FILE: Robert Mugabe has passed away. 6th September, 2019. Robert Mugabe at a press conference in Salisbury (Harare), Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) after returning from exile in 1980. Credit: BRIAN HARRIS/Alamy Live News
Robert Mugabe as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe 1980 after returning from exile. Robert Gabriel Mugabe; Shona: [muɡaɓe]; born 21 February 1924) is a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician. He served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He chaired the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) group from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, although after the 1990s self-identified only as a socialist. His policies have been described as Mugabeism. Mugabe was born to a poor Shona family in Kutama, Southern Rhodesia. Following an education at Kutama College and the University of Fort Hare, he worked as a school teacher in Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Ghana. Angered that Southern Rhodesia was a British colony governed by a white minority, Mugabe embraced Marxism and joined African nationalist protests calling for an independent black-led state. After making anti-government comments, he was convicted of sedition and imprisoned between 1964 and 1974. On release, he fled to Mozambique, established his leadership of ZANU and oversaw ZANU's role in the Rhodesian Bush War, fighting Ian Smith's predominantly white government. He reluctantly took part in the peace negotiations brokered by the United Kingdom that resulted in the Lancaster House Agreement. The agreement dismantled white minority rule and resulted in the 1980 general election, at which Mugabe led ZANU-PF to victory. Mugabe's administration expanded healthcare and education and—despite his Marxist rhetoric and professed desire for a socialist society—adhered largely to mainstream, conservative economic policies.
Size: 5858px × 3987px
Location: Hararw-Salisbury Rhodesia-Zimbabwe
Photo credit: © BRIAN HARRIS / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: 1980, brian, despot, dictator, exile, front, harris, mugabe, patriotic, return, rhodesia, robert, salisbury, shona, udi, zanu-pf, zimbabwe
