Before President (for Life) Mugabe began illegally seizing land that belonged to white Zimbabweans and redistributing it willy-nilly to his supporters, Zimbabwe was known as the breadbasket of Southern Africa. Hyperlink. And please do not misconstrue my opposition to Mugabe's autocracy as fondness for Ian Smith's Apartheidesque white minority government. I only hope that some day soon the people of Zimbabwe, all the people of Zimbabwe, get a government worthy of them.