ZIMBABWE
Humana People-to-People Headquarters
Support from Robert Mugabe
and ZANU-PF.
Friends Forever scheme. Landholdings, farms and property.
HUMANA: THE MUGABE CONNECTION
Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean dictator, has supported and protected Humana People-to-People and the Teachers Group for more than 30 years. And Humana has supported him.
The relationship began in the 1970s, during the guerrilla war for independence. Amdi Petersen, left wing leader of the Danish Tvind movement, visited southern Africa and offered support to Mugabe and his ZANU-PF ‘freedom fighters’.
The first donations of free second hand clothes ever made by Humana People-to-People, in around 1978, were to ZANU-PF fighters in Zimbabwe, and its first schools in Africa were built shortly afterwards for refugees returning from ZANU-PF camps in Mozambique.
When Mugabe became president of independent Zimbabwe in 1980 he returned the favour. It is thought likely he arranged for the Teachers Group to acquire land and plantations on preferential terms and to take a big stake in the new country’s school system.
In 1998, Humana People-to-People moved its international headquarters from Europe to an ultra-modern, purpose-built building in Shamva, Zimbabwe. It was officially opened by President Mugabe in October 1998.
HUMANA PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE HQ, SHAMVA
See a slideshow of the Shamva HQ
The Humana People-to-People HQ at Shamva, 90 kilometres north east of Harare, is a grandiose modernist building set in an isolated spot in the bush. According to reports, Amdi Petersen told architects to make it ’so big you can see it from the moon’.
The complex covers 4,400 square metres and is surrounded by agricultural land, forests and plantation, reptedly with its own its own wild animal reserve. It is in the heart of the most fertile and productive area of Zimbabwe.
It is a striking building, with a tall ‘campanile’ tower, conference hall for 200 people, a fountain court and roofed patios, decorated with ochre tiles and blue wall mosaics. The multi-million dollare complex was designed by a Danish supporter of Tvind, Jan Utzon, the architect of several other Tvind buildings.
We believe it is no coincidence that Humana relocated its ‘World HQ’ from Denmark to Zimbabwe at around the same time as it came under scrutiny in Denmark. What will happen when Mugabe is no longer in power? We believe the Teachers Group has already made plans to relocate its Humana People-to-People HQ again: to a giant complex on the Mexican coast, San Juan de las Pulgas. See our Mexico page.
In October 1998, Mugabe officially opened the Humana People-to-People headquarters in Shamva in an elaborate ceremony. Read Mugabe’s speech.
Forward with the Majority Government
Forward with ZANU PF
Forward with HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE
Forward with unity
Forward with the upgrading of all the races
Down with laziness
AMDI PETERSEN IN ZIMBABWE
The (mostly white) members of the Teachers Group appear to enjoy a privileged position in Zimbabwe society. Unlike many other ‘white farmers’, their land has never been invaded by army veterans. Teachers Group members pass freely without immigration formalities at Harare airport, according to one report.
‘Bwana Amdi’
Danish journalist Louise Windfeld-Høeberg saw Amdi Petersen in Zimbabwe and observed the treatment of TG members at Harare airport. She says the Teachers Group leader has the status and privileges of a ‘tribal chief’ in Africa.
At Harare airport, Petersen and his entourage did not have to observe immigration formalities and were whisked through customs to a waiting motorcade, like VIPs. In an article in the Danish newspaper Weekendavisen, Windfeld-Høeberg said Petersen and girlfriend Kirsten Larsen are granted privileges given to only a few other whites, such as special treatment at hospitals.
In the same article, Windfeld-Høeberg said governments throughout southern Africa regard ‘Bwana Amdi’ as a hero, not a fraudster. “He is the experienced, powerful and energetic leader of a steadily growing tribe of subjects. And the continent’s rulers love him,” she wrote.
“Most striking of all is Amdi’s relation to Zimbabwe’s leader, Robert Mugabe. Those two practically grew up together.” (‘Bwana Amdi’, Weekendavisen, 1st September 2006)
‘Diplomatic passport’
Separately, there has been speculation that Amdi Petersen travels freely through international airports on a Zimbabwe diplomatic passport. This is unconformed.
According to unconfirmed reports from inside Zimbabwe, Petersen is a frequent visitor to Shamva, where he and other senior Teachers Group members stay in a special ‘Teachers Group residential complex’ with its own locally-recruited staff and high quality facilities.
Avenues Clinic, Harare
Reports from inside Zimbabwe link Amdi Petersen personally with Avenues clinic, Harare. These reports are unconfirmed. Avenues clinic is an expensive, fee-paying 100-bed private clinic owned, according to our informant, by four white businessmen. Amdi Petersen is said to be one of the owners and majority shareholder.
The clinic is said to run a special section at a different location reserved for Teachers Group members from Shamva. It is most likely this section where Amdi Petersen was treated when he fell ill in Zimbabwe during his 2002-2006 trial. These statements need corroborating.
FRIENDS FOREVER
How the Teachers Group exploits Zimbabwe artists
At first sight it may seem like a ‘humanitarian cause’. Friends Forever is a business scheme to sell sculptures by struggling Zimbabwean artists to rich art-lovers and businesses in the developed world. It is promoted from Zimbabwe by the Teachers Group, through a business, exhibitions and a web site.
However, like many other TG ‘humanitarian causes’, there is a catch. Friends Forever is highly profitable, but investigations show that most of the large sums made by the art sales go to the Teachers Group and not to the artists or to any humanitarian work.
Here is how it works. Specially-commissioned art from Zimbabwe is put up for sale by the Teachers Group in exhibitions in world cities and on the Internet. The prices are sky-high – up to 10,000 euros for a single stone sculpture. Shows have been staged in the USA, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy and the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow.
Wealthy collectors might imagine their purchase is helping a struggling Zimbabwean, or contributing to aid for Africa. Friends Forever, the company behind the scheme, makes much of its association with Humana People-to-People. Sculpture sales have been put on by, among others, Humana Italy and Humana Spain. Its website friendsforeverzimbabwe.com makes many references to Humana.
But when we investigated, we found there was no specific mention on Friends Forever’s website of a humanitarian purpose or any undertaking to use the proceeds for development aid. It is inconceivable that a Zimbabwean artist living in Zimbabwe would be paid a five-figure dollar sum for a sculpture. Most likely, we believe, the Teachers Group is keeping most of the money for itself.
A numner of explicit clues show conclusively that the scheme is promoted directly by the Teachers Group. The Zimbabwean-registered company is based at Shamva, the same place as Humana’s HQ. The Friends Forever website is registered in Denmark by a Teachers Group company, e-advice, at the Tvind headquarters in Jutland.
The Teachers Group member in charge of Friends Forever is Sune Jørgensen (seen here on the right), president of the Tvind Arts Association of March 85.
Jørgensen recently said about two thirds of the money raised by Friends Forever is spent on ‘administrative costs’ – that is, retained by the Teachers Group – with the rest devoted to ‘health insurance for the Zimbabwe artists’. It looks very much like another money-making scheme for the Teachers Group, masquerading as ‘aid for the needy’.
ZIMBABWE LANDHOLDINGS
Leaders of the Tvind Teachers Group have been described as ‘the last white farmers’ in Zimbabwe. The TG certainly owns large agricultural estates in Mashonaland, a fertile area north of Harare. Holdings include large eucalyptus plantations and farms producing maize, cassava and paprika.
The main plantation is at the Shamva Estate (pictured left, with Humana HQ building).
‘Aid projects’
Some of this land is presented as ‘agricultural aid’ and a part of the Zimbabwe government’s ‘land redistribution’ programme. Poor and landless Africans rent plots where they practise farming techniques. We do not know exactly what the financial arrangements are with the Teachers Group for providing seed and harvesting or who profits.
No other supposed development agency owns and profits from so much land in Africa – the usual model is to provide advice and funding, not own land. And in this case there appears to have been precious little ‘land redistribution’.
A visitor to the Shamva Estate in around 2000, ‘Henry’ – who is an expert on development issues working as a consultant to multinational companies – told us he considered the ‘aid project’ there a showpiece, that in fact created dependency among local African people and was of limited benefit to them.
The land was divided into 10-hectare plots in what appeared to be a prosperous and efficient farm, apparently the result of Zimbabwe’s land reform programme – but in reality controlled by Europeans from the Teachers Group (through DAPP Zimbabwe).
“The size of the land holdings told me all I need to know: 10 hectares cannot be weeded or tended by hand by one family unit. Of course DAPP provided both tractor ploughing services at cost on a communal basis and a light truck to take produce to Harare. Tractors, trucks, water supply, seed supply, fertiliser, fertiliser storage, school and clinic are all effectively controlled by European staff,” ‘Henry’ said. Read Henry’s story.
SCHOOLS
Frontline Institute opened by Mugabe, 1993
The Frontline Institute (above left), near Shamva, is one of several Teachers Group colleges in Zimbabwe. It was officially opened by President Robert Mugabe in 1993 (above right).
Ponesai Vanhu funding
Fee-paying technical college run by DAPP Zimbabwe. Students pay their own fees. We visited this college in 1999. It was interesting to note it was then jointly funded with other donors including the Mashonaland Central Development Association (above centre) and the American Embassy in Harare (above right), among others. In its investigation into DAPP in Zambia in 1998-9, the UK Charity Commission concluded that DAPP Zambia projects were probably ‘double funded’ – ie paid for by more than one donor, creating a hidden surplus.
WITNESS
Mike’s story (Zimbabwe, 1982-84). How 25 young DAPP volunteers were kicked off a Humana project, abandoned, and forcibly repatriated by the Zimbabwian authorities, with help from a good samaritan.
LINKS
See a slideshow of the Humana People-to-People HQ at Shamva
Do you have information about Zimbabwe? Email us
Last revised 10th March 2010
