Robert Mugabe - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Overview

Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980. He served as Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Zimbabwe

The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe is the head of government in Zimbabwe. From 1980 to 1987, Robert Mugabe was the first person to hold the position following independence from the United Kingdom. He took office when Rhodesia became the Republic of Zimbabwe on 18 April 1980...

from 1980 to 1987, and as the first executive head of state

Head of State

A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...

since 1987.

Mugabe rose to prominence in the 1960s as the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe African National Union

Zimbabwe African National Union

The Zimbabwe African National Union was a militant organization that fought against the standing government in Rhodesia, formed as a split from the Zimbabwe African People's Union...

(ZANU) during the conflict against the white-minority rule government of Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Ian Douglas Smith GCLM ID was a politician active in the government of Southern Rhodesia, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe from 1948 to 1987, most notably serving as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 13 April 1964 to 1 June 1979...

.

Unanswered Questions

What was the restrictions on white people that Robert Mugabe enforced?

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Quotations

It may be necessary to use methods other than constitutional ones.

"ZAPU deposes Mr. Nkomo as Leader", The Times, 9 July 1962, p. 9.

Our votes must go together with our guns. After all, any vote we shall have, shall have been the product of the gun. The gun which produces the vote should remain its security officer – its guarantor. The people's votes and the people's guns are always inseparable twins.

Martin Meredith, "Our Votes, Our Guns: Robert Mugabe and the Tragedy of Zimbabwe".

We are still exchanging blows with the British government. They are using gay gangsters. Each time I pass through London, the gangster regime of Blair

expresses its dismay'.

What we hate is not the color of their skins but the evil that emanates from them.

Speech in Harlem, New York (September 2000), quoted in Michael Radu, "State of Disaster", National Review, 27 May 2002

Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy!

"Whites are real enemy, warns Mugabe", Irish Times, 15 December 2000, p. 11.

The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans.

ibid.

We have fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are we have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood…. So, Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.

Speech at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg (2 September 2002), quoted in John Battersby and Andrew Grice, "Anti-West anger at summit as Mugabe rounds on Blair", The Independent, 3 September 2002, p. 1.

Let Blair and the British government take note and listen. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans. Our people are overjoyed, the land is ours. We are now the rulers and owners of Zimbabwe.

Michael White, Andrew Meldrum, "Commonwealth leaders delay decision on defiant Mugabe", The Guardian, 6 December 2003, p. 2.

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