Hot Docs 2009: Mugabe and the White African

Mugabe and the White African (Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson)
BY MATHEW KUMAR

Thanks to the difficulty of filming from within Zimbabwe and the strength of his propaganda, Robert Mugabe must be pretty comfortable in his position. After all, even with all of the bad press, he knows that blaming it on the lingering influence of colonial times will cause more than one person enough pangs of “white guilt” that they’ll just start to think about something else instead. The strength of Mugabe and the White African is that it takes a story that collective “white guilt” for Africa should render completely unpalatable—a white farmer, Michael Campbell, desperately trying to cling onto his farm that is to be given to “black peasants”—and makes it something we simply can’t look away from. If there is a problem with it, it’s that for viewers completely unfamiliar with the situation in Zimbabwe—and indeed, even those with an inkling—there’s just not quite enough context to completely understand what we see. Instead the film calls out to our emotional centre, with some upsetting and distressing images (particularly of people who have been beaten by Zimbabwean militia; you have been warned) and a surprisingly strong Christian bent (Michael and his family rely on God for strength through their troubles; we don't judge them; Richard Dawkins would have an apoplexy.) No matter its problems, this is an important and rare view into Zimbabwe and one that should be seen. 4/5