Zimbabwe ex-president Robert Mugabe dies at 95 – TheNigerialawyer

The country’s first post-independent leader dies nearly two
years after he stepped down, following 37 years in office.

Former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has died at the age of
95, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said.

“It is with the utmost sadness that I announce the passing on of
Zimbabwe’s founding father and former President, Cde Robert
Mugabe,” Mnangagwa posted on Twitter early on Friday.

“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,” he added.

He was hospitalised in Singapore for months for an undisclosed
ailment, Mnangagwa had confirmed earlier this year.

No further details were immediately available about the
circumstances of his death or where he died.

Mugabe was forced to step down by the military in November 2017
following nationwide mass protests.

The former political prisoner-turned-guerrilla leader swept to
power in the 1980 elections after a growing rebellion and economic
sanctions forced the white minority colonial government to the
negotiating table.

Born on February 21, 1924, into a Catholic family at Kutama
Mission northwest of Harare, Mugabe was described as a loner and a
studious child, known to carry a book even while tending cattle in
the bush.

After his carpenter father left the family when he was 10, the
young Mugabe concentrated on his studies, qualifying as a
schoolteacher at the age of 17.

Incarceration
An intellectual who initially embraced Marxism, he enrolled at Fort
Hare University in South Africa, meeting many of Southern Africa’s
future black nationalist leaders.

After teaching in Ghana, where he was influenced by its founder,
President Kwame Nkrumah, Mugabe returned to what was then Rhodesia,
where he was imprisoned for his nationalist activities in 1964 and
spent the next 10 years in prison camps or jail.

During his incarceration, he gained three degrees through
correspondence, but the years in prison were wrenching.

Mugabe’s four-year-old son by his first wife, Ghanaian-born
Sally Francesca Hayfron, died while he was behind bars. Rhodesian
leader Ian Smith denied him leave to attend the funeral.

He once famously said that he’d rule his country until he turned
100, and many expected him to die in office.

But growing discontent about the southern African country’s
fractured leadership and other problems prompted a military
intervention, impeachment proceedings by the parliament and large
street demonstrations for his removal.

Mugabe’s decline
The announcement of Mugabe’s November 21, 2017 resignation after he
initially ignored escalating calls to quit triggered wild
celebrations in the streets of the capital, Harare.

Mugabe’s decline in his last years as president was partly
linked to the political ambitions of his wife, Grace, a brash,
divisive figure whose ruling party faction eventually lost out in a
power struggle with supporters of Mnangagwa, who was close to the
military.

Despite Zimbabwe’s decline during his rule, Mugabe remained
defiant, railing against the West for what he called its
neo-colonialist attitude and urging Africans to take control of
their resources, a populist message that was often a hit even as
many nations on the continent shed the strongman model and moved
towards democracy.

Mugabe enjoyed acceptance among peers in Africa who chose not to
judge him in the same way as the United Kingdom, the United States
and other Western detractors.

Towards the end of his rule, he served as rotating chairman of
the 54-nation African Union and the 15-nation Southern African
Development Community; his criticism of the International Criminal
Court was welcomed by regional leaders who also thought it was
being unfairly used to target African leaders.

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!