Gold for Bread It is now estimated that one third of Zimbabwe’s
population have fled as refugees to the neighboring
– Zimbabwe Gets Back to Basics
by Kenneth Griffith
T he country of Zimbabwe, in Central Africa, used
to be one of the most prosperous countries in
Africa. Formerly known as Rhodesia, Zimbabwe
was the bread basket of Africa under British rule.
When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980,
Robert Mugabe and his ZANU party were elected.
In the twenty-eight years that followed Mugabe’s
regime has gradually transformed the country into
a fascist dictatorship. The government has taken
control of almost all sectors of the economy.
Zimbabwe’s present crisis was caused by Mugabe’s
policy of land re-distribution from whites to blacks.
Since 1999, his government has confiscated white-
owned farms and given the land to black “war
veterans” who have not cultivated it.
Consequently the country has suffered a politically
induced famine. Without food exports as a source
of cash, Zimbabwe’s government has adopted a
hyperinflationary monetary policy. This caused the
famine to spread to rural black villages, because
the villagers could not afford to buy seed or fuel
with the worthless government currency.
countries. Starvation has killed a large percentage
of the country as well.
Hyperinflation has made the national currency
worthless. In these conditions, Zimbabwe’s
desperate surviving citizens have resorted to
panning for gold in the rivers in order to buy
bread.
Sam Chakaipa, a Zimbabwean who ran for local
council as a member of the opposition party, had
his home burned twice by Mugabe’s thugs. He
made a video of the conditions in the countryside
in Zimbabwe and has smuggled it out of the
country to show what is really happening there.
Chakaipa’s video shows that gold has become
the currency of the poorest people in Zimbabwe.
A loaf of bread costs 0.1 gram of gold on the
street there. That is surprisingly close to the price
of bread in the United States.
Zimbabwe’s tragic example demonstrates where
the Obama Administration’s path of nationalizing
failed companies will eventually lead. It also shows
us that in the most dire of conditions, people resort
back to gold as the medium of exchange for basic
necessities.
DGC Magazine April 2009 Issue § 35