[Dragan]

I didn't used to believe the "muh white farmers" meme, but when I saw the regime in Zimbabwe was begging them to come back, I knew there was something seriously screwed up going on in Africa, in regards to agricultural production and dispossession of experienced white farmers. And don't get me started about Soviet Farm Collectivization, bad agricultural policies lead to bad outcomes regardless of where they occur, not just Africa.

"After fleeing Zimbabwe, farmers reluctant to return"

Quote:

It was part of their adjustment to a new life in a peaceful country after invaders seized their Zimbabwe farm in 2016. And it helps explain why they have little interest in returning to Zimbabwe – despite the ousting of long-ruling dictator Robert Mugabe and the reassurances of the new rulers.

The McKinnons are among an estimated 4,000 white commercial farmers who lost their land in the invasions and occupations that began 18 years ago. But today, the new government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa is promising to end the illegal seizure of farmland and to provide "inclusiveness" for everyone. The pledges are intended to resolve one of Zimbabwe's most sensitive and controversial issues. Under the white minority regime when the country was known as Rhodesia, half of the arable land was controlled by a tiny number of white people. After independence in 1980, land redistribution at first was done on a voluntary basis. The land invasions, sometimes violent, began in 2000.

Of the estimated 4,500 white farmers in the country when the invasions began, only a few hundred remain on their farms today. The invasions triggered a collapse in Zimbabwe's agriculture production and then contributed to a broader collapse of the overall economy.

In his inauguration speech in November after Mr. Mugabe resigned, Mr. Mnangagwa said his government was "committed to compensating those farmers from whom land was taken." The government even allowed a white farmer to return to his land last month – prompting cheers and celebrations from his former farm workers, who had lost their jobs when the farmer was evicted at gunpoint. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/wor...e37663667/