Zimbabwe farmers flee, start over

Mozambique has little of the natural mineral wealth of its neighbors and, after years of war, few of the luxuries of modern life. But to white Zimbabwe farmers fleeing turmoil in their homeland, the rich, red soil of the former Portuguese colony's western provinces looks like gold.

Many of the dozen or so families who have come to hew new lives from the overgrown ruins of Mozambique's colonial-era plantations, lost their farms in neighboring Zimbabwe in the last two years of political violence.

One man watched as his timber farm was burned by squatters. Another, who had supported the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), fled to Mozambique in fear of his life after several death threats left him sleeping with a gun beneath his head.

"Zimbabwe didn't look very bright, so we came here to try to make a go of it," says Brendon Evans, whose family recently started Manica province's first dairy. "If we can find security in Africa, then that's the place for us. We've lived our whole lives here."

Zimbabwe, once one of Southern Africa's most stable and prosperous countries, has been engulfed by violence since early 2000. President Robert Mugabe, in a bid to garner popular support in the country's parliamentary elections, began backing bands of squatters who invaded white-owned farms, driving off or even killing the farmers and their families. The invasions crippled the agricultural sector and led to widespread hunger and hyperinflation.

Next week, Zimbabwe will hold its long-awaited presidential elections, but few believe that they will be free and fair. Attacks against opposition supporters - and any one suspected of being one, including election observers from neighboring African countries - have increased in frequency and severity.

In Zimbabwe, Mr. Evans helped work the farm of his wife's family. Their dairy and corn farm was one of the first to be invaded and the family was forced to abandon their property for six weeks. Although the squatters are now gone, they could return, but the future in Mozambique looks more secure.

These days, the Evans family sleeps in a cold, unpainted, concrete house. It's not quite the frontier - they are close enough to Chimoio that a cell-phone hung on the patio still rings - but the five miles of potholed dirt road over which they must take their milk to market becomes nearly unpassable when it rains.

Uncertain of their future in Zimbabwe, one by one, families like the Evans's are picking up and moving to countries such as Mozambique, Zambia, and even war-torn Angola to start again.

Mozambique, devastated by decades of war - first for independence and later by a 16-year civil conflict - is welcoming these experienced farmers to help it build a commercial agriculture sector. But many of the basic necessities, such as reliable telephones, well-paved roads, and experienced laborers, are in short supply.

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