Benjamin Freeth,
MBE Mbe may refer to:
* Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo
* Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria
* Mbe language, a language of Nigeria
* Mbe' language, language of Cameroon
* ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language
Molal ...
(born c. 1971) is a
white Zimbabwean
White Zimbabweans are people in Zimbabwe who are of Europeans, European descent. In Natural language, linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, these Zimbabweans of European ethnic groups, European ethnic origin are mostly English-speaking w ...
farmer and human rights activist from the district of
Chegutu
Chegutu (formerly Hartley) is a town in Mashonaland West Province, Zimbabwe.
Location
The town is located in Chegutu District, Mashonaland West, in central northern Zimbabwe. It lies in the Hartley Hills , southwest of the capital Harare at ...
in
Mashonaland West Province
Mashonaland West is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 57,441 km² and a population of approximately 1.5 million (2012). Chinhoyi is the capital of the province.
Districts
Mashonaland West is divided into 7 districts:
* Chegutu
* ...
, Zimbabwe. Together with his father-in-law,
Mike Campbell, he rose to international prominence after 2008 for suing the regime of
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the ...
for violating rule of law and human rights in Zimbabwe. Freeth and Campbell's lawsuit against the Mugabe regime—''the case of
Mike Campbell (Pvt) Ltd and Others v Republic of Zimbabwe''—was chronicled in the award-winning 2009 documentary film ''
Mugabe and the White African
''Mugabe and the White African'' is a 2009 documentary film by Lucy Bailey & Andrew Thompson and produced by David Pearson & Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock. It has won many awards including the Grierson 2010 and been BAFTA and Emmy Nominated. The film ...
''.
Background
Freeth was born in
Sittingbourne
Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...
, England, United Kingdom, the son of a British military family. After the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980, the family relocated to the country where Freeth's father had been hired by the Zimbabwean government to set up a new staff training college for the newly established national army. Freeth attended
Aiglon College
Aiglon College is a private co-educational boarding school in Switzerland, broadly modelled on British boarding school lines. It is an independent, non-profit school located in the Swiss Alps. It is located 60 km from Lausanne in the alpine vil ...
and went on to study at the
Royal Agricultural College
;(from Virgil's Georgics)"Caring for the Fieldsand the Beasts"
, established = 2013 - University status – College
, type = Public
, president = King Charles
, vice_chancellor = Peter McCaffery
, students ...
in Gloucestershire, England. He then returned to Zimbabwe and married Laura Campbell, the daughter of
White African
White Africans of European ancestry refers to people in Africa who can trace full or partial ancestry to Europe. In 1989, there were an estimated 4.6 million white people with European ancestry on the African continent. Most are of Dutch, Portugu ...
farmer Mike Campbell and his wife Angela. The Freeths built a house on the Campbells' Mount Carmel estate in Chegutu and Freeth eventually became an official with the Commercial Farmers' Union. The couple have three children.
During the early-1970s, Campbell, a
South African Army captain, was involved in the
Rhodesian Bush War
The Rhodesian Bush War, also called the Second as well as the Zimbabwe War of Liberation, was a civil conflict from July 1964 to December 1979 in the unrecognised country of Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe-Rhodesia).
The conflict pitted three for ...
that pitted
Rhodesia's White minority government against Black nationalist guerrillas. He moved to Mount Carmel farm in 1974. He added a neighbouring plot of land in 1980, following Zimbabwean independence. As well as farming, Campbell set up an extensive nature reserve on the property, replete with giraffes,
impala and other indigenous animals. He also created the Biri River Safari Lodge, which became a popular tourist attraction.
[Mike Campbell Obituary – ''The Telegraph'']
/ref>
Campbell purchased Mount Carmel from himself after independence (the full title was vested in 1999, when the Zimbabwean government declared no interest in the land). Together, Freeth and Mike Campbell managed the farm's operations and employed a sizeable number of local farm labourers while Laura oversaw a linen factory on the estate which employed many of the farm workers' wives.[Mike Campbell Obituary – ''The Guardian''](_blank)
/ref>
The Mount Carmel estate was described as a model employer. By the late-1990s, it had become the largest mango producer in Zimbabwe. It also produced maize, tobacco and sunflowers and sustained the livelihoods of more than 500 local Zimbabwean people. In 1999, ownership of the farm was transferred into a family company by a "certificate of no interest" from the Mugabe government. Every farm bought after independence in 1980 had to be offered to the government first for possible land redistribution and then deeds were stamped "No Government Interest" if the government did not wish to purchase it.[
]
Lawsuit against Robert Mugabe
In 2001, however, the Freeths and Campbells were issued an eviction notice from the Government of Zimbabwe as part of Mugabe's controversial land reform programme. Under this programme, several thousand white-owned farms have been repossessed without compensation by the Zimbabwean government. While the stated intention of the programme is to redistribute land to disadvantaged Zimbabweans, many of the repossessed lands have in fact been given to government officials and others loyal to the Mugabe regime. Subsequently, many of these farms have fallen into disrepair and are no longer active.
Freeth and Campbell chose to dispute the eviction order in court. After having been defeated in the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe
The Supreme Court of Zimbabwe is the highest court of order and the final court of appeal in Zimbabwe.
The judiciary is headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who, like the other justices, is appointed by the President on the advice o ...
, they took their case to the SADC Tribunal, a regional court of the Southern African Development Community
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana.
Its goal is to further regional socio-economic cooperation and integration as well as political and security coopera ...
. During the course of the case, Freeth, together with Mike and Angela Campbell, was abducted and beaten by Mugabe supporters. The tribunal eventually ruled in Freeth and Campbell's favour, finding that the Zimbabwean government's land repossessions were entirely racially based and, therefore, were in violation of the SADC's principles of human rights. The government of Zimbabwe was ordered to respect Freeth and Campbell's right to own and operate their farm.
The Mugabe government ignored the ruling and later withdrew Zimbabwe from the SADC. In August 2009, the Mount Carmel estate was invaded by Mugabe supporters and Freeth and Campbell's homes were burned down, as were the homes of the farm's workers and their families. The Freeths and Campbells, as well as their workers, were driven from the property. As of 2011, the Mount Carmel estate has become derelict and overgrown. Mike Campbell died in April 2011, though Freeth has stated his intention to continue fighting to take back ownership of the property.
Honours
In June 2010, Freeth was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
by Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
in recognition of his human rights activism in Zimbabwe.Zimbabwean Farmer Awarded MBE – ''The Zimbabwean''
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeth, Ben
1971 births
Living people
Zimbabwean farmers
Zimbabwean prisoners and detainees
Prisoners and detainees of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean human rights activists
Zimbabwean torture victims
People from Mashonaland West Province
British emigrants to Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean people of English descent
People from Sittingbourne
Members of the Order of the British Empire
Racially motivated violence against white people in Africa
Alumni of Aiglon College