On the eve of the formation of a unity government in Zimbabwe, WIDE ANGLE interviews Mahmood Mamdani, a Ugandan-born professor of government at Columbia University and an expert on African Studies. Named one of the world’s Top 20 Public Intellectuals by Foreign Policy magazine in 2008, Mamdani recently published “Lessons of Zimbabwe” in the London Review of Books, about the origins of the Zimbabwean crisis.

Here, Mamdani reflects on how President Robert Mugabe has stayed in power for close to three decades, the land reform program Mugabe launched in 2000 to both maintain popularity and redress racial inequalities in farm ownership, and the subsequent collapse of Zimbabwe’s agricultural system. Mamdani also explains why he believes that the new power-sharing agreement between President Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is the best way forward.