Aran S. MacKinnon, associate professor of South African History at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton, discusses the history of the Rhodesian independence movement, the post-colonial period in Zimbabwe and the rise of the Mugabe regime, disputes between different ethnic and tribal groups and white landowners, the relative legitimacy of different factions to land claims, Mugabe’s distribution of confiscated land to political cronies and their inability to make productive use of them, the horribly destructive hyperinflation, the brutal crackdowns on residents of shanty towns that had been created by government economic policies, life expectancy statistics, how the predatory nature of the World Bank and IMF help gives Mugabe a credible excuse for the country’s problems, offers by various governments to let Mugabe to seek exile in their countries, the likelihood that he will resort to strong arm tactics to stay in power no matter what the actual results of the recent elections and the opposition leader Tsvangirai’s calls for US/UK/South African intervention.
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