Robert Mugabe - Political Background and Presidency

Robert Mugabe is the infamous, authoritarian leader and prime minister of Zimbabwe since the year 1980. He was born in February 21st, 1925, making him 90 years old as of today. He has been president since the year 1987 until the present days.

Robert Mugabe in the year 2015. Source: http://thisisafrica.me/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/01/B2.jpg

How he rose to power

In the year 1963, Robert Mugabe found the ZANU party, which was a resistance movement against the British colonial rule. 

He was against the denial of black rights by the British government and joined protests, spreading the idea of how the country Ghana successfully achieved their independence through Marxism. Marxism is a political, economic and social theory of Karl Marx including the belief that the struggle between social classes is a major force in history and that there should eventually be a society in which there are no social classes (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marxism). Mugabe was eventually elected as public secretary of National Democratic Party. Inspired by the situation in Ghana, he assembled militant youth league to spread the word about getting black independence back in Rhodesia. The chaos caused led the government to ban this party at the end of 1961, the remaining supporters created another movement led by Joshua Nkomo insisting that the British rule should suspend all their systems of laws and change the topic of majority rule. However, Nkomo did not take that much action and nothing changed. Mugabe was frustrated with Nkomo and attempted to create a guerilla war. Mugabe and other former supporters of Nkomo found their own movement in the year 1961 - ZANU or Zimbabwe African National Union.

Posters supporting ZANU (1970). Source: http://polarch.sas.ac.uk/images/poster_larger_views/Zanu.jpg

This party also caused more protests and chaos causing the police to arrest Mugabe. During his time in prison, Mugabe secretly communicated with others to launch guerilla war and support the freeing of Southern Rhodesia from British colonisation. In the year 1974, Prime Minister Ian Smith allowed Mugabe to leave prison to attend a conference with the government in Northern Rhodesia. Instead, Mugabe escaped back across the border heading to Southern Rhodesia and assembled the troop of guerillas. Battle raged throughout the year 1970s, worsening the country's economy. 

In the year 1979, the British finally agreed to change to a black majority rule and the UN lifted their sanctions, lessening the pressure on the economy. During 1980, Southern Rhodesia was liberated and became the Independent Republic of Zimbabwe. Under the ZANU party, Mugabe was elected prime minister. However, during 1981, battle broke out between ZANU (Mugabe) and ZAPU (Nkomo) due to different perspectives on economic choices. To stop the battles, during 1987, Mugabe and Nkomo decided to merge their unions and focus to the nation's economic reform.

Robert Mugabe (left) and Joshua Nkomo (right). Source: http://nehandaradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/robert-mugabe-joshua-nkomo-590.jpg

Presidency

Robert Mugabe is an authoritarian figure in Zimbabwe. His major goal during his presidency is the restructure and repair of the country's poor economy. He is famous for his five year economic reform plan known as "ESAP" or "Economic Structural Adjustment Programme". During the year 1996, people started to question his leadership because of his poor choices. For example, his choice to support the seizure of white population's land and property without any form of compensation with the owners. This according to Mugabe, was the only way to equalize and even out the economy for the black population. His controversial political strategies delayed his success. The only reason he kept winning the elections was because of unfairness and fraud. He also won only by alleged violence and corruption, which led the European Union to place economic sanctions on them. These sanctions include direct financial aid, and also imposed travel sanctions towards Mugabe, his family and political assets of Zimbabwe. In the year 2008, he lost the presidential election to Morgan Tsvangirai (leader of MDC), but Mugabe demanded a recount. Mugabe's people then killed and attacked nearly all MDC supporters causing Tsvangirai to withdraw. 

However, Mugabe and Tsvangirai decided on a power-sharing deal. Even though they had this deal, Mugabe still retained most of the power by controlling all security forces and controlling the power to choose leaders for important political positions. Nowadays, people are still trying to stop Mugabe from winning presidential elections but believe that all these elections will always be marred by violence, unfairness and fraud. 

Tsvangirai (left) and Mugabe (right). Source: http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20130117&t=2&i=695178671&w=1200&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE90G1G7K00