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Mugabe 'an African hero'
06/12/2007 08:29 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Robert Mugabe, a largely unwelcome guest of the European Union at a summit this weekend, is a hero in the eyes of many Africans for daring to stand up to the West and seize land from white farmers.
Given that his country's economy was in tatters and had been plagued by political violence, many in Europe had been left scratching their heads over how Zimbabwe's president since independence in 1980 still commanded respect.
But even at the age of 83, Africa's oldest leader retained many of the populist instincts, which had served him so well over the years - trading blows with his former allies in the West and tapping into resentment over land.
Patrick Smith, editor of the London-based Africa Confidential journal, said: "He's a great showman and the confrontation with the West is grist to his mill and builds up his persona.
"Back home the economy may be on its knees, but (many feel) at least our man bestrides the world like a Colossus."
Mugabe receives standing ovation
Mugabe - normally banned from Europe for allegedly rigging his re-election in 2002 - was likely to receive a frosty reception at this weekend's gathering of the European Union and African leaders in Lisbon with the host Portugal's Foreign Minister Luis Amado saying it would be "preferable" if he did not attend.
Yet at his last major summit, the Southern African Development Community's annual get-together in Lusaka in July, Mugabe received a standing ovation from delegates at the official opening who merely applauded other heads of state.
In the first two decades since independence, Mugabe's relations with the West were generally warm, but that changed in 2000 after he embarked on a programme of land reforms in which thousands of farms were expropriated.
Mugabe claimed the programme was intended to redress the wrongs of the colonial era when the indigenous black population was often forced off their land by European settlers.
Expropriations 'economic disaster'
However, in reality much of the land ended up in the hands of ruling party cronies and agricultural production - once an economic mainstay - collapsed.
But if outside observers saw the expropriations as being an economic disaster, the idea remained popular in parts of the continent such as Kenya and South Africa, where land still remained disproportionately in the hands of the descendants of European settlers.
Smith said: "Mugabe's argument is that we may have got the independence but we didn't get the land. That enables him to avoid all the awkward questions about what he's been doing for the last 20 years."
According to David Monyae, a lecturer in international relations at Johannesburg's Wits University, Mugabe had been largely successful in portraying the land issue as a bilateral dispute between Harare and London.
Many Africans shared Mugabe's resentment about the "holier than thou" attitude from former colonial powers such as Britain and Belgium, said Monyae.
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