Robert Mugabe
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"Mugabe fought and liberated his country from colonists. [...] veterans of the liberation struggle are well aware of this fact." - Mengistu Haile Marium "[Mugabe] continues, alongside his people, to confront the pretensions of new imperialists." - Hugo Chavez Robert Gabriel Mugabe (Shona: [muga?e]; 21 February 1924 - 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as the leader of Zimbabwe from 1980 until he was deposed in a coup in 2017. He served as the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from internationally recognised independence in 1980 to 1987, then as the second president of Zimbabwe from 1987 to 2017. He was also the Leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) as its First Secretary, from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist-Leninist, and from the 1990s as a socialist. Mugabe was born to a poor Shona family in Kutama, then in Southern Rhodesia. Educated at Kutama College and the University of Fort Hare, he worked as a schoolteacher. Angered by white minority rule of his homeland within the British Empire, Mugabe embraced Marxism and joined African nationalists calling for an independent state controlled by the black majority. After making antigovernmental comments, he was convicted of sedition and imprisoned between 1964 and 1974. On release, he fled to Mozambique, established his leadership of ZANU, and oversaw its role in the Rhodesian Bush War, fighting Ian Smith's predominantly white government. He reluctantly participated in peace talks in the United Kingdom that resulted in the Lancaster House Agreement, putting an end to the war. In the 1980 general election, Mugabe led ZANU-PF to victory, becoming prime minister when the country, now renamed Zimbabwe, gained internationally recognised independence later that year. Mugabe's administration expanded healthcare and education and-despite his professed desire for a socialist society-adhered largely to mainstream economic policies. [Biographical sketch excerpted from Wikipedia]
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WORKS
Our War of Liberation: Speeches, Articles, Interviews 1976-1979 (1983)
SPEECHES
First speech as Prime Minister in March 1980, March 1980
Speech on the day of Zimbabwe’s Independence, April 1980
Address to World Summit on Sustainable Development, September 2002
Address at the Non-Aligned Movement Summit, February 2003
Address at the World Summit on the Information Society, December 2003
Message at Beginning of Zanu-PF Manifesto, March 2005
Speech to the UN General Assembly, September 2005
Speech in Harare at Zimbabwe's 26th Independence Celebrations, April 2006
Speech at the UN General Assembly, September 2007
Speech at the Zimbabwean Parliament, August 2008
Speech to the UN General Assembly, September 2009
Speech to the UN General Assembly, September 2010
Speech to the UN General Assembly, September 2011
Speech at 12th Zanu-PF Annual People’s Conference, December 2011
Speech at the National Sports Stadium, April 2012
Speech at the UN General Assembly, September 2012
Inauguration speech, August 2013
Speech to the UN General Assembly, September 2013
Speech at the Joshua Nkomo Airport, December 2013
Speech to commemorate the Joshua Nkomo statue, December 2013
Speech at 34th Independence Day Celebrations in Harare, April 2014
Speech at Zanu-PF Youth Conference, August 2014
Speech to the UN General Assembly, September 2014
Speech to the African Union, January 2015
Speech to the SADC [Southern African Development Community], April 2015
Speech presented to Zimbabwean MPs, September 2015
Speech to the UN General Assembly, September 2015
Speech to the National Housing Conference, July 2016
Speech at the National Sports Stadium, August 2016
Speech to the UN General Assembly, September 2016
Speech to the Zimbabwean Parliament, October 2016
Address at Opening of 5th Parliamentary Session, September 2017
President Mugabe's Letter of Resignation, November 2017