ROBERT MUGABE: A HERO OR VILLAIN?
Written by Millennium on September 7, 2019
THE death of Robert Mugabe, the man who became synonymous with Zimbabwe, and resigned as that country’s president for 37 years, has attracted mixed emotions in many people.
For some, Mr Mugabe will always remain a hero who brought independence and an end to white-minority in former Southern Rhodesia.
Even those who eventually forced him out of power blamed his wife and “criminals” around him.
But for the others, Mugabe was, from the very beginning, an enigma: a jumble of contradictions that somehow fueled rather than felled him.
In reporter Joseph Winter’s words, “He was the Anglophile who hated Britain; the freedom fighter who denied basic rights to his people; the pan-African visionary turned archetypal African dictator; the teacher who refused to learn from his mistakes. He was charming, and he was cruel. He was loved, and then he was hated.”
The late Zimbabwean president had survived numerous previous crises and predictions of his demise but with his powers failing at the age of 93, it was his former comrades-in-arms who turned on him, in preference for his deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa.
One of the undoubted achievements of the former teacher’s years in power was the expansion of education. Zimbabwe still has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa, at 89% of the population.
The now deceased political scientist Masipula Sithole once said that by expanding education, the president was “digging his own grave”.
The late Mr Mugabe professed to be a staunch Catholic, and one who rarely missed Sunday Mass at his favourite Harare’s Catholic Cathedral.
Mr Mugabe also certainly led a healthy lifestyle. According to his wife Grace, the late president always woke up at 05:00 for his daily exercises, including yoga. He did not drink alcohol or coffee and was largely vegetarian.
As long as he was in power, one thing never changed. L’ état, c’est Mugabe.
Mugabe was Zimbabwe. Now he’s gone, dying far from home in a hospital in Singapore, and Zimbabwe is still searching for a new identity.
If nothing else, Mr Mugabe has always been an extremely proud man. When he was on form, he was charming, and eloquent, a spellbinding speaker who would draw a crowd. He was a consummate, charismatic politician.
It was that irresistible combination of charm, intellect, and brutality of course, which allowed him to hold on to power for as long as he wanted. In 2016, Mr Mugabe told his fellow leaders at the United Nations that he would rule “until God says come”. But a year later, he was betrayed by one of his closest allies, and forced into a humiliating, albeit long overdue, retirement. It is perhaps no surprise that once his power evaporated, so too did Mugabe himself begin to wither away, spending more and more time receiving medical care in Singapore.
Mr Mugabe’s death finally on September 6, 2019 will forever remain a mixture of emotions for most Zimbabweans and other people alike.
