more power in his hands. But vestiges of represen-
tative democratic government had survived as well
as an independent judiciary and powerful trade
unions. Mugabe was able to dominate parliament
by winning every election since independence;
Zimbabwe was never transformed into a one-party
dictatorship. The economy declined, however,
catastrophically from droughts and misrule.
Parliamentary elections in July 2000 were a shock
- half the population voted for an opposition
block under the umbrella of the Movement for
Democratic Change formed in September 1999
and backed by the trade unions. Mugabe rallied
support by turning the grievance and land hunger
of the majority of the people against 4,000 white
farmers who owned more than two-thirds of the
best land, leaving the black population crowded on
small plots and working for the white owners.
Illegal occupations by organised gangs, violence
and threats drove out the farmers; their workers
lost their livelihoods and Mugabe’s cronies were
rewarded with vacated farms they did not know
how to cultivate. In place of an orderly gradual
transfer that was to be assisted with promised
British funds, the confiscations gathered pace. The
consequence was the shattering of the economy,
the farms not producing enough food for the
people. Wheat production was reduced to ten per
cent in 2003 of what was harvested in 1999 before
the occupations began, tobacco growth is down by
two-thirds, only 400 white farmers are still on their
land where there were once 4,000, and many
remaining white farmers are fleeing leaving
300,000 black workers in destitution. Mugabe’s
policies have ruined the country. As living stan-
dards bottomed, Mugabe became even more ruth-
less and dictatorial trying to deflect the anger of
the people against the whites and the old British
colonial power: 2002 was the year of the presiden-
tial elections.
The Movement for Democratic Change chose
Morgan Tsangirai to run against Mugabe.
Mugabe would have been ousted but for his
control of the army and police. Opposition sup-
porters and their candidates were beaten and
severely injured, white farmers who had dared to
stay on their farms became the renewed targets of
violence; the police did nothing to protect them
and most, unfortunately, were murdered. The
results of the election were shamelessly manipu-
lated to rob Tsangirai of the presidency. In 2003
Tsangirai was put on trial on the charge of plot-
ting to kill Mugabe. The Commonwealth sus-
pended Zimbabwe, the European Community
condemned Mugabe. Financial sanctions and
harsh words did not deflect him. No country
wanted to intervene effectively and if they had so
willed Mugabe was protected by Mbeki, the
president of South Africa, who abhorred the
notion that Britain and other ‘white’ nations
should dictate the future of ‘black’ Zimbabwe and
did not want Tsangirai to become president. As
the country plunges deeper into misery, Mugabe
ensures his hold by rewarding the army and a
close corrupt elite. Of infirmity there is little sign.
In Parliamentary elections in 2005 he increased
his hold. The world was not prepared to stop the
abuses.Dr Hastings Banda became president of Zim-
babwe’s neighbour Malawi when independence
was granted to Nyasaland in 1964. In appearance
there was nothing traditionally African about Dr
Banda, who dressed in neat three-piece dark suits
and a Homburg hat. A local touch, however,
were the mbumbass, dancing girls in colourful
dress who surrounded and accompanied him on
public appearances, singing his praises. Dr Banda
had practised as a doctor in Britain and was
a pillar of the Church of Scotland. The struggle
to force the break-up of the Central African
Federation, which bound Nyasaland to Southern
and Northern Rhodesia, propelled him to power.
He mobilised opinion against the Federation,
was imprisoned for a time, headed the Malawi
Congress Party and became prime minister in- The British government was persuaded by
Banda’s arguments to dissolve the Federation and
to allow Nyasaland independence and separate
nationhood the following year.
On gaining independence, Dr Banda ousted
rival political leaders, turned Malawi into a repub-
lic and became its first president. After the early
turbulent years, he was soon able to consolidate
his position in the state. His official birth date is
given as ‘about 1906’; he was thought, in fact, to