Mugabe, Robert (Gabriel) (1924– )

Zimbabwean politician, prime minister from 1980 and executive president from 1987. He was detained and imprisoned in Rhodesia (as Zimbabwe was then known) for nationalist activities 1964–74, then carried on guerrilla warfare from Mozambique as leader of ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union). He became the first prime minister of an independent Zimbabwe. Mugabe came under increasing criticism from the 1990s as Zimbabwe suffered economic decline and growing political violence. The deterioration in political and human rights in Zimbabwe led to the European Union (EU) and USA imposing targeted sanctions on the Zimbabwean government in 2002, and in 2003 Zimbabwe withdrew from the Commonwealth in protest against its earlier and continuing suspension.

Between 1998–2000, demonstrations were held by students, workers, and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), against alleged government corruption, the rise in fuel prices, and Zimbabwe's intervention in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2000 Mugabe supported the invasion of white farms by veterans of the struggle for independence, and invoked special presidential powers in order to seize land without compensation. The Supreme Court condemned the policy as unconstitutional but the move was popular among ZANU-PF supporters in rural areas. This formed the basis for Mugabe's re-election as president in 2002, narrowly defeating the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai; however the elections were marred by violence and intimidation and were considered flawed by international observers.

Born at a Jesuit mission in Kutama, in Mashonaland, northwest of Harare in the then British colony of Southern Rhodesia, Mugabe was a member of the Shona people. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and was educated at mission schools and Fort Hare University, South Africa. He also obtained a degree in economics from the University of London, by correspondence. From 1942–60 he worked as a teacher and, while teaching in Ghana, he was greatly influenced by Kwame Nkrumah's radical policies that blended African nationalism with Marxism. In 1961, with Joshua Nkomo, he founded the black-nationalist organization ZAPU (Zimbabwe African People's Union), which was swiftly banned because of its opposition to white rule.

In 1963, Mugabe broke away to form, with Ndabaningi Sithole, the more extreme ZANU, which was committed to a political and military struggle to end white minority rule. While imprisoned 1964–74 by the Rhodesian government, Mugabe studied law, receiving degrees from the universities of London and South Africa.

Mugabe developed the banned ZANU into a Marxist-Leninist party with a strong guerrilla army. In 1975 he replaced Sithole as secretary-general and joined forces militarily with ZAPU in the Patriotic Front (PF). From bases in Mozambique, the PF gradually gained the upper hand over the military forces of the white-minority Rhodesian government led by Ian Smith, and there was a negotiated transition to full black majority rule in 1980, with the ZANU-PF easily winning the first multiracial elections that year.

As prime minister, Mugabe initially sought reconciliation with ZAPU and whites, but faced a rebellion in 1982 in the ZAPU stronghold of Matabeleland in the Ndebele-speaking south. Mugabe dismissed Nkomo from the cabinet and between 1982–85 the military crushed the resistance, with between 10,000 and 20,000 dying in the unrest. A peace accord was negotiated in 1987, with the merger of ZAPU and ZANU-PF under Mugabe's leadership, and Nkomo was brought back into government as a vice-president. Zimbabwe became effectively a one-party state and the roles of head of state and government were combined, to make Mugabe executive president.

Despite corruption scandals and a deteriorating economy, worsened by the 1991–92 drought in southern Africa, Mugabe was re-elected, unchallenged, in February 1996.