Liberation and Opposition in Zimbabwe

Abstract

President Mugabe characterises the present crisis in Zimbabwe as Western intransigence in the face of his resolve to correct the ills of colonialism once and for all, by returning land to the peasantry, originally taken without compensation by British colonial power. According to him, it is a continuation of the national liberation struggle waged by the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and peasants against colonialism, and then kept up throughout the 23 years of independence by attempts to reform the country’s colonial legacy. Pitted against them are foreign and colonial interests, represented by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), seeking to overthrow an elected government and restore colonialism, with the support of workers and urban dwellers who contributed little to the liberation struggle and are without interest in, or links to, the peasantry.