If there has been any strong real-life
example to the narrative device of a well-meaning leader fighting against an
oppressive government only to become a more oppressive dictator upon rising to
power, one need look no further than Robert Mugabe. He was outwardly a nationalistic
African revolutionary leader struggling against the entrenched white minority
population and leadership of the breakaway British colony of Rhodesia in the
1960s-70s, eventually being elected as Prime Minister and President of the
nation, renamed Zimbabwe. Unfortunately his heavy-handed governance and
backfiring policies would lead to the 30-year economic breakdown of the country
until Mugabe’s 2017 overthrow. Nearly two years after that, Robert Mugabe has
passed.
CNN reports that Robert Mugabe, one of the founding figures of
modern Zimbabwe in Africa, has died this Friday, September 6, in Singapore
where he has been receiving treatment for increasingly frail health. He was 95
years of age at the time of death. Mugabe has been regularly checking into
hospitals for various conditions in the later years of his leadership of
Zimbabwe, with his extended stays in Singapore being recorded as early as
April. The specifics of what ailed him have been kept secret.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s Vice
President and successor following the 2017 coup as the third President of
Zimbabwe, made the formal announcement of his predecessor’s death on social
media. "It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of
Zimbabwe's founding father and former President, Cde Robert Mugabe," Mnangagwa
wrote Friday on Twitter. Despite Mugabe’s ultimately bleak legacy and his own
part in removing him from office, Mnangagwa described the late strongman as a “Pan-Africanist”
icon of liberation who both freed and empowered his fellow Zimbabweans in their
struggle during the Rhodesian regime.
It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of Zimbabwe's founding father and former President, Cde Robert Mugabe (1/2)— President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) September 6, 2019
The sheer disappointing tail end
of Robert Mugabe’s time as leader of Zimbabwe for some three decades, compared
to his initial international reputation upon becoming Prime Minister in 1980,
was appalling. Despite fighting white Rhodesia as a leftist militant, his starting
tenure in government was initially centrist and reconciliatory in nature. But
the emigration of Zimbabwe’s white population and conflict with other political
parties led to Mugabe clamping down on opposition and heaving far right in
rule.
The disastrous seizure of
white-owned farms that enabled Zimbabwe as a food exporter to Africa led to
shortages and economic downturn, which Mugabe intensified by overprinting
currency leading to such extreme hyperinflation that the country’s currency is
all but worthless, with other nations’ currencies seeing wider use instead.
Even worse, Mugabe ensured his multiple re-elections to the Presidency with
gross intimidation, to the point that he was all but President of Zimbabwe for
life until the 2017 coup.
Cde Mugabe was an icon of liberation, a pan-Africanist who dedicated his life to the emancipation and empowerment of his people. His contribution to the history of our nation and continent will never be forgotten. May his soul rest in eternal peace (2/2)— President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) September 6, 2019
And yet, in spite of his failures
in hindsight, there are still many Zimbabweans who thought well of Mugabe, as Emmerson
Mnangagwa said closing off his predecessor’s death announcement, “His
contribution to the history of our nation and continent will never be
forgotten. May his soul rest in eternal peace.”
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