Mugabe: From liberation hero to 'tyrant'
2010-04-15 12:54
Special Report
A classical music presenter for the BBC has been arrested and is in custody in Zimbabwe.
Harare - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence 30 years ago on Sunday, has seen his image transform from an icon of Africa's liberation movement to a despot.
The continent's oldest ruler, the 86-year-old who once said in jest that he would rule until he turns 100, was once the darling of the West but is now an international pariah.
"The first 10 years of his rule were fruitful and he was well-loved across the world and credited for bringing democracy, improved education and health facilities and investment coming to Zimbabwe," political analyst Takavafira Zhou said.
"He is now old, he has overstayed and he is now a liability both to his party and to the country. People want jobs and better lives. The essence of good governance is you make life easy for the people, but Mugabe has nothing to offer the people now."
Born on February 21, 1924, at Kutama Mission northwest of the capital Harare, Mugabe is described as a studious child and a loner and qualified as a teacher at the age of 17.
An intellectual who initially embraced Marxism, he took his first steps in politics when he enrolled at Fort Hare University in South Africa, where he met many of southern Africa's future black nationalist leaders.
Guerilla attacks
He then resumed teaching, moving to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and later Ghana - where he was profoundly influenced by the country's founder president Kwame Nkrumah - and married vivacious schoolteacher Sarah Francesca (Sally) Hayfron there.
The couple returned to what was then Southern Rhodesia in 1960.
As a member of various nationalist parties which were banned by the white-minority government, Mugabe was detained with other nationalist leaders in 1964 and spent the next 10 years in prison camps or jail.
But he used his incarceration to gather three degrees, including a law degree from London, by correspondence courses.
Mugabe's four-year-old son died after an illness during his incarceration, but Rhodesian leader Smith did not allow Mugabe out of prison to attend the funeral.
He used those years to consolidate his position in the Zimbabwe African National Union and emerged from prison in November 1974 as Zanu leader.
He then left for Mozambique, from where his banned party launched guerrilla attacks on Rhodesia.
Human rights record
Economic sanctions and war forced Rhodesian leader Ian Smith to negotiate, and Mugabe's renamed Zanu-Patriotic Front, which drew most of its support from the Shona majority, swept to power in the 1980 election.
Twenty years later he launched controversial land reforms, seizing white-owned farms. He accused some white farmers of joining forces with his western foes in a campaign to topple him using the opposition as a front.
"Our present state of mind is that you (white farmers) are now our enemy because you really behave as enemies of Zimbabwe," he said at independence celebrations in 2000, months after hordes of militant supporters began invading white-owned farms.
Now only about 400 white farmers remain, amid a chaotic land reform programme to resettle landless blacks.
Mugabe's human rights record was also tainted by a campaign to crush "dissidents" among the minority Ndebele people with his North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade in which an estimated 20,000 people were killed.
In 1990 he tried to establish a one-party state along Chinese lines but was opposed by a majority of his own party and backed down.
Brutal force
In his early years Mugabe was widely credited with improving health and education for the black majority.
But the former regional breadbasket has plunged into crisis with most rural dwellers relying on food handouts.
His security forces have often resorted to using brutal force to crush dissent and two years ago they beat up Mugabe's most serious challenger Morgan Tsvangirai and several members of his party at a rally.
Under pressure from a decade-long economic crisis that saw prices of basic goods increasing three times a day, Mugabe entered into an agreement with long-time rival Tsvangirai to form a power-sharing government.
But since its formation last year the unity government has been hampered by bickering over the allocation of key government posts, reports of political violence and the refusal by Mugabe to install Roy Bennett, a top aide of Tsvangirai, as deputy agriculture minister.
- SAPA