Graca Machel has condemned Britain for taking a patronising "big brother" attitude to its former colonies, the Guardian newspaper reports.

In an interview with the Guardian, the wife of former SA president Nelson Mandela, warned British politicians to "keep quiet" about countries such as Zimbabwe and let African diplomacy take its course.

She said the crisis in Zimbabwe revealed the inadequacy of “a persistent imperialist mindset.”

She is quoted as saying: "When a nation is independent, there is no big brother. They are partners. Part of the reason why Britain finds it difficult to accept Zimbabwe is precisely because that relationship of a big brother is influencing [efforts] to try to understand."

Britain has imposed travel restrictions and asset freezes on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his political and business allies. This move has defied calls from South Africa to end these measures for the sake of the power sharing agreement between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).