Mugabe’s War on White Farmers: A Scapegoat for Zimbabwe’s Decline

Rory Graeme Duncan, born in Salisbury, Rhodesia, was a commercial farmer affected by Mugabe’s anti-white farmer land reforms. After enduring torture and imprisonment, he was forced to leave due to land seizures and political violence. Despite the risks, he returned between 2008 and 2011 to farm a small piece of land outside Harare. He persisted until theft and escalating political pressure made it impossible to continue. Rory found refuge in South Africa, where he is now concerned that similar land reform rhetoric is being echoed.

Building Rhodesia: From Wilderness to Prosperity

Have you ever wondered what it takes to build a nation from the ground up? Imagine transforming a wilderness into a thriving society. That’s exactly what happened in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where my family played a part in its development.

I was born in 1966 in Salisbury (now Harare), Rhodesia, into a farming, conservation, and mining family. My father’s side owned a farm in Trelawney, where my grandfather grew maize and tobacco. On my mother’s side, Summerfield farm in the Penhalonga Valley near Umtali was carved out of rugged mountains by my great-great-grandfather, Alexander Heathcote Tulloch. He was a member of the Pioneer Column, which helped settle the Mashona region after Cecil Rhodes secured the land from the Matabele king, Lobengula, in the late 1800s.

What makes this even more significant is that my great-grandfather was the first white child born after the occupation of Mashonaland, and Cecil John Rhodes himself visited my great-great-grandfather to pay his respects. My great-grandfather, Alexander Rhodes Tulloch, lived through the early years of this transformation, and I still have some of his diaries, which provide a rare firsthand account of the time.

What made this region so attractive to settlers? The land had fertile soil, but also a tumultuous history. Lobengula’s forces had decimated the Shona people to the north, leaving only around 60,000 behind when the settlers arrived. Many Shona were initially skeptical but saw the settlers as a beacon of hope. They were drawn to the new concepts such as measurement, time, written language and European values. However, the Matabele resisted the new settlers, adding to the region’s challenges.

The first settlers faced enormous hardships. In the 1890s, 180 civilians, 62 wagons, and 200 volunteers traveled from Kimberley, South Africa, to what is now Harare, Zimbabwe. Soon after, another group arrived, bringing more men, wagons, cattle, and horses. These settlers, armed with stubborn resolve, transformed the wilds into a growing colony with roadways, telegraph lines, forts, and towns. In just 90 years, this land became the thriving nation of Rhodesia.

My family’s farms, which included four in the Tengwe/Karoi area of northwest Zimbabwe, played a vital role in this agricultural boom. These farms were highly productive, growing everything from proteas, wheat, tobacco, and maize to beef cattle. Despite the turbulent political climate, including several attacks during the civil war, my family continued to live and farm in the region.

It was no easy feat, but through persistence, determination, and resilience, Rhodesia rose from a rugged wilderness into a thriving society, with contributions from families like mine that were there from the beginning.

Independence and the Rise of Robert Mugabe

In 1980, Rhodesia transitioned to Zimbabwe after 15 years of civil war. The Lancaster House Agreement paved the way for democratic elections, ending white-minority rule. Robert Mugabe, leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), won and became the nation’s first Prime Minister, marking a significant milestone in African liberation. On April 18, 1980, Bob Marley performed at Rufaro Stadium in Salisbury, celebrating the historic moment with a message of hope and unity.

Mugabe inherited a country with advanced infrastructure, including world-class hospitals, schools, and industries. However, just three years later, he unleashed the North Korean-trained 5th Brigade on the Matabele people, supporters of his former ally-turned-rival Joshua Nkomo, leader of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU).

The brutal campaign, known as the Gukurahundi (Shona for "the early rain that washes away the chaff") lasted from 1983 to 1987. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 lives were lost, with entire communities subjected to executions, torture, and rape.Villages became sites of unimaginable cruelty and violence as the 5th Brigade unleashed terror in sealed-off areas of Zimbabwe. Entire communities were forced to dig mass graves, witnessing the execution of their men before being compelled to bury them. Women and children were then made to dance on the graves for 24 hours, singing songs in praise of Mugabe. While the campaign was framed as targeting "dissidents," it served to consolidate Mugabe’s political power by eliminating opposition.

Initially celebrated as a liberation hero, Mugabe’s actions during the Gukurahundi revealed his authoritarian tendencies. Despite international criticism, the global response was muted, shaped by Cold War politics and a reluctance to challenge a newly independent African state.

The Gukurahundi left an indelible scar on Zimbabwe’s history. By 1987, Joshua Nkomo was forced to sign the Unity Accord, merging his ZAPU party with Mugabe’s ZANU to form ZANU-PF. This agreement solidified Mugabe’s dominance, allowing him to tighten his grip on Zimbabwe at great cost to the nation.

Land Reform: Dreams Turned to Ashes

In the late 1990s, Zimbabwe’s economic crisis deepened, driven by hyperinflation, unemployment, and widespread poverty. The roots of this disaster can be traced back to 1987, when Robert Mugabe, facing pressure from the Liberation War Veterans, acquiesced and paid out an unbudgeted Z$ 50,000 to each of them. The Zimbabwe dollar crashed by 70% in a single day, setting off a chain reaction that led to the country’s eventual economic collapse.

The state, impoverished, was further strained by an expensive war in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in support of Laurent Kabila’s forces. As the Zimbabwe Army bled resources, the country began to unravel. Opposition politicians rose to prominence, and a growing alliance of black and white Zimbabweans united in a show of force against Mugabe’s increasingly authoritarian rule. Political change seemed imminent.

With his back against the wall, Mugabe feared losing power. In a desperate and brutal move, he issued a proclamation declaring white citizens the enemy. Their farms and workers became targets, and Mugabe encouraged the masses to seize their land by any means necessary.

What followed was a state-sanctioned orgy of violence. War veterans and militants, emboldened by Mugabe’s rhetoric, forcibly evicted white farmers, often disregarding the rule of law. Properties were destroyed, and lives were ruined. Much of the land falling into the hands of Mugabe’s loyalists and cronies, those with no interest in farming but eager to benefit from the spoils.

I lived through the horrors of that time. The Mugabe war against white farmers was incredibly traumatizing, as the state itself was aiding and abetting the invasions. I can still vividly recall the sight of an official police truck or two arriving out of nowhere with 100 to 200 invaders, many of them armed and filled with hate. They would surround our farm homestead, chanting, drumming, and demanding the immediate removal of the farmer, his family, and children from the land.

The violence was terrifying. It wasn’t just the physical threats. It was the emotional toll that tore at your soul. In some cases, farmers were murdered, while others were badly wounded. The invaders would break into your home without a second thought, throwing your furniture, paintings, photographs, and heirlooms into the garden and smashing them without remorse.

I’ll never forget one particular incident. The invaders took all of our family photographs and threw them onto the floor, urinating on them. I was abducted by state security agents from my home, and suffered an ordeal of intense torture being kept in human excrement for 13 days before being thrown in prison for two months. My passport was held for nearly two years before I was cleared of all wrongdoing. It was a time of madness, with absolutely no recourse to justice. The state, the very institution that should have been protecting us, was the one that was abusing us.

As the violence continued, the weight of fear and helplessness crushed us. We watched as everything we had worked for, everything we had built, was slowly torn apart by the very people we had tried to support and help. The land, once a symbol of prosperity and hard work, became a battleground for political games. And for us, the dream of a future we had worked so hard to build was reduced to nothing but ashes.

Zimbabwe Today: A Shadow of Its Former Self

Mugabe’s campaign tragically obliterated the small white farming community, erasing its memories, achievements, and contributions. Agricultural production, once the backbone of Zimbabwe’s economy, plummeted. Food shortages became widespread, and the economy deteriorated further.

Today, Zimbabwe is a pale shadow of Rhodesia - broken, exposed, and a pariah among nations. An environmental and human tragedy, the country churns out refugees, with hunger and suffering endemic. Once a thriving nation, it is now re-colonized by the Chinese, ruled by a brutal dictatorship where hospitals have become places where people go to die.

The revenge Mugabe sought has left the nation in ruins, and for what? Nothing but destruction.

Rory Graeme Duncan

Rhodesian-Born Entrepreneur | Former Farmer