Tired of waiting for promised compensation for their forced expropriation 25 years ago, aging white Zimbabwean farmers are trying to involve the Trump administration to pressure President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government.

Four groups of former large white landowners hired an American lobbying firm at the end of 2025 in the hope of obtaining their compensation payments, according to documents made public by the US administration.

Under the leadership of Emmerson Mnangagwa, keen to loosen the grip of international sanctions on the country, the Zimbabwean government signed an agreement in 2020 with white farmers providing for $3.5 billion in compensation.

But, burdened by a public debt of $21 billion, the government changed the method of compensation, now consisting of 1% paid in cash, the rest in Zimbabwean Treasury bonds denominated in US dollars and carrying an interest of 2%.

According to Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, nearly 1,000 farmers have signed the agreement, some out of sheer weariness. However, the process remains rather opaque and very slow, and many other farmers have refused the new compensation method, demanding full payment in cash.

"External intervention is not necessarily a bad thing," the minister told AFP regarding the American company Mercury Public Affairs, contracted by the white farmers.

In the early 2000s, some 4,000 of the 4,500 large white landowners at the time were evicted from their land in favor of black farmers, on the orders of the government of Robert Mugabe, who was forced to resign in 2017.

This initiative had the stated objective of correcting the inequalities inherited from British colonization. However, poorly organized, this land reform benefited those close to the regime or farmers without equipment or training, causing a sudden collapse in production and plunging the country's economy into a catastrophic crisis.

- Elderly farmers -

"We are determined to pay and if they (the farmers) try to make us pay through other people, we have no problem with that," says Mthuli Ncube.

"We already pay anyway and we would like to pay faster," the minister assured.

According to a document published on the website of the US Department of Justice, the four groups of farmers intend, through the lobbying group, to obtain their "full compensation".

The company is tasked with approaching the Trump administration "to promote the payment of the remaining $3.5 billion owed to Zimbabwean farmers," according to the same document. This involves exploring new sources of funding from international institutions such as the World Bank.

Many of the expropriated farmers are now in their seventies or even eighties and their financial situation is sometimes precarious, according to Harry Orphanides, representing one of the four groups that approached the American firm.

"This is a tough test for farmers, especially for those who are elderly and have no other source of income, since they depended exclusively on agriculture," Orphanides told AFP.

The compensation promised in 2020 was intended to compensate farmers for infrastructure, including buildings and irrigation systems, and not for the value of their land. Zimbabwe maintains that this land was seized by white settlers to the detriment of local populations.

- "Riskful outlook" -

Securing intervention from the US government "could depend on whether there is something Trump wants from Zimbabwe," explains international law specialist Siphosami Malunga.

"The new American foreign policy in Africa is (now) more transactional," he notes.

The case is morally and legally complex because the crimes related to colonization, including land grabbing, have not themselves been subject to compensation.

At the same time, he notes, the white farmers "were promised compensation which has still not been paid and they have the right to fight to obtain it."

"If the Trump administration takes up this issue, it will certainly seek to obtain something in return," says political scientist Nicole Beardsworth, seeing it as "a risky prospect."

Zimbabwe's significant mineral resources could be at the heart of the discussions and this could lead, she said, to "unforeseen consequences that far exceed the compensation demanded" by the farmers.