August 16, 2002 will remain forever a red-letter day for me. That’s the day when I met real life hero Roy Bennett, senior member of Zimbabwe’s opposition.
Down to earth, direct and well spoken, Bennett doesn’t think of himself as a hero.
The sole white farmer in Zimbabwe’s parliament, he’s more coffee farmer, husband and father than politician.
The plight of almost 3,000 farmers in faraway Africa takes a back seat in the news media, whose collective eye is on unrest in the Middle East.
A passionate and outspoken advocate of freedom and liberty, Bennett has paid dearly for his courage.
"You can’t run away from everything. There are some things in life worth taking a stand for," he says of his steadfast defiant stand against Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.
Basing his land grab on correcting colonial injustice, Mugabe is demanding that the farmers turn over their farms to landless blacks on a deadline of August 8.
"This is not a black and white fight. It has nothing to do with righting colonial justice. It’s a fight about politics," Bennett told me. Real people shed real blood in Mugabe’s fight. Real tears from the real human tragedy do not move the 78-year-old Zimbabwe president.
Indeed, despite harsh criticism at home and abroad, Mugabe not only continues to push ahead with his land-grab campaign, he is adamant about not allowing any "avoidable impediments" to delay the "fast-track resettlement" by the end of this month.
Amid this power and might, a lone wolf called Roy Bennett gives new meaning to the phrase the power of one, and continues flinging his stones from a slingshot.
Worrying enough to be in the middle of human rights carnage at a time in history when what is going on in Zimbabwe is overshadowed by Mid-East unrest. This is an injustice masquerading under the alibi of "correcting colonial justice," by a president whose henchmen are dignified by the name "war veterans."
"The majority of the President’s politburo are far too young to be war veterans," Bennett insists.
The coffee farmer knows the terror of their violence firsthand. Since Mugabe’s war veterans invaded his Charleswood estate in the foothills of the Chimanimani Mountains in May of 2001, he has lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in revenue and his wife miscarried their baby.
With Charleswood ravaged, Bennett turned it into a stronghold for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, of which he remains an active member.
For farmers working the land, the fight going on in Zimbabwe is straight out of a horror movie complete with black militants armed with clubs and stones.
When it was the militant’s turn to invade Charleswood, they came of a sudden, driving around in Bennett’s vehicles, first chasing down, then catching, and beating up his workers. His cattle were shot and eaten. His wife, Heather, and children, Charles and Casey were forced into hiding.
The invaders decimated the once idyllic estate, as romantic and peaceful a setting as any that could be found. Before leaving, they had ruined not only 100 tons of the year’s coffee crop; they wiped out the painstaking preparations for another three years of planting. Devastating losses were estimated at more than 200,000 pounds.
A Scottish marketing company interested in building a coffee production plant on the estate backed off.
Just as the shock was beginning to wear off, wife Heather, who had had a pistol held to her throat, miscarried.
Living well on a coffee farm one day and barely surviving the next would drive even the bravest off the land and leave them discouraged for a long time to come.
But Bennett, a farmer at heart, is not the type to cut and run. "We’ve got to make the best of it. We’re making it work, putting our backs into it," he said.
Bennett’s private mission is convincing other farmers to stand strong and believe in Zimbabwe’s future. "We’ve got to keep going. Our long-term future is in our own home country."
Even with threats on his life, one of Bennett’ first moves after the desecration of his estate was to launch a civil lawsuit against Agrippa Natanga, the Mugabe henchman he blames for much of the violence at Charleswood.
"I know my constituency is 100 per cent behind me. Our greatest asset is our people. A lot of Zanu people are very good and are totally opposed to what is going on."
While Mugabe’s brutal regime sweeps through the farms, millions of southern Africans in Zimbabwe and elsewhere face food shortages due to the disruption on the farms, coupled with severe drought.
Someday there will be peace in Zimbabwe. And when it comes Roy Bennett, who embodies the true meaning of the power of one, will be working the land on his coffee farm.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement