New documentary on Zimbabwe launched in London

LONDON – A documentary on Zimbabwe, A Bit Of Truth - Denied, which has some interviews with leading figures from both the government and opposition, was launched Monday night at the London School of Economics.

‘Denied - this bit of truth’, is a new documentary by LSE alumnus Shrenik Rao who gained access to Zimbabwe’s two deputy presidents Joice Mujuru and Joseph Msika, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono, Archbishop Pius Ncube and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s Arthur Mutambara.

Rao said he failed to get an interview with MDC founding president Morgan Tsvangirai despite countless attempts to do so.

In the documentary the Mujuru and Msika talk about Zimbabwe’s land grab policy which they say they never wanted to embark on but had no choice following Britain’s refusal to honour the Lancaster House Agreement that saw Zimbabwe becoming independent in 1980.

Mujuru said the chaotic reforms were the reason Zimbabwe was suffering today, especially as the British government went out of its way to punish Harare for a programme she says was not authored by her government but by the landless peasants who were tired of waiting for land.

She said Zimbabweans were now suffering because the British government has been leading efforts to punish its leaders for embarking on land reforms that have dispossed thousands of white commercial farmers. Mujuru says the British are the ones who want to protect their "kith and kin" hence continued efforts to ostracize her government.

The Zanu PF leaders also blame the targeted sanctions for worsening the plight of the ordinary Zimbabwean while Gono said he was partly to blame for the crisis since he prioritised making payments to the IMF and the World Bank at the expense of buying either food or fuel that could have served the country for up to nine months.

Ncube talked about the Matebeleland Massacres, the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe at the hands of the Zanu PF government, adding he was willing to lead the people in a programme to defy and remove the Zanu PF government from power.

He said the current sitution in the country cannot continue.

Mutambara acknowledges the land imbalances that existed in Zimbabwe before 2000. He, however, says the way the Zanu PF government went about wantonly destroying farming in their desire to give farms to President Robert Mugabe’s cronies was unacceptable. 

Mutambara said the suffering of the populace today should fall squarely on Mugabe’s hands raising the need for the opposition to unite and “remove the dictatorship from office”.

He said the patronage system in Zimbabwe had to come to an end. Tsvangirai appears in the documentary addressing a Save Zimbabwe Campaign meeting with Mutambara, the National Constitutional Assembly’s Lovemore Madhuku and other political activists.

The documentary presents juxtaposing "truths" - igniting a debate about the most burning issues haunting present day Zimbabwe.

The screening of the documentary was followed by a panel discussion on media and human rights in Zimbabwe with former Daily News Political Editor Sandra Nyaira and George Shire, who has been linked with Zanu PF but denies this saying his roots are anchored in the liberation struggle that brought independence to Zimbabwe, and Brilliant Mhlanga, a top Zimbabwean activist currently studying at the Westminster University.

In this guest blog, Shrenik Rao sets the scene for the documentary:

“Once upon a time, in Africa, in a land called Rhodesia, there was a man. He was a humble teacher. He seemed to be full of ideas and ideals. He seemed to have dedicated to his life for a cause – a cause larger than his own – that of liberation, freedom and Independence from an oppressive regime which denied them their denied them their basic dignity, freedom and rights. And so, he was respected and revered by one and many as an able, honest leader who would liberate them from oppression, and restore their dignity and rights. The man was none other than Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

Twenty-seven years after independence, we hear a similar story. But, this time, the stories of oppression and humiliation are about the same person –Robert Mugabe. Perceptions had changed considerably.  Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, was once the darling of the world is now being considered a despot. A man who was once called a ‘Liberator’ is now being called a ‘Dictator’. A man who is the ‘President’ of a country is being called a ‘Tyrant’.  He who claims to be the ’sovereign’ is being called a ’surrogate’ and has emerged to be one of the most controversial African leaders in the world.

The enigmatic French philosopher Michel Foucault once famously articulated that ‘Power produces resistance to itself’.  In Robert Mugabe’s case, has Power produced resistance to itself? I wondered.

As a filmmaker and an academic who spent time researching and teaching about ‘Information and Politics’, I was intrigued by the way in which power manifests itself.  From what I had read and from what I had heard from the people I met – both good and bad, Zimbabwe seemed to me to be the right place to test Michel Foucault’s hypothesis. And so, I embarked on this long journey of seeking to know the real story.

This story has been said many a times earlier. But still, I wanted to say it again. And do I said it again – not like the way I saw it, but rather, the way I heard it from many who were apparently the ones who were at the helm of affairs. And so, this is a story, which attempts to present the multifaceted truth as it ‘Denied’ itself in its journey through time, especially in the realm of power and politics.

Don’t ask me what motivated me or what inspired me. That is a question, which haunts me with a menacing consistency and so, it is perhaps something that I cannot answer with coherent eloquence.  And also what motivated me is of far less importance than what sustained my motivation. May be I draw my inspiration from the life and from people who carry on with life despite all odds. May be it’s the fascination with the way power manifested itself.  May be it was just one of destiny’s decisions. May be! May be?

But here it is ‘DENIED-This Bit of Truth’, as it has denied itself in the realm of power and politics.”