The world mourns Robert Mugabe (1924 – 2019)
Love him or hate him, Robert Gabriel Mugabe, who led colonial Rhodesia to independent Zimbabwe in 1980 but died far away from home in Singapore on Friday, September 6, 2019 reportedly “bitter, lonely and humiliated” is certainly assured of a prominent place in history.
Forget about the last few years of his 37-year stranglehold on Zimbabwe, when he had become somehow senile and was ousted from power in a military coup in November 2017, Mugabe will always be remembered as one of the foremost African revolutionary leaders who fought for the emancipation of our continent from foreign domination.
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He was a towering figure of Africa’s struggle for independence, a Pan African leader par excellence in the struggle for Africa’s freedom who waged a war against white minority rule that led to the collapse of the last bastion of the British Empire in Africa.
Britain had created a federation out of their mineral rich colonies of Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland between 1951 and 1953 with Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia as its capital.
The federation did not last. The component parts broke up in no time and each country took a separate road to independence.
Inspired
It is interesting to note that all those in the old federation who led their individual countries to independence, i.e. Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) Malawi (Nyasaland) and Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia) were inspired by Ghana’s foremost leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, to fight for independence.
While both Zambia and Malawi achieved independence in 1964, it took a longer time for Zimbabwe to shake off the colonial yoke in 1980 and after a bitter guerrilla war since Rhodesia was considered as a prized asset by the white settlers and the British colonial authority would not let go the country they believed was founded by Sir Cecil Rhodes.
Kamuzu Banda who led Malawi to independence practised as a doctor at Kejetia Hospital at Bantama in Kumasi from 1957 to 1962. He saw how colonial Gold Coast became independent Ghana in 1957 under Nkrumah and returned home to guide Nyasaland to independence in 1964.
Kenneth Kaunda was a Freedom Fighter from Northern Rhodesia who was in Accra for the first All-Africa People Conference in 1959 and he together with fellow Freedom Fighters like Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Tom Mboya and Rashidi Kawawa (both from Kenya) and Patrice Lumumba (Congo) returned home from Ghana imbued with revolutionary zeal to fight for independence for their various countries.
Mugabe was the first of the revolutionary leaders from Central and Southern Africa to come to the Gold Coast in 1957, but his country Zimbabwe was one of the last on the continent to gain independence, having to fight a protracted and bitter guerrilla war against white minority rule in Rhodesia.
Mugabe, born February 21, 1924, was one of the few lucky blacks to have earned a degree, which he obtained from the University of Fort Hare in South Africa in 1951. He trained as a teacher and was said to have got six other degrees from Fort Hare.
Somehow Mugabe got wind of the struggle by the Gold Coast to achieve independence from the British. He read about Nkrumah’s revolutionary ideas and therefore decided to relocate to the Gold Coast to see things for himself.
He came in quietly and was engaged to teach at St. Mary’s Training College at Apowa in Takoradi in 1956, a year before Ghana was born. Many probably did not take notice of him but he got himself a wife, Sarah Hayfron in Takoradi later to become Sally Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s First Lady.
Return
Mugabe returned to Rhodesia in 1961 to introduce his fiancée to his parents with the intention to return to his base in Ghana and to continue teaching at Apowa.
But that was not to be as he was caught in the cross-fire of political agitation and violence in Rhodesia. Having returned from a newly independent Ghana, he was full of revolutionary zeal and he joined the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), led by the veteran politician Joshua Nkomo, always guided by and telling the Ghana story to his people.
Mugabe found himself in the thick of affairs with a large followership. After criticising the government of Rhodesia, led by Ian Smith in 1964, he was imprisoned for more than a decade without trial.
During the period of his incarceration he arranged for his wife Sally to return to Ghana, where their only child was born and where he died while he (Mugabe) was in jail.
While still in prison in 1973, he was chosen as the President of ZANU, because many of his colleagues were not comfortable with Nkomo who was seen to be a ‘friend’ of the white minority,
Release
Upon his release a year later, Mugabe headed to Mozambique from where he directed guerrilla raids into Rhodesia. He was also seen as a skilled negotiator as he remained tough during the Lancaster House Conference with Ian Smith, who refused to give in when Britain had clearly seen the writing on the wall.
Political agreements to end the crisis resulted in the new independent Republic of Zimbabwe. With his profile in the independent movement, Mugabe secured an overwhelming victory in the country’s first election in 1980, brushing aside Nkomo’s threat, with his ZANU – PF as the dominant party in parliament.
Throughout his struggle to lead his people to the Promised Land, Mugabe never forgot about Ghana, a country he said he owed a debt of gratitude for the opportunities he was given while he domiciled in the country and all that he learned from the experience of Ghana.
Till the end he regarded Ghana as his second home and was always around on visits at the least opportunity. He came back for his wife Sally, who was loved by the people of Zimbabwe as their First Lady until she succumbed to death in 1992 after a protracted illness.
Relations
It was because of the support Ghana gave to Mugabe that during Zimbabwe’s independence celebrations in 1980, then President Hilla Limann sent a powerful delegation to Harare led by then Vice-President Prof. J.W.S. de Graft Johnson and that included the foreign Minister Isaac Chinebua, Minister of Information, Wulf-Tagoe and the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Robert Torto.
But over his decades in power, international perceptions soared. Mugabe assumed the reputation of a ‘strongman’ leader — all powerful, ruling by threats and violence but with a strong base of support. An increasing number of critics labelled him a dictator.
Mugabe was never a favourite of the West. He was despised because of his own policy against the whites, who wanted to control the economy of Zimbabwe while being in the minority. His seizure of white lands, which he gave back to the real owners, the blacks, in 2000 was what broke the camel’s back.
One of Mugabe’s favourite quotes was “the only white man you can trust is a dead white man”. He was never forgiven by the whites throughout the world. But that was no bother as he was satisfied to return Zimbabwe to its rightful owners, the blacks.
Mugabe certainly embodied Africa’s struggle against colonialism in all its fury and its failings. He was a courageous politician, imprisoned for daring to defy white minority rule.
The country he finally led to independence was one of the continent’s most promising, and for years, Zimbabwe more or less flourished.
Despite the economic difficulties Zimbabwe had to endure in later years, under his stewardship, with hyperinflation and political chaos, he remained a beloved son of Zimbabwe.
It was his mistrust for the whites that he never sought medical care in Europe or America and had to embark on the long trip to Singapore for the treatment of his ailment.
History will surely be lenient on him. Fare well, a true son of Africa.
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