Heard of Rhodesia?

1889:
- British South African Company (BSA) was formed and directed by Cecil Rhodes. His mission was to colonize Southern Africa and exploit its resources (esp. gold) in service of capital and the British crown.

- BSA formed a paramilitary force to this end. https://twitter.com/idomagirl/status/1288441294637891584

1890s:
- BSA, dubiously appropriated vast Southern Africa territory, initially, through deceptive misrepresentations and acquisition of dubious concessions from regional kings.

- To sustain their theft, they used their paramilitary to upend the existing sociopolitical systems.

- First, in 1893, using the flimsy pretext that the Madebele king attacked the Mashona for not paying tributes.

- In 1896, the Mashona and Madebele mounted a revolt against BSA on a united front, known as the 1st Chimurenga. They were crushed!

- By eroding the native political structure, Rhodes had created the perfect conditions for his colonial project

1900s
- The Chimurenga rebellion was not entirely a failure, because in 1894, BSA had resolved to seize 100 million acres of land from natives, of which, 2 million

will be allocated to the natives for their living and pastoral needs, while the remaining 98 million will belong to BSA to allocate as they deem appropriate.

- The droughts and famines faced by the natives was rightly blamed on the colonials, which is what fomented the rebellion

- By early 1900s, BSA had made modest concessions to the natives, so that by 1910, 21m acres, 3m of which was unusable, was allocated to 700,000 natives. Still, 19m was allocated to Europeans who were just under 25,000. Of this, 9 million was given to the BSA soldiers.

1930s - 60s:
- In this period, UK acquired Rhodesia from BSA.

- A wave of immigration from Britain to Zim, which prompted the white minority rulers to displace natives from lush lands to low rainfall lands, and reallocate to whites with the Land Apportionment and Tenure Act.

1960s - 80s:

- In an effort to forestall the wave of independence restoring rule to majority natives, Ian Smith, PM of Rhodesia, unilaterally declared independence from UK in 65,

- 2nd Chimurenga rebellion started in 66 by Mugabe and Nkomo

- Ian Smith's UDI failed due to UN sanctions on the international front and ZANU and ZAPU rebellion locally.

- British rule returned, with the aim of establishing majority rule in Rhodesia.

- Lancaster house agreement signed in 1979.

- Part of the agreement was that UK would subsidise land reform so that arable land ownership would reflect the ethnic and racial make up of Zimbabwe.

- 1980, elections were held, Rhodesia was reconstituted as Zimbabwe and ZANU won the elections.

- The agreements were initially honoured by all parties.

- The first wave of emigration occurred because white non-farmers and 30s - 60s immigrants lost state subsidies they got pre-independence. Most white farmers were fine, and, in fact, enjoyed enormous prosperity till 2000s.

1990s - 2000s

- In the agreement, UK had committed to subsidise land reform in Zimbabwe. While they honoured the agreement initially, white farmers jacked up the prices, making it impossible for natives to purchase lands, which frustrated the promise of equitable distribution.

- By 1990, the militia of ZANU and ZAPU united to demand that the land promises made to them be kept.

- Facing increasing pressure, Mugabe passed a land acquisition act in 1992, that would empower it to seize land after compensation to white farmers.

- This was not acted upon because they would still need the funds to acquire the land anyway.

- In 1997, Tony Blair's government reneged on the stated goal of the Lancaster agreement and repudiated UK's commitment to land reform in Zimbabwe.

- His envoy used the flimsy excuse that UK is now a diverse country, and therefore, no longer bares any responsibility for the atrocities it committed in Zimbabwe

- Meanwhile, there was a highly trained libration militia waiting to get what was promised them.

- Failure of the British, under Blair, to compensate white farmers led to the militia occupying and seizing white farms in 2000.

- By this time, Mugabe was literally powerless to stop them. He had no leverage whatsoever.

- 2001 - 2002, the EU and the US mounted coordinated

sanctions on 56 of Zimbabwe's most lucrative companies, damaging their ability to generate income.

- Through it, Mugabe refused to yield to their pressure to compensate white farmers for land which they stole in the first place. He continued to urge UK to meet its obligations.

2017 - 2020:

- The struggle lasted until 2017, when the West joined Zimbabwean elites in pretending that what was so evidently a military coup was nothing but a benign attempt to restore peace to Zimbabwe.

- Today, the coup plotters have committed to taking $3.5 billion from

the public account of already impoverished Zimbabweans to compensate the very people who used theft, violence and lies to dispossess them in the first place.

- So yes, it appears all that Pan-African muscle flexing was for nothing, but I'm not sure it is something to cheer.