Ben Freeth

Benjamin "Ben" Freeth, MBE (born c. 1971) is a 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 President Robert Mugabe for violating rule of law and human rights in Zimbabwe. Freeth and Campbell's lawsuit against the Mugabe regime—the case of Mike Campbell (Pvt) Ltd and Others v Republic of Zimbabwe—was chronicled in the award-winning 2009 documentary film Mugabe and the White African.

Freeth was born in Sittingbourne, Kent in southern England, the son of a British military family. After the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980, the family relocated to the country where Freeth's father had been hired by the Zimbabwean government to set up a new staff training college for the newly established national army. Freeth went on to study at the Royal Agricultural College in Gloucestershire, England. He then returned to Zimbabwe and married Laura Campbell, the daughter of white African farmer Mike Campbell and his wife Angela. The Freeths built a house on the Campbells' 30,000 acres (12,000 ha) Mount Carmel estate in Chegutu and Freeth eventually became an official with the Commercial Farmers' Union. They are the parents of three children.

During the early 1970s, Campbell, a South African Army captain, was involved in the Rhodesian Bush War that pitted Rhodesia's mostly white government against black nationalist guerrillas. He moved to Mount Carmel farm in 1974. He added a neighbouring plot of land in 1980, following Zimbabwean independence. As well as farming, Campbell set up an extensive nature reserve on the property, replete with giraffes, impala and other indigenous animals. He also created the Biri River Safari Lodge, which became a popular tourist attraction.

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