Mugabe and the White African (Lucy Bailey/ Andrew Thompson: UK)
In this sobering documentary from directors Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson, defiance and courage know no bounds. At 75, Michael Campbell, a white farmer in Zimbabwe, faces losing his property of over 35 years, to a racist land reform policy mandated by the President Mugabe government. Michael’s response? “If he wants to shoot us, come and shoot us.”
It’s a brave call at a time when thousands of white farmers are being brutally forced off their land, their land titles simply cancelled by the flagrantly corrupt Mugabe Government.
Filmed covertly – the media is under draconian control in Zimbabwe – we pick up Michael’s story in December 2007. It’s a positive yet tense atmosphere on the property he shares with wife Angela, son-in-law Ben and daughter Laura. Michael and Ben are almost unflinching as they hear from their homestead in the dead of night, the sounds of invaders on their property wielding axes and other weapons in a common act of intimidation. They head into the darkness to fend the invaders off. “If good men do nothing, then evil will prevail,” says Michael.
Black guards are in the difficult position of protecting their white owners’ properties but are seen as traitors and are often attacked and badly injured. Without law and order, all that Michael and his family have left is their Christian faith and a mighty resolve to fight this injustice.
Michael and Ben take their case to South Africa’s international court – theirs is a landmark case which if won would make removal of white farmers from their land illegal. But the case is hampered by the stalling tactics of the Mugabe government. When the court case finally unfolds and the consequences of Michael and Ben’s stand becomes shockingly apparent, the truth becomes as taut as any fictional court room drama.
Mugabe and the White African is by no means a balanced documentary. It’s Michael and Ben’s story and, to a broader extent, the story of many white Zimbabwean farmers – you get the impression that the film’s makers want the evidence they present of the injustice, brutality and corruption of the Mugabe government to speak for itself. It’s a shocking and powerful indictment.
Just is powerful is the courage and determination shown by Michael and his family in the face of such brutal adversity and its wrenching emotional toll.
The coda to the aftermath of the court case is chillingly poignant.
Mugabe and the White African is screening;
Monday 14th June 12:00pm at The Dendy Opera Quays
Regarding the screening of “Mugabe and the White African”, I doubt very much if viewers would still sympathise with the family involved after watching them online.
Mike Campbell and Ben Freeth show their real colours in their own series on youtube particularly the “interview” of Mike Campbell where he tells it like he sees it “if they want to eat they need to have white farmers”:
Zimbabwe White farmers (Pt 4&5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbfhrr2NyH4
The land was grabbed by Mike Campbell, a South African army captain, who came to Zimbabwe from South Africa in 1974, in the middle of the guerrilla war against the black majority, just four years before the infamous white supremacist Ian Smith unilaterally yielded to international pressure to end white minority rule. Original Rhodesian white farmers have now all left or have complied with the land reform, Mike Campbell won’t.