Michael "Mike" Campbell was a white African farmer from the district of Chegutu

Chegutu

Chegutu is a town in the Mashonaland West province, northern Zimbabwe and is 110km southwest of Harare on the main Harare-Bulawayo road . According to the 1992 Population Census, the town had a population of 30,191...

 in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

 (formerly Southern Rhodesia

Southern Rhodesia

Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...

/Rhodesia

Rhodesia

Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...

). Together with his son-in-law Ben Freeth

Ben Freeth

Benjamin "Ben" Freeth, MBE is a British-born White Zimbabwean farmer and human rights activist from the district of Chegutu in Mashonaland West Province, Zimbabwe. Together with his father-in-law, Mike Campbell, he rose to international prominence after 2008 for suing the regime of Zimbabwean...

, he rose to international prominence for suing the regime of Robert Mugabe

Robert Mugabe

Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...

 of violating rule of law and human rights in Zimbabwe, in the case of Mike Campbell (Pvt) Ltd and Others v Republic of Zimbabwe

Mike Campbell (Pvt) Ltd and Others v Republic of Zimbabwe

Mike Campbell Ltd et al. v. Republic of Zimbabwe is a case decided by the Southern African Development Community Tribunal...

. His struggle was the subject of an award-winning documentary, Mugabe and the White African

Mugabe and the White African

Mugabe and the White African is a 2009 documentary film by Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson. The film documents the lives of a white family who run a farm in Chegutu, Zimbabwe, as they challenge the land redistribution programme that seizes white-owned farms beginning in 2000...

.

Background

Campbell's family have been farmers in Africa for 300 years. He considered himself to be African

African people

African people refers to natives, inhabitants, or citizen of Africa and to people of African descent.-Etymology:Many etymological hypotheses that have been postulated for the ancient name "Africa":...

.

Mount Carmel

Campbell bought the farm Mount Carmel in 1980, after Zimbabwe's independence. The 3,000-acre farm near Chegutu (Hartley), located 80 miles south-west of Harare, employed around 500 people and was a centre of agriculture, wildlife and tourism. Campbell was an early conservationist, concerned with maintaining the African wildlife.

After Mugabe's invaders took over Campbell's farm, they burnt down the safari lodge and farmstead and killed all the cattle and wildlife on the farm. Malaria then spread into the region killed 11 workers, and Campbell's pregnant daughter-in-law. Campbell's hundreds of workers lost their jobs. Campbell's farm manager and other workers were arrested and tortured by the police after they attempted to defend the farm.