The Zimbabwean government is reportedly set to start returning land which seized from white farmers during the Mugabe era. In the 1980s, some 4500 farms were expropriated without compensation from white farmers to approximately 300 000 Black Zimbabweans shortly after independence. The fertile agricultural land had originally been seized by British colonialists in what was then known as Rhodesia. According to several reports, the Zimbabwean government has recently signed a USD 3.5 billion compensation agreement with white farmers both in the country and abroad.