Months ago Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe (who ruled the country since it gained independence in 1980 and who is recognized as one of the world's most brutal dictators) announced his governing Zanu PF party would take control of food distribution throughout the country. The decision evolved as a result of the seizure of white-owned farms. The land redistribution program caused such havoc in the countryside that no one operated the farms, and crop yields during the last three years were very minimal. The Zanu PF solution: Control the food supply, and control the election results by giving food priority to Zanu PF supporters. In other words, use grain as a political weapon.
Seen from one vantage, Zanu PF finally admits its desperation. Mr. Mugabe wants to win so badly he is willing to starve Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters to do it. For a while Zanu PF denied a food crisis exists. Then the party line changed as the so-called general election to be held 31 March neared. According to a report from the online Mail and Guardian site, last week Mr. Mugabe told a Zanu PF rally there was a lack of food, but the essence of his comments were to the effect that: "Do not worry; we will not let you starve". The answer to which "you" Mr. Mugabe intended is all too obvious.
Months before Mr. Mugabe's admission, villagers across Zimbabwe contributed funds to buy imported wheat. When the villagers queue for the wheat, some of them have a rather unpleasant surprise: Rather than getting wheat, they get their money back. They also get an explanation that they were seen at an MDC rally or they are known to support the MDC, and that makes them ineligible to receive the most basic food aid from the state - the only source for food now available in Zimbabwe.
Desperate times require desperate measures, and Zimbabwe's famine is no exception. MDC (and now some Zanu PF) supporters eat ocra and extracts from roots dug from the abandoned fields. A rather slimy vegetable, many Zimbabweans regard ocra as a weak vegetable which consuming will cause to weaken humans. According to the Mail and Guardian report already cited, a typical day of meals in Zimbabwe is tea for breakfast, tea in the late afternoon, and ocra and boiled weeds or roots and extract and tea for dinner. Yes, that is correct: In some villages in the pro-MDDC areas, people must harvest and boil weeds. Meanwhile Mr. Mugabe continues his very selective food distribution program.
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