back suddenly to colonial days.
The Veterans have a specific target : a peace march riddled with whites and members of the opposition - a vast, dangerous enemy!
IN RESTAURANT
GABRIEL : They hope by creating lawlessness and beating up people, that people will be fearful of going to vote for the oppostion. That’s the whole idea. But it’s stupid to go beat some one up and ask him to vote for you. It doesn’t work….
Now this is the criminal element now that comes into it. There are those now who saw the opportunity that look - there is a system collapsing, and there is a system that doesn’t work. And these people are desperate for a revival of their political fortunes. So they now go on the drawing table and say look here if we are going to revive the anti-white mentality, the anti-British mentality, the anti farmers mentality, then we can revive the political fortunes. So essentially you are now seeing a scenario where the so-called War Veterans… they are not War Veterans they are merely thugs and criminals.
Wilfred Mandhla resigned in disgust from the War Vets Association.
Card : WILFRED MHANDA – WAR VETERAN
WILFRED : No, it’s not the war veterans who are doing this. It’s ZANU PF. Those are ZANU PF supporters masquerading as war veterans. They are only using the tag - the brand name War Veteran. It’s like you bottle your Pepsi Cola in a Coca Cola bottle, and then you market it as Coca Cola, but it’s Pepsi Cola. They’ve been deliberately created.
GOLF
Card : STEVE CHIGORIMBO – ZANU PF MEMBER
STEVE : The truth of the matter was what Ian Smith’s culture developed in Zimbabwe was that the one who has the power -- the police, the army, and so forth -- is the one who must win.
Steve Chigorimbo is a committed Zanu PF supporter. When I played golf as a boy, these courses were reserved for whites and Steve was a caddie.
MICHAEL : But he’s making it in his head into a war. It doesn’t have to be a war, we can have a fair election.
S : It has to be a war.
M : It has to be an election, not a war.
S : No ! It has to be a war because your constituents -- at the moment -- their understanding of who goes to the top of the power log, must be the person who can demonstrate the ability to use power.
M : This is terrible - why not educate the people...
S : You haven’t got the time...
M : Many years ago there’s a guy - Franz Fanon, he wrote `Wretched of the Earth`, he wrote all these texts in the fifties and sixties, and he is outraged -- it’s not me saying this, it’s Franz Fanon -- outraged that these people are not responsible for the power they have. And instead of beating up people, people should be educating...
S : Ja, but if ZANU PF today, Michael, if ZANU PF decides to go and educate people in the correct way of voting, they’d be out of power...
MICHAEL IN CAR
MICHAEL : "Robert Mugabe Avenue… can’t remember what this used to be called..."
Mugabe had started off after independence with a policy of racial reconcilation. When I directed a film on colonial prejudice based on Doris Lessing’s novel The Grass Is Singing, the President was most upset – he feared it would offend the whites.
EXTRACT : GRASS IS SINGING – 1981
Woman : You ! Get back to work !
Get back !…
Don’t talk gibberish to me !
Man : I want water. I’m thirsty !
Woman : Don’t speak to me like that !
Get back to work !
Now 20 years on, the President would welcome this film and say it reflected reality. I’ve fought racism all my life, yet now, I’M the nigger in the woodpile! - a settler, an enemy of the people through the colour of my skin!
All of you !
MUGABE SPEECH :
They are greatest racists in this world !... Even in the United States no black man at this stage can become a President of the United States - impossible! And these are the countries, you know, which point a finger at us ! There are racist incidents, racial incidents day in day out in Great Britain, in London - people being discriminated against. We don’t do that here....
Mugabe’s skill lies in putting his finger on the truth then twisting it to his own advantage. This is how the logic of his land seizures, and his resistance to globalisation have earned him considerable prestige in the third world.
Card : CHEN CHIMUTENGWENDE – ZANU PF MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
CHEN : They say that Bin Laden who bombed America - they said they were terrorists because the definition of terrorism is when you attack innocent people. But when America goes to bomb, they also do the same - they financed terrorists, Renamo in Mozambique, Unita in Angola, they financed all sorts of people who are fighting against legitimate governments which may not be in good books with America. So in terms of practice America is the greatest terrorist nation in the world."
I`ve known Chen Chimutengwende since the 70s when we were exiles in London campaigning for african nationalism.
SCHOOL PRIZE
As the ZANU PF member of parliament for Chiweshe district, he’s honourable guest for a prize-giving at his old school.
Until recently Chen was number two in the ZANU PF government where he remains a powerful figure.
His views faithfully reflect those of the President.
CHEN : The gap between the industrialized and less-developed countries is increasing, and still new methods and schemes are being devised to keep the developing countries even further down through WTO and other international institutions like the IMF and World Bank.
The forms of struggle have to change, and there can be schemes like that of south-south co-operation, countries of the southern hemisphere uniting among themselves and with forces in Western countries -- like people who are demonstrating against globalisation and WTO -- get together in terms of networking and expose our enemies, and advance on them.
We must be left alone to develop Africa as a united continent and free from exploitation from European governments and north American governments.
And now the whites are getting very courageous because they think they are being backed by the international community - and by the way, the word international community does not include Africans, or Asians, or Latin Americans - the international community means Western Europe and North America."
QUEENSDALE
For several years Queensdale Club was a popular venue for the writer Chenjerai Hove and other artists fro literary and musical evenings.
“The first moments of courting are turmoil.
You’re nervous, your heart beats hard.”
Party headquarters was notified that these events were dangerous to the safety of the state. War Veterans threatened to burn the club to the ground. An escalation of threats has driven Chenjerai into exile. ...
As freedom of speech dies in Zimbabwe, Chenjerai’s poems and haunting songs of Chiwoniso will no more be heard at Queensdale Club.
MUGABE AT PARLIAMENT
MUGABE : Our position on the land issue is now well understood by the majority of members of the international community who now accept it as just and reasonable....
As the 2002 presidential election approached, the Chief, the Father of the nation, slipped into the shoes of Big Brother, determined to keep power by all possible means.
MUGABE : Measures will be taken to ensure that the history of Zimbabwe is rewritten and accurately told.
For Mugabe, a forty-year career is at stake. To increase terror, he set up a form of national service even further which requires absolute obedience to the Party....
They look so innocent, these youths, but they’re responsible for hounding, torturing and killing members of the opposition and their supporters.
Our senses become dulled by horrific imagery from all over the world...so take just one person killed by the Youth Brigade - attach him to a long list of names, and imagine reality....
PICS ELECTION
The election took place....
Mugabe was sure he was going to win because he knew HOW he was going to win. In effect, he’s written a manual which is required reading for budding dictators keen to maintain a constitutional veneer.
Here’s how it works:
allow your opponents to campaign because this maintains the free and fair front…
...but reduce the number of polling stations in areas were you’re likely to lose. For example by halving the facilities in the urban areas, many people queued all day and never got to vote…
…also don’t forget to instruct polling staff to take as long as possible to register each voter…
…it’s essential to have some international observers - just make sure they come from countries with which you have pre-arranged agreements to validate your election…
…get your hands on the ballot boxes whenever possible. Mugabe had a million ballot papers up his sleeve belonging to the dead and missing…
…and finally, let everyone know - you’re the boss.
Card : RHODESIA COUNTDOWN - 1969
The method and impact of repression under colonial rule and under ZANU PF today are frighteningly similar - and so is our resentment…
Now as I go into exile from my country for the second time, Nelson Mandela’s words from Rhodesia Countdown keep ringing in my ears –
NELSON MANDELA :
Time has proved that none of the great powers or international organisations are prepared to force justice through in southern Africa today. And we are placed in a position in which we have either to accept a permanent state of inferiority, or to defy the Government. We choose to defy the Government.
DEAD IN STREET
Today, as the world looks elsewhere –the Government of Zimbabwe irradicates all opposition.
Millions starve as chaotic land distribution triggers economic ruin.
Once again - we choose to defy the Government.
1ST MAN IN STREET :
This country belongs to 12 million people, not to 50,000 war veterans. This is our country! If Mugabe’s time to go, has come, he will definitely go. We will make him go! If he wants a war, we will leave our offices and go to war!
2ND MAN IN THE STREET :
If the ex-combatants are being sent to gang up against us, let us go to war. War is war !
THE END
August 2003 - 52 min 00 sec
This is my home town.... Harare - capital of Zimbabwe.
Michael - OFF : “You see the Pearl Assurance Company up there! I remember going right to the top as a kid and thinking : what an amazing experience - just the height and the sense of power. And on the left there, the Anglo-American building, the red building, great symbol of the stranglehold of international monopolies.
ON : All these buildings are new since Independence, this whole place really took off after Independence, and only now is there this colossal reversal… and stagnation…”
This film you’re watching now will be condemned outright by the currrent Government, and as a result I shall be compelled to go into exile.
MICHAEL : This is the Reserve bank here. Just introduced a $500 note which is almost small change now.
Ironically, this will be my second enforced exile - the earlier one took place in colonial times.
PICS COLONIAL DAYS
When I was a kid my country was still called Rhodesia - a stronghold of the British Empire and paradise for a happy few – the settlers who wanted to cling on to it forever.
GARDEN PARTY
WHITE LADY :
I’m not prepared to sacrifice everything I’ve worked for just because Britain wants us to have black majority rule before its time. But the black majority rule will come and so it should, but they must be ready for it, I feel."
That was not my mother, but it could well have been.
CARD : ‘RHODESIA COUNTDOWN’ - 1969’
MICHAEL: "Boys come here quickly. Come on; come on, up, up, up. Did you see anything (No sir) did you ? (No boss) Did you ? (No master).”
This is me, in the first film I ever made.
QUESTION : Sir, are you a Rhodesian ?
MICHAEL: Yes, I’m a Rhodesian, born and bred. If there’s anybody here in this country who should know these black people it’s me. I’ve been brought up in this country I’ve worked with these guys my whole life, I know what they want, I know for instance that they respect the tough man, they respect… they like the man with the strong arm. That’s what they like. They don’t want to much of this ‘freedom’ - does them no good."
Well it’s me and it’s not me. I’m acting a bigoted colonist. If you think IT is a caricature, then take a look at the real thing :
1ST MAN: The point is the average African doesn’t know what a vote is. He can’t eat it, he can’t sleep with it and he can’t spend it, so he’s not interested.
2nd MAN : When the white man came to this country, they didn’t know anything else but grass huts and grass fires, the majority of them couldn’t make a wheel.
MUGABE IN ROLLS ROYCE
The direction my life has taken over the years is closely bound to one powerful political figure - arriving here today to open parliament.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe, hero of my youth as the man most responsible for sweeping away the colonial era, and head of Zimbabwe for well over two decades.
CARD : ROBERT GABRIEL MUGABE - President of Zimbabwe
MUGABE : We will work hard… work hard to forge the unity, the peace that we have created; and work hard to further the positive programmes that have sustained us in the past, and improve on those on which there have been failures. We are as yesterday we were - our own redeemers, our own liberators. Let’s stay that way. I thank you.
Up with Zimbabwe !
Forward with unity !
Let us win the elections !
Down with british imperialism and neo-colonialism !
CARD : ‘RHODESIA COUNTDOWN’ - 1969’
My film predicted that dialogue would never get anywhere with the colonists. It supported the African Nationalists and Robert Mugabe who had just been imprisoned by the Rhodesian leader, Ian Smith...
CARD : IAN SMITH – Prime Minister of Rhodesia 1964-1980
SMITH : We are in complete control in Rhodesia today... We, the Europeans, we are all-powerful. We have the reins in our hands and we can pretty well do what we like.
In my film, the countdown was to war. This is why, not surprisingly, I was kicked out of the country.
SHOOTING
FARMER : What the hell do you want!
As the guerrilla war against Smith gathered pace, Robert Mugabe escaped from the country, soon to spearhead the Zimbabwe Liberation army.
WAR HELICOPTER
CARD : LIBERATION WAR – 1970-1980
Forward with unity !
Long live our party ZANU !
GUERILLA
The struggle was for a democratic multi-racial society free of colonial oppression.
It took ten years of war to achieve this goal and give birth to independent Zimbabwe – and at last we all came home.
RHODESIAN GENERAL :
We fought each other - that is history. Let this be a good start to our future together.
FLAG FOLDS
MUGABE : This is a great moment - it’s a moment of our victory. The culmination of our national struggle... conferring upon all of us, the people of Zimbabwe -- whether we are black or white -- full sovereignty, full democratic rights. We will ensure that there is a place for everybody in this country."
CARD – INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS - 1980
MUGABE : I, Robert Gabriel Mugabe do swear that I will well and truly serve Zimbabwe in the office of minister of the Government, so help me God !
The Celebrations featured the guerrilla army choir led by Comrade Chinx …
CARD : ‘JIT’
Several years later here’s Comrade Chinx once again now playing a leading characters in my movie Jit...
My objective with this comedy was to put over the optimistic and vibrant spirit that carried us through two whole decades of independence.
JOHNSON : "Hey, UK, UK! Two double Scotch, two double vodka and a Coke for my princess! And move it now, I haven’t got all day!"
Everything was on the move - the economy, education, health services Mugabe became the most prestigious African leader, and Zimbabwe a model of a post-colonial nation.
We were able to build new lives, settle in and feel secure.
RIOT - UNREST
Rage - riots - killings - starvation - doom. This is where we are today. The collapse has been sudden and fast - a matter of months.
Imagine the shock : your world falls apart - nothing is as it used to be - the future is a tunnel of despair.
Imagine the sense of betrayal - this is not at all what our fight for freedom has been about.
And all this because of one single man.... My image of Robert Gabriel Mugabe as hero has been destroyed....
REFERENDUM
The countdown to chaos began in February 2000.
Mugabe held a referendum - behind a smokescreen of constitutional changes lay his real intention : greater personal control of government.
CARD : REFERENDUM february 2000
Mugabe and his party ZANU PF had been the driving force of the guerrilla war – both through military tactics and their political vision. Ever since independence all attempts to build an oppostion party had failed abysmally.
ZANU HQ
MUGABE : My opinion is that the people are going to vote yes, by and large, and that they will support therefore the draft constitution.... But a constitution like this, sacred as it is, is not above the will of the people. And those who go into parliament, go into it carrying with them the mandate given them by the people - and they have the right therefore to amend the constitution in the future without consultation."
But the people were becoming wary. The MDC – the Movement for Democratic Change – had sprung from nowhere just before the referendum. This party was the mouthpiece of the urban youth who hadn’t lived the liberation war and couldn’t stomach the President’s autocratic style. Their leader was Morgan Tsvangirai.
CARD : MORGAN TSVANGIRAI - LEADER OF THE MDC
TSVANGIRAI :
Change !
Change your conduct !
Government of murderers !
This is the issue !
We are gathered here to declare…
This is enough of corruption !
We are gathered here to declare…
This is enough of brutalities and abuses in Zimbabwe :
We are gathered here to declare…
This is enough of poverty !
We are gathered here to declare…
This is enough of ZANU PF !
Change !
Your conduct !
MORGAN TSVANGIRAI :
It is an unfinished agenda. We have gathered here today because it’s enough of corruption.... We have gathered here today because we’ve had enough of brutality and abuse of Zimbabweans... We have gathered here today because we’ve had enough of poverty…. We have gathered here today because we’ve had enough of ZANU PF.
Mugabe lost the Referendum. He was in total shock. Never had Robert Gabriel Mugabe known defeat on any front.
Up till then the MDC had not been unworthy of his attention.
Card : GABRIEL CHAIBVA – MDC MEMBER OF THE PARLIAMENT
GABRIEL singing :
This is the country of our birth
We love Zimbabwe with all its riches
Gabriel Chaibva of the MDC was once a supporter of Robert Mugabe. As a kid he even ran errands for the guerrilla movement.
Rise, Zimbabwe our motherland !
Rise ! Your day has come !
Heros of Zimbawe !
Your day hay has come !
Gabriel’s singing a liberation song from my book “Black Fire” which came out at the height of the war for independence.
CARD : Launch of ‘ BLACK FIRE’ - London 1978
The book shamelessly sided with the guerrillas. It was inspired by Mugabe’s utopian socialist vision of the future Zimbabwe. Black Fire was launched by the American civil rights author James Baldwin.
GABRIEL: At one point I thought personally that this song was going to be the national anthem. And if you remember in 1980 we didn’t have a national anthem when we raised down the Union Jack. And what we have now is not a national anthem. You can’t have a national anthem that talks about war, that talks about whites, that is essentially divisive. You can’t have that....
But let me tell you one thing you must know – there is one single big problem in this country and that problem is none other then Robert Mugabe the president. He cirumvents his ministers, he disregards opinion from anybody else except himself.
And of course, what they are pursuing today is not what had been part and parcel of the broad political agenda of the liberation war effort. It was never about Mugabe being a perpetual leader. It was never about creating a one party state.
With a General Election due only three months after the referendum, the MDC went on a campaign through the commercial farming districts. Our chief source of foreign currency is tobacco and most of it is grown by 4000 white farmers.
Card : MORGAN TSVANGIRAI - MDC LEADER
MORGAN TSVANGIRAI :
Why waste our time going to elections, if that is the intention. He can not continue to be president overseeing a parliament where the majority of the people come from the oppostion. How do you rule?
Up till now, many of these farmers had been card-carrying members of Mugabe’s party Zanu PF… and Mugabe’s message had always been clear : “You stay out of politics and we’ll leave you alone.”
WHITE FARMER :
I’ll tell you what I want to invest in, I want to invest in the MDC, this is what we’ve got to invest in now. ...
Change !
Your conduct !
Burn the cockerel of ZANU PF
PEOPLE STANDING/PAYING
When these very pictures appeared on local TV of the farmers supporting the MDC, Mugabe read them as an unforgivable betrayal of trust.
But there was also huge advantage to be gained from the event and Mugabe jumped at it. Here for all to see were his political rivals hob-nobbing with the descendants of colonists. This mixing with the farmers, enabled him to accuse the MDC of undermining the peasants.
Panicked by the shortness of time to the general election, the President knew he needed to take drastic action to rout theopposition. He made state broadcasting endlessly repeat the pictures of the white farmers in cahoots with the MDC so that the two faces of the enemy could sink into the public mind.
PHOTOS EARLY DAYS
Then he looked to history to lend weight to his strategy and provide it with a name. His strongest card was the undeniable fact that the British stole the land in the first place when they came looking for gold in the 1890s.
The colonists had barely arrived when the native inhabitants rose up against them in what is called the First Chimurenga - the First Liberation War.
The repression that followed gave the British total control for the next eighty years in the territory they named - Rhodesia.
The Second Chimurenga -- second Liberation War -- was the one spearheaded in the 70s by Mugabe who acknowledged that he could never have won without the crucial assistance of the peasant population.
So now the President decided to flood the media with these images of colonial repression and rally the people back to war for what he himself proclaimed – the Third Chimurenga !
The hour of the War Veterans had come... For 20 years these 50,000 ex-combatants of the guerrilla war had been in limbo – now Mugabe put them back on centre stage. Having had Mao Tse Tung as his ally, he knew just how useful it could be to have a Red Guard at your beck and call.
Readopting his nom de guerre once used to terrify the colonists - ‘Hitler’ Hunzvi, head of the War Veterans, became the man of the moment.
Card : HITLER’ HUNZVI - HEAD OF THE ‘WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION
HUNZVI : The land issue must be corrected. And if the legal means has failed, then we as War Veterans -- the war has not been finished! -- we are advancing towards our land and we are taking it, we are not invading it !
We want enough food,
Oh father of the nation !
We want to eat !
The farms’ invasion was triggered by a programme called "fast-track resettlement".
Hunzvi : You are a Zimbabwean, I presume ?
(Farmer - "Yes")
So it’s land for all Zimbabweans, not land for a few. Land must go to the peoples of Zimbabwe. We want to take our land. Willing-giver/willing- taker - we changed it from willing-seller/willing-buyer - it’s willing-giver/willing-taker…"
MUGABE : The war veterans are… according to ignorant people
They say they are squatters on the whiteman’s land - whiteman’s land here in Africa ! - where is the blackman’s land in Europe ?
It’s a blackman’s land, and therefore the blackman must have the right to determine who shall have it and who shall not.
It was quickly determined that those who should have land should be supporters of the ruling party.
VETS : Up with ZANU PF !
Down with foreigners !
Down with our enemies !
Down with supporters of the MDC !
But during the months ahead chaos would gather pace as people from the cities came out and grabbed plots… And Party chiefs took over whole farms lock stock and barrel.
NICHOLS : We have not come here because we have abused each other. We are explaining to each other the method of settlement of land. We have been settled on these kind of lands which we call commercial lands, you people were settled on what they call communal lands.... I have no legal instrument to allow you people to take the land. I can not give land.
WAR VET : No ! We are taking it ! We are taking it all !...
Up with ZANU PF !
Up with the War Veterans Association !
Forward withe the land seizure ! .....
Quiet ! Mr Nichol! Nichol ! We defeated Smith in the bush where he was so strong ! We are going to defeat you !
FARMER 1 : We’re born and bred Zimbabweans. We’ve got every right to be here. We’ve got just as much right here as anybody else. We’re single farm owners, we’re not multiple farm owners. What is the reason for all of this?
TRASHING OF FARMS
MUGABE LEADS VETS INTO STADIUM
Mugabe parades his War Vets in triumph.
He had won the June 2000 election.
The promise of land got him the peasant vote. But he only scraped a majority because the constitution allowed him to appoint 30 Members of Parliament of his own. It had been a close shave with the MDC.
The President’s ultimate target was the opposition. He was itching to teach them that he was not a man to be disrespected. The MDC’s Gabriel Chaibva turned out to be one of the first to experience the lesson.
TO PICK UP GABRIEL
GABRIEL : Don’t use your camera here! It’s a sensitive area !
MICHAEL : So what kind of harrassement was there in Bindura ?
GABRIEL : A lot of electioneering teams were arbitrarily arrested, detained essentially to slow down our electioneering process. I’ve got names of police officers who were responsible for torture of some of our young men there. But I reported the matter to the officer commanding, to the duty inspectors, and no action was taken. I was personally present. It was a military type of an ambush where they actually allowed us to go into the thick of them, and then we started to be attacked.
MICHAE L: Who were these people who attacked ?
GABRIEL : Zanu PF youths - you saw it in the Daily News...."
EDWIN : We’ve come to see Dave.
GABRIEL : The farm manager. Where is he ?
Dave, the man we’re looking for, has two things against him: he supports the MDC, and he’s a black man managing a big commercial farm - in Mugabespeak that makes him a traitor.
EDWIN : Do you know where we can find Dave. He’s staying in a cottage ?
Dave had gone into hiding in a safehouse.
A mob of about 150 War Veterans dragged Dave away in the night, took him to the local ZANU PF headquarters where they struck him and whipped him with barbed wire, then left him for dead.
GABRIE L: So what happened ? What happened ? Did they come to your house ?
DAVE : There was just blood all over. You can see the stiches here. I was hit with a machete.
MICHAEL : A machete !
DAVE : And you can see this one here.
MICHAEL : And four ribs! Four ribs broken!...
DAVE : Yeah.
GABRIEL : This was on Thursday. They beat you up, they carried you to Epworth, and dumped you there.
DAVE : Yeah, in the bush.
MICHAEL : Is there anything you can do now, Gabriel ?
GABRIEL : You see, what I’ll have to do is to take this matter, to report it back to the party, and to the parliamentary caucus...
There’s absolutely nothing he can do. In practice the opposition is powerless as long as Mugabe has complete control of the armed forces.
MICHAEL : So what are you going to do now ?
DAVE : Well, as soon as I’m back on my feet I’m going back to the farms. I’m just going to continue farming.
Another worker on the same farm was not so lucky. He refused to swear allegiance to ZANU PF. So he was beaten to death. A few personal possessions remain untouched like a shrine outside his house.
WORKSHOP
CHARACTER ONE :
"You made our land red with blood!"
CHARACTER TWO :
"Say what you like you can not change history with your words.
The settlement of Rhodesia. Mr Cecil John Rhodes wanted to spread the civilizing influence of Britain from Cape to Cairo.”
CHENJERAI : The settlement of Rhodesia! Mr Cecil John Rhodes ! – we must make… like you know, because he had big dreams – from Cape to Cairo !…
Chenjerai Hove is an internationally renowned author. We held this workshop together on a screenplay we wrote on the chimurenga wars going back to the 1890s.
MICHAEL : We’re going to do another run-through now, with much more feeling. Right? Are you happier now ? That was just a read-through.
CHARACTER ONE :
"The coming of the whiteman made wise people look at bravery with different eyes. I am not a coward."
CHARACTER TWO :
"Sometimes I think his head is full of water."
The screenplay shows the impact of Mugabe’s so-called 3rd chimurenga war on traditional rural society.
TALKS
Card : CHENJERAI HOVE – writer
CHEN : A chief’s position in the village is a very personal matter. If you want to remove a chief it’s very personal because he’s traditionally entitled to that post. So as soon as we elect our leaders they begin to think they are entitled - it becomes personal instead of being public.
CARD : Chido Makunike - journalist
CHIDO : Except in Zimbabwe even before we elected them they thought they were entitled. We won this country – your right to write this article Chenjerai Hove would not have become about if I had not spent my time in jail. So in our particular case it’s even more serious because our President and our ruling clique believe that they are entitled not because we elected them but because of what they brought about.
CARD : Albert Chimedza - traditional musician.
ALBERT : There’s no civil progress, there’s no civil entitlement, everyone thinks to be ruled is a privilege not a right.
CHENJERAI : No, everyone thinks to be ruled is to be frightened....
CHIDO : You see, fathers are not elected. The Womens’ League: all the women are the wives of the leader, the President, so they can dance, and then they can sing all the praises... the youth become the children of the President... the soldiers become a personal militia to defend the leader not the nation."
ALBERT : I think the thinking starts in the family - it starts with how you raise your kids.
Why I think the family is important is because the African family has been traumatized for hundreds of years. If you have a traumatized family you’re going to have traumatized society. If you want to correct -- don’t know if it’s the right word - then you go into the family and you ask the man: how do I treat my wife, how do I treat my kids, how do the kids treat their mother, how does the mother treat the kids ? Right! Then you evolve your society from there.
CHIDO : The vast majority of people to whom you ask that question will think you’re crazy to even ask me that question. I tell my wife what to do, I tell her what to cook and so on and so forth and you’re telling me I’m abusing my wife !
ALBERT : So if I think that my wife is my property and she can’t ask the questions, if you make me managing director, I think that my deputy managing director is my property and he can’t tell me what to do !
PAN TO ZANU HQ
It was from here at the head quarter of the party, that the President stepped up his campaign of terror to win the 2002 Presidential Election.
Delighted by Hitler Hunzvi’s vigour in dealing with the land seizures, the President now asked his favourite puppet to broaden the definition of the enemy.
HUNZVI : The British ! You are not supposed to give directions to our President and Government. Take care of your Government and we’ll take care of the Zimbabwean Government. This is our Government and we are here to protect it and protect the gains of Independence.
HUNZVI : You are always thinking that the War Veterans are going to move... move to where ? Why can’t you move your settlers out of Zimbabwe. Get them out of here !
Language is key to Mugabe’s machiavellian plan: Zimbabwean whites constitute barely 1% of the population, so why not make them more dangerous by labelling them “settlers” and stooges of Tony Blair.
HUNZVI :
Forward with political consciousness !
Forward with hard work !
Down with Tsvangirai !
Down with the bristish !
Forward with the liberation forces !
Forward withe women who fed the guerrillas !
Forward with underground network !
Back to war we go !
You’ll be sorry !
The rhetoric of Hunzi unleashed the dogs of war. It was like a time warp – going back suddenly to colonial days.
The Veterans have a specific target : a peace march riddled with whites and members of the opposition - a vast, dangerous enemy!
IN RESTAURANT
GABRIEL : They hope by creating lawlessness and beating up people, that people will be fearful of going to vote for the oppostion. That’s the whole idea. But it’s stupid to go beat some one up and ask him to vote for you. It doesn’t work….
Now this is the criminal element now that comes into it. There are those now who saw the opportunity that look - there is a system collapsing, and there is a system that doesn’t work. And these people are desperate for a revival of their political fortunes. So they now go on the drawing table and say look here if we are going to revive the anti-white mentality, the anti-British mentality, the anti farmers mentality, then we can revive the political fortunes. So essentially you are now seeing a scenario where the so-called War Veterans… they are not War Veterans they are merely thugs and criminals.
Wilfred Mandhla resigned in disgust from the War Vets Association.
Card : WILFRED MHANDA – WAR VETERAN
WILFRED : No, it’s not the war veterans who are doing this. It’s ZANU PF. Those are ZANU PF supporters masquerading as war veterans. They are only using the tag - the brand name War Veteran. It’s like you bottle your Pepsi Cola in a Coca Cola bottle, and then you market it as Coca Cola, but it’s Pepsi Cola. They’ve been deliberately created.
GOLF
Card : STEVE CHIGORIMBO – ZANU PF MEMBER
STEVE : The truth of the matter was what Ian Smith’s culture developed in Zimbabwe was that the one who has the power -- the police, the army, and so forth -- is the one who must win.
Steve Chigorimbo is a committed Zanu PF supporter. When I played golf as a boy, these courses were reserved for whites and Steve was a caddie.
MICHAEL : But he’s making it in his head into a war. It doesn’t have to be a war, we can have a fair election.
S : It has to be a war.
M : It has to be an election, not a war.
S : No ! It has to be a war because your constituents -- at the moment -- their understanding of who goes to the top of the power log, must be the person who can demonstrate the ability to use power.
M : This is terrible - why not educate the people...
S : You haven’t got the time...
M : Many years ago there’s a guy - Franz Fanon, he wrote `Wretched of the Earth`, he wrote all these texts in the fifties and sixties, and he is outraged -- it’s not me saying this, it’s Franz Fanon -- outraged that these people are not responsible for the power they have. And instead of beating up people, people should be educating...
S : Ja, but if ZANU PF today, Michael, if ZANU PF decides to go and educate people in the correct way of voting, they’d be out of power...
MICHAEL IN CAR
MICHAEL : "Robert Mugabe Avenue… can’t remember what this used to be called..."
Mugabe had started off after independence with a policy of racial reconcilation. When I directed a film on colonial prejudice based on Doris Lessing’s novel The Grass Is Singing, the President was most upset – he feared it would offend the whites.
EXTRACT : GRASS IS SINGING – 1981
Woman : You ! Get back to work !
Get back !…
Don’t talk gibberish to me !
Man : I want water. I’m thirsty !
Woman : Don’t speak to me like that !
Get back to work !
Now 20 years on, the President would welcome this film and say it reflected reality. I’ve fought racism all my life, yet now, I’M the nigger in the woodpile! - a settler, an enemy of the people through the colour of my skin!
All of you !
MUGABE SPEECH :
They are greatest racists in this world !... Even in the United States no black man at this stage can become a President of the United States - impossible! And these are the countries, you know, which point a finger at us ! There are racist incidents, racial incidents day in day out in Great Britain, in London - people being discriminated against. We don’t do that here....
Mugabe’s skill lies in putting his finger on the truth then twisting it to his own advantage. This is how the logic of his land seizures, and his resistance to globalisation have earned him considerable prestige in the third world.
Card : CHEN CHIMUTENGWENDE – ZANU PF MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
CHEN : They say that Bin Laden who bombed America - they said they were terrorists because the definition of terrorism is when you attack innocent people. But when America goes to bomb, they also do the same - they financed terrorists, Renamo in Mozambique, Unita in Angola, they financed all sorts of people who are fighting against legitimate governments which may not be in good books with America. So in terms of practice America is the greatest terrorist nation in the world."
I`ve known Chen Chimutengwende since the 70s when we were exiles in London campaigning for african nationalism.
SCHOOL PRIZE
As the ZANU PF member of parliament for Chiweshe district, he’s honourable guest for a prize-giving at his old school.
Until recently Chen was number two in the ZANU PF government where he remains a powerful figure.
His views faithfully reflect those of the President.
CHEN : The gap between the industrialized and less-developed countries is increasing, and still new methods and schemes are being devised to keep the developing countries even further down through WTO and other international institutions like the IMF and World Bank.
The forms of struggle have to change, and there can be schemes like that of south-south co-operation, countries of the southern hemisphere uniting among themselves and with forces in Western countries -- like people who are demonstrating against globalisation and WTO -- get together in terms of networking and expose our enemies, and advance on them.
We must be left alone to develop Africa as a united continent and free from exploitation from European governments and north American governments.
And now the whites are getting very courageous because they think they are being backed by the international community - and by the way, the word international community does not include Africans, or Asians, or Latin Americans - the international community means Western Europe and North America."
QUEENSDALE
For several years Queensdale Club was a popular venue for the writer Chenjerai Hove and other artists fro literary and musical evenings.
“The first moments of courting are turmoil.
You’re nervous, your heart beats hard.”
Party headquarters was notified that these events were dangerous to the safety of the state. War Veterans threatened to burn the club to the ground. An escalation of threats has driven Chenjerai into exile. ...
As freedom of speech dies in Zimbabwe, Chenjerai’s poems and haunting songs of Chiwoniso will no more be heard at Queensdale Club.
MUGABE AT PARLIAMENT
MUGABE : Our position on the land issue is now well understood by the majority of members of the international community who now accept it as just and reasonable....
As the 2002 presidential election approached, the Chief, the Father of the nation, slipped into the shoes of Big Brother, determined to keep power by all possible means.
MUGABE : Measures will be taken to ensure that the history of Zimbabwe is rewritten and accurately told.
For Mugabe, a forty-year career is at stake. To increase terror, he set up a form of national service even further which requires absolute obedience to the Party....
They look so innocent, these youths, but they’re responsible for hounding, torturing and killing members of the opposition and their supporters.
Our senses become dulled by horrific imagery from all over the world...so take just one person killed by the Youth Brigade - attach him to a long list of names, and imagine reality....
PICS ELECTION
The election took place....
Mugabe was sure he was going to win because he knew HOW he was going to win. In effect, he’s written a manual which is required reading for budding dictators keen to maintain a constitutional veneer.
Here’s how it works:
allow your opponents to campaign because this maintains the free and fair front…
...but reduce the number of polling stations in areas were you’re likely to lose. For example by halving the facilities in the urban areas, many people queued all day and never got to vote…
…also don’t forget to instruct polling staff to take as long as possible to register each voter…
…it’s essential to have some international observers - just make sure they come from countries with which you have pre-arranged agreements to validate your election…
…get your hands on the ballot boxes whenever possible. Mugabe had a million ballot papers up his sleeve belonging to the dead and missing…
…and finally, let everyone know - you’re the boss.
Card : RHODESIA COUNTDOWN - 1969
The method and impact of repression under colonial rule and under ZANU PF today are frighteningly similar - and so is our resentment…
Now as I go into exile from my country for the second time, Nelson Mandela’s words from Rhodesia Countdown keep ringing in my ears –
NELSON MANDELA :
Time has proved that none of the great powers or international organisations are prepared to force justice through in southern Africa today. And we are placed in a position in which we have either to accept a permanent state of inferiority, or to defy the Government. We choose to defy the Government.
DEAD IN STREET
Today, as the world looks elsewhere –the Government of Zimbabwe irradicates all opposition.
Millions starve as chaotic land distribution triggers economic ruin.
Once again - we choose to defy the Government.
1ST MAN IN STREET :
This country belongs to 12 million people, not to 50,000 war veterans. This is our country! If Mugabe’s time to go, has come, he will definitely go. We will make him go! If he wants a war, we will leave our offices and go to war!
2ND MAN IN THE STREET :
If the ex-combatants are being sent to gang up against us, let us go to war. War is war !
THE END