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The documentary gives an accurate account of the Zimbabwean people’s resistance to 100 years of brutal British colonial oppression — from the First Chimurenga armed liberation struggle to the execrable Lancaster Agreement which prematurely ended the liberation war, to the final battle for the control of their precious land and their agrarian-based economy in 2000 —20 years after the war.
Ghanian director/producer Roy Agyemang began the documentary film project with an opportunity to interview President Mugabe in 2007 during the Zimbabwe 2008 election campaign. His quest would take him three years on the ground to complete. During his extended stay, Agyemang was given full access to President Mugabe’s administration, Parliament and finally to the President himself.
Agyemang explained: “I was living in London and the media there made him out to be a villain, I wanted to go and meet President Mugabe and those close to him myself. The Western media depiction of African leaders who decide to work for their own people is hostile and hypocritical. President Mugabe’s situation is very similar to that of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, a pan-Africanist, who also dared to take control of the economy.
“While we were filming at polling sites around the country, I got a frantic call from my executive producer. He said, ‘Are you ok? We’re getting you out it’s too dangerous, too much violence.’ I said what are you talking about? Nothing is going on everything is fine. Then he said, ‘Well, while you’re waiting to see Mugabe that is your story. Everyone else is saying otherwise.”
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Agyemang sets out to find the political and economic motivations behind the virulent attacks on President Mugabe by Western nations’ machinations in the United Nations, economic sanctions and trade embargoes, and their mendacious international media. But, more importantly, the filmmaker listens to the voices of Zimbabweans led by the war veterans, who undertook the battle to wrest control of their most arable vast farm lands from a few thousand European settlers.
“President Robert Mugabe, a war veteran himself, made a critical decision in 2000 to reclaim the land taken by European settlers and redistribute it to the people of Zimbabwe.
“The settlers and their kin in Britain, acutely aware of the economic ramifications, did not want to give up anything. They called for a regime change,” he continued.
The film shows white commercial farmers meeting and funding the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change.
The interview with President Mugabe finally took place in 2010. A trim and fit energetic statesman with a razor-sharp mind sits down for a chat. What ensues will enlighten you.
The upcoming 2013 elections will, once again, give the people of Zimbabwe the opportunity to exercise the democratic right to vote for their leadership. President Mugabe has been their choice since their liberation in 1980.
Omowale Clay, spokesman for the sponsors December 12th Movement, declared: “Recent Western incursions into Africa have exposed a fervid march towards recolonisation. The people of Zimbabwe and President Mugabe represent an example of self-determination, self-defence and self-reliance.
“The uncompromising strength and leadership of Zanu-PF party and the people of Zimbabwe throughout the imperialist assault have given our people a renewed vision of African leadership for the 21st century.
“Now is the time for pan-African unity, political and economic sovereignty and self- defence by all means.
“We demand an end to the illegal economic sanctions implemented by the United States’s Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001.”
The December 12th Movement and the people of Harlem have a long history of African liberation support work dating back to the 1960s.
In 2000, President Mugabe addressed an audience of over 4 000 at the Mount Olivet Baptist Church.
President Mugabe explained the land reform programme which demanded the settlers keep only one farm each. The audience roared: “Take it all!”
Online Reporter