The West only discovers property rights when the landowners are white
Key takeaways
- As Zimbabwe returns 67 farms to European nationals, the dispossession that created white land ownership remains unrecognised in law.
- The farms, he said, were protected under bilateral investment protection agreements signed between Zimbabwe and the four European states before the land seizures.
- Zimbabwe is trying to restructure about $11.7bn in external debt, including $7.7bn owed to multilateral and bilateral creditors.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
As Zimbabwe returns 67 farms to European nationals, the dispossession that created white land ownership remains unrecognised in law.
xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogle Add Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Workers harvest sugar snap peas destined for European markets at a farm in Marondera, east of the capital Harare, Zimbabwe, May 4, 2026 [Philimon Bulawayo/Reuters]On May 7, Zimbabwe’s Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka announced in parliament that the government would return 67 farms seized during the country’s land reform programme to European nationals from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The farms, he said, were protected under bilateral investment protection agreements signed between Zimbabwe and the four European states before the land seizures.
The measure forms part of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s effort to restore relations with Western governments and international financial institutions after more than two decades of crisis, sanctions, isolation and debt default linked in part to the fast-track land reform programme of the early 2000s.