Robert Mugabe. Hailed as an anti-colonialist hero; despisedas an autocrat and dictator. At the time of this video production, RobertMugabe has just recently died, aged 95, after 37 years as the Prime Minister, and then President,of Zimbabwe. The news of his death had barely become publicwhen many of you asked us to cover his life story and career. Here, we’ve obliged. Robert Mugabe’s rise to power is a similarstory to that of many rulers in the de-colonisation period. A story of a struggle for independence, aquest for national unity and societal development. And then: a gradual descent into autocraticrule, economic chaos and violence. A Student and a TeacherRobert Mugabe was born on the February 21, 1924 in Kutama, not far from Harare, now thecapital city of Zimbabwe, but formerly the administrative centre of Southern Rhodesia,a recently constituted, self-governing British colony. At that time, political and economic powerwas firmly in the hands of the white minority, some 270,000 citizens who controlled the mostfertile land. Conversely, six million locals were pushedinto the colony’s driest regions, making a hard living from subsistence farming. Young Robert was educated in a school runby catholic missionaries, and was by all accounts a studious and hardworking child. He later recalled that he enjoyed solitude,while looking after a herd of cattle in the sole company of a book. Robert’s father, a carpenter, abandonedthe family when the boy was only 10 years old. That same year, Robert’s elder brother died,allegedly from a poisoning, which plunged his mother into a deep depression, interruptedonly by violent mood swings. In addition to looking after their farm andattending school, Robert had to look after his mother. He developed a strong bond with her, to theextent of being bullied for being a ‘mummy’s boy’. Robert continued his studies into higher education:from 1950 to 1952, he attended Fort Hare Academy, in South Africa, thanks to a scholarship. In this period, he started to develop a politicalconscience, influenced by socialism and anti-colonialism, inspired by a desire for independence fromBritish rule and by a will to break down racial divisions. Apartheid was becoming a tangible realityin Rhodesia and in neighbouring South Africa, and Robert found inspiration in Gandhi, Nehru,and the struggle for Indian self-rule. Robert eventually graduated as a teacher,the first of many academic achievements: in later years, he would attain degrees in law,administration and economics. The same year, 1953, saw Southern Rhodesiamerge with the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia. The resulting Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasalandwas still under British colonial administration. Robert soon became ‘Mr. Mugabe’ to hisstudents, after taking a series of teaching positions, first in the North of the federation– a territory which later became Zambia – and then in Ghana. Mr Mugabe’s experiences in Ghana were lifechanging. On a personal level, he met and courted acolleague, Sally Hayfron. The two married in 1958. On a political level, Ghana was an eye openerfor the young teacher: the West African country was already independent, a first taste oflife free from colonial rule. He was deeply impressed by the policies ofGhana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, and his brand of ‘African socialism’. This ideology embraced established aspectsof socialism such as communal land ownership and planned economy, but fused them with privateinitiative, an acceptance of individualism, and a revival of pre-colonial African culture. Mugabe returned to Rhodesia in 1960. Inspired by Krumah, and encouraged by Sally,he took his first steps into anti-colonial activism. He started campaigning against the discriminationof the black majority, which granted him an invitation to speak at a rally of the NationalDemocratic Party, or NDP. The party leader, Joshua Nkomo, was impressedby the teacher and hired him as publicity secretary for the NDP. Unfortunately, this alliance of two strongpersonalities was doomed to failure. A Slow Rise to the Top The leadership and membership of the NDP mirroredthe make-up of the black population in Rhodesia, as it was divided into two main ethnicities:the Shona majority and the Ndebele minority. Nkomo, and most of the leaders, belonged tothe latter. In 1963, the Shona clans rebelled againstNkomo, led by Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and by Mugabe himself. The reverend and the teacher formed a breakawayfaction, which became the Zimbabwe African National Union, or ZANU. The strong anti-colonial stance of the ZANUbecame a cause of concern for Rhodesian authorities. In 1964, they cracked down on the party leadership. Mugabe, Sithole and other activists were convictedof acts of sedition and sentenced to harsh prison terms that could extend up to 11 years. The bitterness of incarceration was only madeworse by news from outside: Mugabe’s only child had died in Ghana in 1965, and he hadbeen denied leave to attend the funeral. During the same year, Rhodesia broke awayfrom the British Empire, becoming an independent country, albeit without international recognition. Power remained firmly in the hands of thewhite minority. The struggle of Mugabe, the ZANU and the NDPshifted in focus: the priority was no longer independence from the British, but rather,an established government led by the black majority in the country. While in prison, Robert Mugabe made the mostof this time by further advancing his education and preparing for total leadership. By the early 1970s, Mugabe was still playingsecond fiddle to Rev. Sithole, but trouble was stirring. Other party members, also incarcerated, accusedthe Reverend of cooperating too closely with white authorities, in exchange for prisonprivileges. Sithole was eventually ousted and Mugabe swoopedin, becoming the head of ZANU. In 1975, after the end of his prison term,Mugabe fled to Mozambique with the help of a white nun. There, he joined the ZANLA guerrilla forcethat had been harassing the Rhodesian government since 1964. This was part of the Rhodesian Bush War, alsoknown as the Zimbabwe Liberation Struggle. Let me tell you, this was a very complicatedwar, so get your notepads out. On one hand, you had the Rhodesian Government,hampered by UN sanctions because of the lack of international recognition, but suppliedin secret by the South African Government. On the opposite corner: the ZANLA, force,or Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, affiliated with ZANU, the party of Sitholeand Mugabe. The ZANLA operated from Mozambique and wassupported and supplied by China. In the third corner, there stood ZIPRA, theZimbabwe People’ Revolutionary Army, operating from Zambia. Their backers were the Soviet Union and theirpolitical leader was Joshua Nkomo, who had now founded his new party – ZAPU. [Caption: Zimbabwe African People's Union]Interesting to note: the ZANLA/ZIPRA dichotomy reflected the larger Sino-Soviet split, amajor turning point of the Cold War. But let’s stay grounded in Rhodesia. Mugabe did not actively participate in thefighting; his role was more political. He was the voice of the ideology who wouldmotivate the fighters and swell their ranks through propaganda and recruitment. It is generally recognised that ZIPRA wasin fact more of an active military force, while Mugabe’s ZANLA was more interestedin sowing dissent and disobedience inside Rhodesia. The complexity of the situation was thankfullyreduced when Mugabe and Nkomo were forced by their followers to accept an uneasy alliance,the Patriotic Front. The two leaders did not actively cooperate,but simply accepted each other’s existence and avoided infighting across their separatefactions. While the insurgency versus the Rhodesiangovernment continued, the stage was being set for a future conflict between the tworebel leaders. A CIA analysis noted how the two tried toupstage each other: Mugabe visited Havana in July 1977 to seek support from Fidel Castro,and possibly extend a hand to the Soviets. This worried Nkomo, who also flew to Cubain November of 1978 to prevent the rival from snatching Soviet favors. But the war was finally nearing its end. In late 1979 the British government mediateda peace deal between the Patriotic Front and Rhodesia. This agreement put an end to the war, sanctionedthe independence of Zimbabwe and pushed the relatively obscure Mugabe front and centreon the International stage. In early 1980 Mugabe returned from his exileto Harare and called for the first democratic election of the newly independent State ofZimbabwe. Mugabe was one of the candidates, of course,and he became Prime Minister with a 57% majority. One step at a time, the former teacher hadreached the top. The Rain and the ChaffWas Mugabe’s victory a fair and transparent one, as ruled by British observers? Well, Mugabe had certainly built a followingas a liberation hero and he could rely on the vote of the Shona majority. But it is also claimed that Mugabe’s guerrillafighters intimidated many voters into picking the right candidate, by forcing them to attendindoctrination sessions, called ‘pungwes’. Mugabe’s rule was marked by similar craftymethods. His first rival, Joshua Nkomo, was invitedto join the newly formed cabinet, as Home Affairs minister. Generous, right? Well, yes, but actually, no. Nkomo’s powers were purposefully reduced:he was denied any authority over rural local government and, very importantly, over theSpecial Branches of the Police. Nkomo was a minister with no muscle. This move was however in line with Mugabe’spublic face: the face of reconciliation. The young State was rife with divisions. Mugabe vs Nkomo. Shona vs Ndebele. Black vs White. And yet the Prime Minister invited everybodyto “Remain calm. Respect your opponents and do nothing thatwill disturb the peace. We must now all of us work for unity, whetheryou have won the election or not”. Speaking of Unity, Mugabe was steering Zimbabweinto becoming a one-party state, under the ZANU-Patriotic Front, or ZANU-PF. And a one-party state could not tolerate opposition. So, despite all the grand talk and overturesto former rivals, Mugabe was preparing to crack down hard on Nkomo and his followersin the Ndebele minority. In August 1981, Mugabe invited military instructorsfrom North Korea to train his crack troops, the Fifth Brigade. They would be known as Gukurahundi, a Shonaphrase meaning: “the rain which washes away the chaff”This phrase would become the name of their more infamous operation, as we’ll hear ina minute. In February 1982, a police inspection discovereda cache of arms hidden in a farm, owned by one of Nkomo’s companies. This was the perfect pretext to accuse Nkomoof plotting a coup, and to remove him from the cabinet. Next, in January 1983, Mugabe unleashed hisfull-scale offensive against Nkomo’s followers, the Ndebeles living in Matabeleland, or westernZimbabwe. The Fifth Brigade, the Rain, swept throughthe region and washed away what Mugabe considered to be the chaff. According to a report from Zimbabwe’s CatholicCommission for Justice and Peace, the Brigade was responsible for mass murders, beatingsand property burnings in the areas where Nkomo’s supporters lived. Within six weeks more than 2000 civilianshad died, hundreds of homesteads had been burnt and many more thousands of civilianshad been beaten. Most of the dead were killed in public executionsinvolving between one and 12 people at a time. “Villagers frequently report being forcedto sing songs praising ZANU-PF while dancing on the mass graves of their families and fellowvillagers, killed and buried minutes earlier.” The operation in the west escalated into afull genocidal massacre: the atrocities continued until December 1987, when Mugabe and Nkomoreached another tentative reconciliation. By then, it is estimated that between 20 and80 thousand Ndebele civilians had been murdered. Executive PresidentWhile the atrocities went on in Matabeleland, Mugabe was consolidating his grip on powerin Harare. In 1985 Zimbabweans had been called to votefor a new Parliament. The white minority was constitutionally granted20 seats in the Chambers and in that year, Ian D. Smith’s party won all 20 of them. Mr Smith had been the last white Prime Ministerof Rhodesia, one who had vowed that the black majority would never rule his country. Perceiving this as a threat, Mugabe soughtto reinforce his power base as much as possible: so, he dissolved what little remained of Nkomo’sparty and merged it with his own ZANU-PF. With an unbeatable majority in Parliament,Mugabe in 1987 moved to legitimise his lone leadership. He managed to win a majority vote ratifyinga change to the Constitution: this amendment eliminated the largely ceremonial President’soffice, and created a new, much more powerful position for himself – Executive President. A title which combined the roles of Head ofState, Head of the Government and Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. In case some have not realized yet, Mugabehad just legitimised his own dictatorship over Zimbabwe. And yet, this was also his period of maximumpopularity, both at home and abroad. Mugabe dedicated enormous slices of budgetto education and healthcare, his policies managed to revive the economy and developurbanisation in the Country. He even introduced anti-corruption laws, knownas ‘leadership code’: this limited ZANU-PF cadres from owning more than 50 acres of land. Zimbabwe was rapidly developing and Mugabehas also private affairs to take care of. In January 1992 his wife Sally died of kidneyfailure. In 1996 Robert Mugabe married his second wife,Grace Marufu, a former secretary in the presidential office and 41 years his junior. Mugabe and Grace had had an affair since atleast 1990: their first child, a girl called Bona was in fact born on that year. According to him, Mugabe had asked Sally’sapproval. Their marriage was childless and he wantedto sire a child before his own mother died. Baby Bona could be counted among the so-called‘Born-Frees’. These were the new generation of Zimbabweansborn after the dissolution of Rhodesia. Many of them were ready to enter the labourmarket at the end of the 1990s. Having benefited from Mugabe’s increasedspending on education, they were now realising that the country could not offer them thequantity and quality of jobs they were trained for. The Born-Frees lent their support to a newparty, the Movement for Democratic Change, led by former labour leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe was about to face a new decade of turmoil. Land grabIn February 2000 Mugabe called for a referendum to ratify a new Constitution, which wouldhave solidified even more his grip on power. The President was expecting an easy victory,but the Movement for Democratic Change, more and more popular, gave him defeat in the pollingstations. Mugabe could not accept this and accused theMDC members of being lackeys of the white farmers, who had in fact openly financed theparty. The white minority of farmers and entrepreneursmade an easy target for the leader, who had always ruled on a platform of anti-colonialismand anti-capitalism. This minority was so small that it could hardlypose a threat – about 70,000 citizens over a total of 13 million. And yet Mugabe accused them of being dangerousagents of British colonialism. Things got even worse for Mugabe when theJune 2000 Parliamentary elections marked a relative victory for the opposition: the MDCdid not win the majority of seats, but with a good 57 out of 150 they could leave a markon legislation. It seems like 2000 was the year in which thePresident could not catch a break. Another group raised their voices in dissent:the veterans of the war of independence, theoretically great supporters of Mugabe, but now disgruntledas their pension funds had been embezzled by corrupt officials. The veterans sought compensation by forciblyoccupying farms, most of them operated by the white minority. Mugabe went with the flow, encouraging thevets to claim the lands as their own. From his perspective, this must have beenan easy alternative to actually having to sort out an alternative pension fund! Ironically, redistribution of land had beenone of the priorities of Mugabe’s government after independence. And yet the issue had just sat there for decades. Neither Mugabe, nor the white farmers, noteven the British mediators, apparently were interested in sorting it out. In 2000, a full twenty years after independence,4,500 white farmers still owned more than 50% of Zimbabwean farmland. It seems like the uprising of the veteransfinally gave Mugabe the motivation to complete the land reform – in the worst possibleway. Mugabe’s tacit consent to occupy the farmssoon turned into active complicity. His supporters organised armed squads to invadethe farms and chase away their white owners. Over the following two years, almost all thewhite-owned farmland had been redistributed to 300,000 black families. Many of these farms were assigned to competentcommercial farmers, but many others went to reward Mugabe loyalists, who had no experiencenor interest in working the land. To use a Maoist analogy, this great agriculturalleap forward eventually caused more problems than benefits. Many farms fell into disuse due to lack ofmodern equipment, fertilizers, efficient irrigation or just plain incompetence. Food shortages became common in the country,although the Government painted them as a consequence of drought. Other leaders of the African Union startedto pressure Mugabe into revising his policies or even retiring. But Mugabe would cling like a barnacle tohis Presidential seat “I am not retiring, I will never, nevergo into exile. I fought for Zimbabwe, and when I die, I willbe buried in Zimbabwe, nowhere else.” In 2008 a new season of elections proved tothe world how tough could this barnacle be. In March, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangiraiclaimed victory in a presidential vote. But Mugabe claimed that there had not beenan official vote count yet. This was delayed for weeks, until Mugabe’sofficials announced that there hadn’t been a clear victor. The authorities scheduled a further roundof voting. But in the lead up to the vote Mugabe’ssecurity forces launched a campaign of intimidation against the opposition party, the MDC. This went as far as beating and killing oppositionsupporters. Tsvangirai had no choice but to seek refugein the Dutch Embassy in Harare, from where he announced his withdrawal from the election. In the subsequent round of voting, Mugabewas the only candidate. Unsurprisingly, he won with 85% of the vote. As he had done in the past, Mugabe soughtto neutralise his opponent by absorbing him into the cabinet: Morgan Tsvangirai was swornin as Prime Minister, although it was clear that the executive and military power wasfully concentrated in Mugabe’s hands. In the following 2013 elections, Mugabe, nosurprise, was the clear winner again. They may as well printed polling cards saying“Who do you want as President? A) Robert Mugabe in a grey suit? Or B) Robert Mugabe in a blue suit?”. It is clearly both, as a blue suit is notappropriate for evening social engagements. But the point is moot – by this time Mugabehad famously ditched formal suits for colourful outfits and loud headgear. Whatever he wore after his victory, PresidentMugabe decided to end his arrangement with Tsvangirai, which returned to the opposition. How to Ruin a CountryI am going to backtrack for a moment now to take a close look at Zimbabwe’s economyunder Mugabe in the early 2000s. He had always been an autocrat, but at leastin the 1980s and 1990s some of his reforms had ensured better standards of living forZimbabweans. But after the ousting of the white farmers,Mugabe’s economic policies became farcically incompetent. The collapse of Zimbabwe’s farming systemhad a negative impact on the rest of the economy. As food became scarce, its price increased,while farmers had less cash to spend on goods. Moreover, Mugabe had involved his militaryin Congo’s Civil War – a conflict so complex I will not even try to explain it. As the government got deeper and deeper intodebt, Mugabe’s central bank reacted in the worst possible way: quantitative easy. That is, printing money – to pay off debtsand compensate the war veterans who had not benefited from land distribution. As any citizen of the Weimar Republic couldtell you, this can only create catastrophic inflation, which hit the rate of 231,000,000percent. The currency had to be issued in notes aslarge as the 100 trillion Zimbabwe-dollar bill. In US dollars? That’s 40 cents! The increase in prices had also affected housing. Many citizens in urban areas were unable topay rent and so were forced to live in improvised shelters. Mugabe’s solution was simply to get ridof these shanty towns across Zimbabwe’s major cities. This was called ‘Operation Murambatsvina’,or “Drive out the rubbish” – a large scale Police operation which harassed, bulliedand coerced 700,000 residents into moving to the countryside. From 2008 to 2013, the coalition with Tsvangiraihad some positive effects in curbing inflation. But since Mugabe reasserted complete controlin 2013, he returned to his former inflation-inducing policies. How long could it last? A Bloodless CorrectionIn the second half of the 2010s unemployment in Zimbabwe rose to 80 percent. The public health system, once the best inAfrica, had collapsed. And yet Mugabe, Grace and their family appearedto spend lavishly on luxury goods and travel frequently to the Far East – both for shoppingsprees and to seek treatment in expensive private clinics. In 2014, apparently inspired by Grace, Mugaberemoved his vice-president Joice Majuru and replaced her with staunch loyalist EmmersonMnangagwa. This move coincided with the elevation ofGrace to a leadership post in ZANU-PF, the ruling party. It appeared as though Mugabe was setting thestage for Grace to succeed him as the new Executive President. The first lady was not a popular candidate,especially not amongst the military. On the 7th of November 2017, shortly beforenew presidential elections, Mugabe fired his vice-president. The military saw this a sign of Grace’simpending appointment to the vice-presidency. One week later, the Generals occupied Harare,arrested the Mugabes and placed them under house arrest. It was clearly a coup, although military spokesmendescribed it as a ‘bloodless correction’. Vice-President Mnangagwa was sworn in as Presidentin the same month. Robert and Grace were allowed to live in relativecalm inside their 24-bedroom home in Harare and even to travel frequently to Singapore. Mugabe was being treated there for a long-termillness, apparently cancer. Back in August 2019, President Mnangawa revealedthat Robert Mugabe had been hospitalised in Singapore for the past few months. Then, on Friday the 6th of September Mnangawaannounced that former President Mugabe, now aged 95, had died in Singapore. “It is with the utmost sadness that I announcethe passing on of Zimbabwe’s founding father and former President, Comrade Robert Mugabe. Mugabe was an icon of liberation, a pan-Africanistwho dedicated his life to the emancipation and empowerment of his people. His contribution to the history of our nationand continent will never be forgotten.” On that we can agree: his contribution ofpolitical violence, ethnic cleansing, corruption, and mismanagement will certainly not be forgotten.
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