The Lancaster House Constitutional Conference held in 1979, where Zimbabwe was granted its independence, was the beginning of a neocolonial Zimbabwe, says Prof. Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, a historian and decolonial/postcolonial theorist.
"What was negotiated was that the white settlers were supposed to be secured, particularly the land and in order to be given independence, you needed to make the commitment that you won't victimize the white minority settlers."
The innovations introduced by the European colonizers, such as medicine, roads and hospitals, were "not meant really to benefit the people," the professor argues, when asked about the need for these technological innovations introduced to the local population by the "colonizers."
"It was meant for white settler colonialism. People that benefited from that infrastructure, it was incidental, it was not actually the intention."
Moving on to the contemporary period, Ndlovu-Gatsheni notes that the harsh sanction regime imposed by the West on Zimbabwe came about in particular due to fears of a "ripple effect" on the continent that former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's land reforms could have caused.
For more insights, check out the whole episode of the AfroVerdict podcast with its regular host Viktor Anokhin brought to you by Sputnik Africa!