Mugabe's farm seizures: racial justice or catastrophic power grab?

September 06, 2019 - Harare, Zimbabwe, Africa - When Robert Mugabe's armed followers stormed onto white-owned farms, the output of one of Africa's most prosperous agriculture sectors collapsed and the country was driven to the brink of starvation. No issue more clearly defines the polarising legacy of the Zimbabwean leader, who died today at 95. Mugabe always portrayed the redistribution of land as the central task of his mission to undo the racist inheritance of colonial rule, and the economic crisis that followed as a Western conspiracy. To his foes, it was a lawless grab for power and wealth that nearly destroyed the country.