When 170,000 black farmers occupied 4,000 white-owned farms in Zimbabwe in 2000, it caused shock waves around the world. But the follow-up story is less well known. Contrary to the dominant media narrative of abandoned farms and economic stagnation, the new farmers are doing relatively well, improving their lives and becoming increasingly productive.
The original land grab in Zimbabwe dates back to the 1950s, when white World War II veterans violently expelled 100,000 Zimbabwean families from what was then called Southern Rhodesia. Most were pushed into the one-third of the country with the poorest land and irregular rainfall.
