“Mugabe and the White African”
Mugabe and the White African is an intimate and moving feature-length documentary, charting one family’s extraordinary courage in the face of a relentless campaign of state-sanctioned terror.
In 2008 Mike Campbell, 74 years old – one of the few remaining white farmers to have so far held-out against Mugabe’s brutal land seizure programme – took the unprecedented step of challenging President Mugabe before the SADC (South African Development Community) international court – to defend his property and to charge Mugabe and his government with racial discrimination and of violations of Human Rights. This film, much of it shot covertly, documents the astonishing bravery and dignity of a white African family who risked everything they have and everything they are in defence of what is right. (From the film’s website.)
Via Screendaily:
Mugabe And The White African a British made theatrical documentary from Arturi Films, will premiere at the 2009 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival which runs from April 30 to May 10, 2009.
It will be presented in the International Spectrum programme, the official competition for International productions and is also eligible for the Audience Award.
The documentary, which was shot covertly in Zimbabwe in 2008, charts white farmer Mike Campbell who takes president Mugabe to court for racism. Campbell won his case despite intimidation, threats and violence against him, his family, the 500 black workers and their families who share life on the farm.
Produced by David Pearson and Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock, it is directed by Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson. The film has been pre-sold to Channel 4 and an international sales agent is yet to be attached.
Pearson, a BAFTA nominated documentary director and festival director of the International Screenwriters’ Festival, said,
“We follow Mike’s unique challenge to President Mugabe across the last year, as he takes Mugabe to court, accusing him of racism and violation of his Human Rights. Mike and his son-in law Ben Freeth stand ready to protect their farm, and their lives’ work at any cost.”
Read the following Sokwanele posts for insight into Mike Campbell’s and his family’s experience.
- Zimbabwean farm evictions escalate despite the GPA – 18 March 2008
- CIO operative tells farm owners that the ‘President is the law’ - 10 March 2009
- Invasion of Mount Carmel Farm, Chegutu area, Mashonaland West – 25 February 2009
- SADC Tribunal to deliver landmark judgement on Zim farmers’ test case – 28 November 2008
- Zanu-PF regime’s legal team walks out of the SADC Tribunal hearing – 18 July 2008
- Zimbabwean farm hearing due tomorrow in Windhoek: considered a test case for the rule of law in the SADC region – 15 July 2008
- Abducted and tortured while Mugabe was being inaugurated – 30 June 2008
- Updated 30 June ~ 10.15 – Action Alert : Farm attacks taking place in Chegutu today – 29 June 2008
April 4th, 2009 10:13
Great news, and a film to anticipate. I hope it stimulates debate, especially here in South Africa, about land restitution and rural communities, and raises funds which will be put to good use i.e. not just for the profit of those who made the film.
I also hope, and pray, that this publicity does not cause Mr Campbell and his family to be singled out even more for human rights abuses, since the Inclusive Government so far seems powerless to prevent these abuses which continue with impunity.
April 5th, 2009 13:38
I have just been reading the transcript of an interview between Violet Gonda ( SW radio) and Giles Mutsekwa – co-Home Affairs Minister – the MDC one. He does not inspire confidence in the farm invasions situation!
Firstly he keeps reiterating that the police being a political tool of Zanu-PF has not been their fault!! So they are not to blame for what they’ve been doing!!
Secondly, he is back-peddling on the whole issue of the current farm invasions, which MDC said had to cease at once: I quote:
“Violet: Shouldn’t there be a call to say stop all the invasions, stop the
illegal activities and actually threaten to arrest the perpetrators of
violence if this continues?
Mutsekwa: Violet you can only (instruct) the police to arrest people if you
have established that what they are terming as certificates of occupation is
either true or false. Right now as I said, there is this debate that is
going on and it would be honestly unfair for the police just to jump in and
arrest people when they are not certain as to what is going on.”
I am beginning to think that with the MDC it is a case of “we won’t because we can’t” when it comes to intervening in certain ongoing activities of the Zanu-PF – especially abductions and farm invasions.
April 6th, 2009 07:23
You call it a land grab and racism, how did whits get all the land, and can have 500 people working for them? How do those people get paid and what land do they the blacks have.
April 6th, 2009 13:32
99% of all commercial farm land in Zimbabwe was purchased, it is as simple as that, if you are confused by that simple statement of economic fact then you are dim beyond recovery.If your next question is ” where did the whites get the money ?” implying but unspoken that they somehow did wrong then you are nothing but a racist through and through.Only when one can see beyond colour will Zimbabwe be free.It is a historical fact that when Rhodes’s column fought the Matebele and freed the Shona slaves from lifetime servitude their gratitude and gifts of land to ” whites” were meant to be a gift of gratitude to be enjoyed forever.Forever is short inh some tribal memories.
April 6th, 2009 13:59
Ask the 500 whether who their preferred farmer/employer would be at this moment! They are being beaten and intimidated, and right now the farmer and family are trapped and isolated in the farmhouse, with no law and order in force to stop the violence and intimidation. Is that the Zimbabwe you like to live in? You are in the minority if so.
There are ways to sort out land issues, but what’s going on now is illegal, racial and despicable. The MDC is still turning a blind eye, some even condoning it (see Mutsekwa’s reaction quoted above.)
And you really don’t understand why the west is slow to open up their coffers?
April 7th, 2009 07:11
@Haggar – Hey Haggar, right on, and while you are on your high horse, why don’t you demand that the ruling descendants of the Roman and French invaders in the UK return England to the Celts, demand that balck and white Yanks return their continent to the American Indians, the Chinese return Tibet and Mongolia to their original Buddist owners, and insist that all black skinned people get the hell out of southern Africa as they clearly stole the land from the indigenous San people who lived there centuries before the bantu.
April 7th, 2009 12:07
Ben Freeth, whose name is becoming well known to us worldwide as a Chegutu farmer who with his family is suffering under the inaction of the Unity Government, has put forward this idea – I agree 100 percent!
“It is important that the PM and minister of Home Affairs be able to come
to visit the farms in Chegutu where disruption is continuing, to see the
situation for themselves.”
But I don’t believe the PM or either of the Home Affairs Ministers are up to the challenge – they are seriously failing this family.
April 7th, 2009 17:58
Mutsekwa’s responsess have dashed my hopes;
April 8th, 2009 08:21
Well, it is too late – Campbells and Freeths, we admire your long drawn out battle for what is right, and we feel so sad that the MDC have abandoned you at this time. They speak with forked tongue, as the whole world is beginning to realise.
April 8th, 2009 10:03
It sadly is all about power and greed, forgetting that there should be a place in the sun for all Zimbabweans to live peacefully next to each other,working the soil getting the money, feeding the nation and leaving a rich heritage behind for the next generation. Or am I dreaming ?
April 8th, 2009 12:55
That the MDC is showing signs of vacillation and indecision in the face of continued farm invasions should surprise no-one. Apart from a few honorable people in its ranks, the bulk of the MDC membership comprises people who are in reality little different to Mugabe supporters. In fact, I would bet my bottom dollar that 90% of the MDC membership have voted for Mugabe at least once in their lives, ignoring those who cautioned that he was just a dictator in the making.
And my sense is that most MDC are not too upset about a few white men now gettting their comeuppance, especially if there is half a chance they might share in the spoils (just look at how they behaved over the Merc perk).
I would love to be proved wrong, but putting the MDC on a pedestal, with high expectations that they will fearlessly deliver justice, fairness, democracy and non-racialism, and will avoid Africa’s tradition of greed, corruption, nepotism and intolerance, is, I suspect, setting oneself up for a big disappointment.
April 8th, 2009 18:31
Maybe we are being too harsh too soon. I noticed that the ANglican church factions have now been able to share the church buildings for their respective service. maybe the co-ministry is now working. Agriculture needs even more urgent attention. Instead of fighting ’sanctions’which we have less control over, I believe our intelligence leaders could do more fighting each other over removing internal sanctions i.e stifling agricultural production. Unfortunately I am such a coward, for what have I done?
May 9th, 2009 12:46
people should put emotions aside and be realistic. if we are going to allow Mugabe and his policies to further divide the nation along racial lines then we will forever be stuck in the past. Those who want to farm must be given land whether black or white, and Zimbabwe as a nation is not made up of one ethnic group. People must not allow single-oreinted man like Mugabe to blind them, this is why this country has gone to the dogs. Anyone who takes on a racial line must not be taken seriously..that is tired politics and the American people have demonstrated that…and Obama himself has shown that he is beyond colour..we should also stand for the right princliples…human rights..equity..etc
May 15th, 2009 12:58
So aptly put! Anyone who still talks about black or white is racist! Everyone needs to be treated equally…black or white. Mugabe has set out to undermine the good will of the Zimbabwean people in order to manipulate them for his own purposes. If we resort back to racial divisions then he wins. We returned from South Africa to Zimbabwe in the mid 90’s and were struck by how well black and white were co-existing after the hatred of the past. That can happen again. Let’s strive to achieve that state again.
May 17th, 2009 14:04
The Land Apportionment Act of 1930 restricted blacks’ access to land and forced them into wage labor. So while i disagree with the policies and human rights abuses fermented by Sir Robert Mugabe (knighted by the Queen herself) i do concede to Haggars’ implied plea for Land redistribution. The right question Hagar would be “From whom was the 99% commercial land purchased”. I think the preferred employer of the 500 would be themselves not Mugabe either. Why the west is slow with “their coffers”mmmm…they they do tend to interfere clumsily at times. Their footprint is all over the isreali-pakistani war, the hutu-tutsi war, the current crisis in srilanka, did anyone watch Black Hawk Down(Documantary)?…i could go on.
May 17th, 2009 14:41
Graham has made a very important point. Indeed how ridiculous it would be to attempt returning Britain to descendants of those who roamed its plains in 4000 b.c. However let us re-attempt that from the other side of the spectrum. If a man stole property from another yesterday 16 May 2009, would it be fair to re-insate the property to the “rightful owner”. Lets then say it happened 5yrs ago. lets try 10yrs ago. How about 50 yrs ago mmmmm…..when exactly does this excercise begin sounding “ridiculous”. who determines the justifiable, feasible period?. Ngoni you are right Blacks,indians, other mixed and Whites should be integrated as much as possible into all social, political and economic activities in Zim. Wouldn’t it be great to have white guys included the national soccer team, wouldn’t it be great to Zim soap operas featuring indian, khalanga, tonga, english, venda, dombe, kunda, nambya, nyanja, manyika, tsonga, ndau, nsenga, zulu, ndebele, shona speaking entertainers. There are many ohter dialects not listed but just as ipmortant.
May 17th, 2009 14:48
Jill your observations are great everyone ought to be treated equally. In fact let strive for co-habitation that far exceeds the 1990s. Those times were GREAT but they could have been better without a few loose ends that i won’t touch here.