The concept of freedom is not new; it has been an idea that previous generations have sought with passion and determination. The first European settlers in the United States were people fleeing religious persecution in Europe, so were some of the first settlers in the Cape. It was this motive, amongst others, that drove the Afrikaners to set out from the secure confines of the Cape to undertake a great trek into the remote hinterland of Africa where they sought freedom.
In turn, the people they oppressed as they occupied new lands, sought freedom in a struggle that took on political and even military form. The very freedoms the Afrikaners desired from the British, they in turn denied the indigenous people they displaced and subjugated. In the United States the settlers swamped the indigenous peoples and in their turn not only denied them their own rights, but nearly wiped them out.
Today the struggle for real freedom is less obvious but is still an important issue. In my view the modern Africans struggle for freedom has more to do with property rights today than political rights. The latter struggle is won, the former is still with us and it is in this context that the current farm invasions in Zimbabwe must be seen.
The greatest threat to African progress today is the near universal denial of individual ownership rights to property that characterises traditional society. The roots lie deeply imbedded in a culture where Chiefs hold the title to the land and made use of this to establish their power and authority. The fragile ecosystems that dominate the majority of the land surface of the continent meant that communities had to move when the land they were using became exhausted and over grazed. Few communities built permanent homes - they did not own them and anyway, in a few years time they knew they would have to move on to new, virgin land.
Such socio economic systems were fine so long as there was ample land available and no fences. This changed with colonialism as arbitrary boundaries were drawn in the sand and then settlers started to fence the land they claimed as their own. Cultures that lived by roaming over vast swathes of country as nomads and military raiding parties (the Zulus and the Ndebele) found themselves hemmed in and facing new untenable restrictions. The introduction of the modern economy and health systems led to rising populations and these soon outstripped the capacity of the land to carry the burden of traditional agricultural practices.
The marauding Impis of Africa went to war with the settlers only to be cut down and defeated by the Maxim gun and superior technology. The villages settled down and resigned themselves to living on pieces of land that were too small to sustain their forms of agriculture. They slid into poverty, relieved only by the dispatch of sons and daughters to the cities of gold where they earned money that they could send back to the village to help sustain life. The migrant labour system of life became the norm and the rural African family followed the village into poverty.