Mike Campbell - the man who took on Mugabe
Director ANDREW THOMPSON is used to filming in hostile environments, but that was no preparation for the risks involved in making his feature-length documentary MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN in Zimbabwe.
The film follows Mike Campbell, a 74-year-old farmer who dares to take Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to an international court over the country’s ‘Land Reform’ policy.
Set against the backdrop of the 2008 presidential elections, Mugabe and the White African is a powerful tale of one man’s fight for justice in the face of incredible violence.
Thompson talks to film journalist Jan Gilbert about press bans, the power of film, and Zimbabwe’s future.
MMM: How did you hear about the Campbell family?
Thompson: Lucy [Bailey], the co-director, and I found them really by accident, but I think as filmmakers you’re always on the lookout for good ways of telling a story and when we heard Mike’s story we both knew it would be a good story.
We were both working filming in South Africa for Comic Relief and we saw refugees from Zimbabwe pouring over the border into South Africa. And obviously with the press we’d read we were aware of the situation in Zimbabwe and we’d both filmed and travelled in the country in the 90s.
We were always on the lookout for a good way of telling the story of what was happening inside Zimbabwe and it was while we were talking to friends in South Africa on that Comic Relief shoot that we caught wind of this extraordinary court case of this one man, Mike Campbell, challenging President Mugabe to the SADC [international] court.
MMM: What was their response when you approached them?
Thompson: Very positive. I got in touch with Ben Freeth [Campbell's son-in-law] via email and he suggested we meet for the set-down in the court case, which is right at the beginning of the film, which we shot in 2007. I jumped on a plane with a small camera and hired a sound recordist locally and met them in Windhoek.
We spent a couple of days together and it was clear immediately that Mike and Ben would work well as characters because, regardless of how strong a story you have if you haven’t got strong characters to sell that story it would fall flat.
Ben and Mike were very approachable. Ben refers to publicity as the soul of all justice… I don’t think it makes it into the final cut of the film… but I think they felt if there was a film made about this case, it would, at a personal level, if anything nasty was to happen to them it would happen on the world stage, but on a public level, this is the first court case to be heard by the SADC tribunal and it sets a precedent for the whole region. This wasn’t a court case just about them protecting their farm and their farm workers; this was about justice, rule of law, and human rights in the whole region.
MMM: Filming this story in Zimbabwe wasn’t an easy task for you and your crew. Tell me about the challenges you faced.
Thompson: There was a total press ban. The risks of filming didn’t escape our attention. We were very worried about how we were going to make a film, a large part of which was going to be filmed inside Zimbabwe.
Lucy and myself have both worked inside hostile environments before in our TV work and we had good contacts in the southern African region who could assist us getting in and out of Zimbabwe safely, but it was pretty hairy. We would smuggle ourselves and our kit in to the country using different border crossing. We’d hide gear welded into jerry cans and underneath car bonnets.
It was important for us to take a proper camera and sound gear into the country. We didn’t want to make a low res film on smaller cameras. But that made our lives much more difficult to get the kit in.
When we started out making the film we hoped it would be one short sharp trip into Zimbabwe before the court case and maybe one more after the case. But because the court case got so involved intertwined with the general election, I went in and out 5 or 6 times. And because of the general election, it was that much more dangerous to be on the roads as there were increased security checkpoints.
There was always a knock on the door from the CIO – the secret police out there – a couple of days after I’d left Mike’s farm, saying a British film crew had been spotted and wanting to know where they were now. It was a case of staying one step ahead all the time really.
MMM: You’ve said before that of all the hostile environments you’ve filmed in, Zimbabwe was the most dangerous.
Thompson: I’ve filmed in Iraq and Afghanistan and I suppose the thing about those places is that you know who your enemy is… it’s the person that’s shooting at you. In Zimbabwe, there’s a ‘cloud of fear’, as Ben calls it. It’s very oppressive and you’re not sure who’s on what side.
Everyone’s looking over their shoulder, and that’s exactly what Mugabe wants to instil in people. If people are scared you’ve got control.
It’s a very scary place, largely because you’re not sure who’s friend or foe. That’s what Mike and Ben have found living out there. You can be in church on Sunday morning sat next to a gentleman who the next day is demanding your farm from you with armed thugs at the door.
MMM: You mentioned that the secret police were always on your tail in Zimbabwe. Obviously they know there was a film crew out there, but do they know about the form the film’s taken, and has there been any response from the regime?
Thompson: They were obviously aware we were filming in Namibia, where we filmed the Zimbabwean defence in the court case.
And from the moment we started making the film we did make approaches to the Zimbabwean government for their response and their side of the argument but we got letters of refusal constantly or we were ignored. They are aware of the film and if you go online you can see the government’s response to the film.
We gave them a chance to have their say, which they refused, but I think the Zimbabwean defence team walking out of that final court case pretty much sums up the Zimbabwean position.
MMM: What’s the situation now with Mike and Ben?
Thompson: They’re kind of living as refugees in their own country. Mike is living in a safe house and is very poorly. Ben and Laura and the children managed to find accommodation in the local town and got the bare bones of the linen business up and running.
The linen business is vital, you see it at the start of the film, as it was a great source of employment for the wives of the farm workers and a source of income for the family. Ben and his family have subsequently been moved on from that town. The house they were renting was owned by another farmer who got turfed off his farm. So now Ben and Laura and the children are in a safe house.
Those farm workers who lived on the farm site saw their houses destroyed when Mike and Ben’s farm was burned down in September last year. And the efforts to get the linen business up and running have collapsed as well. It’s a terrible story for all involved. It’s another 500 farm workers who are sat unemployed and without homes.
This has been repeated since 1990 throughout Zimbabwe which is why you’ve got one million dispossessed black Zimbabwean farm workers currently in Zimbabwe or trying to get over the border into South Africa.
MMM: What do you think will happen next?
Thompson: It’s very complicated. It was always our promise to Ben and Mike that we would get this film out to people who could genuinely make a difference in Zimbabwe.
From our Comic Relief campaign film background, Lucy and I are very aware that films can make a real difference to people’s lives.
We’ve spent a huge amount of time and resources getting the film seen by governments in the West and the SADC region. Whether or not they’re going to do anything is the crunch question really. What the film has been useful in doing is getting all the right people in the room at once. And it’s a really good talking point for them.
It’s very difficult for the West to get involved as you fall into the Mugabe trap of neo-colonialism and the finger of racism is pointed at them. I think ultimately the answer for what happens in Zimbabwe will have to come from Africa itself and, crucially, from within that SADC region.
I think that’s why the tribunal, and Mike’s was the first case they heard, is so crucial to the region because it’s there representing all those citizens of all those 14 SADC nations and it really does set a precedent for the rule of law, democracy, and human rights, whether or not governments want to pay attention to those international rules is clearly down to them. Zimbabwe has washed their hands of the SADC judgement. South Africa, interestingly, have recognised it.
But what do you do? How do you force someone like Mugabe to recognise a ruling by an international court that has declared his land reform programme, which has been in action since 1990, illegal?
But I do think the answer has to come from within Africa, and I think South Africa is the key to the problems inside Zimbabwe.
MMM: How do you and Mike view the future for Zimbabwe?
Thompson: Zimbabwe is lurching towards another election, which is likely to happen in 2011, and that will be a very interesting time indeed. At the moment we have the Unity Government, so the situation has changed since we were filming in 2008.
But we’re in touch with Ben regularly, the situation on the ground in Zimbabwe is every bit as bad as it was in 2008, if not worse, and they are heading for very bloody elections indeed.
I don’t think Mugabe is going to want to concede power. It’s up to the MDC to form an effective opposition which is very difficult to do when they are in part with the Unity Government, obviously Morgan Tsvangirai is Prime Minister.
Ben and Mike remain hopeful. That’s all you can really cling on to when you’re out there. They’ve got nowhere else to go; it’s home. You either fight the system and fight for what’s right or you sit on your hands and let yourself get bullied.
You can always draw parallels with countries like Uganda under Idi Amin. Mugabe’s not going to be in power forever. It will just be interesting to see how he loses power and whether he does it by the ballot or the bullet.
MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN IS OUT ON DVD NOW.
