How Corruptible Power Influences The Mind To Become A Dictator

Robert Mugabe: Was he imitating Hitler with his similar mustache?

All African leaders love the power but any leader who uses the name ‘democracy’ to be in power for a long time without any intention to step down gradually turns into a dictator. We have a few of them in Africa before things turned ugly for them to step down in a shameful manner.

Too familiar is the path of many political leaders, not least in the former colonies. Paul Biya of Cameroun, Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, have been in power for decades but the reality is these leaders have brought untold hardships to the people.

The story of Robert Mugabe’s long career is more intriguing. Now Mugabe now at 94, years old, he ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years, first as the prime minister and then as president, until he was removed from power by the military.

In any case, he was in power much longer than the democratically elected leaders of the world usually rule. Therefore, taking Mugabe into consideration, he was in the same camp with Fidel Castro, who ruled for 52 years, Kim Il Sung, 48 years old and Muammar Gaddafi who also ruled for 42 years old.

Unlike the aforementioned, he was not a dictator from the very beginning but turned into one as his time advanced. Mugabe was born in 1924, at a mission station in a suburb of the capital, then called Salisbury, now Harare.

In the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, Mugabe studied for a doctor and passed several South African and British university exams. In 1960, Mugabe joined the anti-colonial struggle for independence and joined the ZAPU (Zimbabwe African People's Union - Union of African People of Zimbabwe).

Three years later, he withdrew from the union and became one of the founders of the rival movement ZANU (Zanu, Zimbabwe African National Union - African National Union of Zimbabwe), then finally managed to break into leadership ZANU.

In 1964, he was detained and sentenced to prison for revolutionary agitation. After being liberated in 1974, he again took control of the armed wing, which fought the white minority government under the government of Ian Smith.

The whole bloody guerrilla war went on until the country had an independence of 1980. Mugabe faced opposition in a government supported by China and, among others, Sweden) and Joshua Nkomo and his ZAPU, with the support of the Soviet Union.

After the truce negotiations in London, where Mugabe led the delegation of the liberation movement, an agreement was reached on free elections in Rhodesia, or Zimbabwe, as the new republic should have been called.

Mugabe won the election in February 1980, defeating Nkomo by a wide margin, and was appointed the prime minister. He spoke of a peaceful future, with a promise that the black majority and the white minority will live together in complete harmony.

He created the impression of a very low-key politician: He built schools and hospitals, carried out social reforms but even then he was uncontrollably dying to power. He consistently pressed the political opposition, primarily the one that was led by Joshua Nkomo.

According to estimates, the suppression of Mugabe claimed the lives of 20 thousand people. Mugabe ordered his Fifth Brigade, trained by North Korean instructors, to destroy the opposition in the Ndebele people of Zimbabwe. Thousands of alleged supporters of his arch-enemy Nkomo were slaughtered there.

In 1987, Mugabe became president, and after that won the majority of the elections. According to critics, it was a massive fraud. Gradually, Mugabe’s rule became increasingly authoritarian and capricious.

Soon Zimbabwe, one of the richest countries in Africa, plunged into a deep economic crisis. The recession began in the late 1990s, when, under pressure from veterans of the partisan war, Mugabe began handing out money to former freedom fighters.

The climax came when in 2000, black war veterans began to forcibly seize the land ownership of Zimbabwe, which belonged to white. It was a populist measure since the land issue as a relic of colonial rule was not resolved even 20 years after independence.

As a result, many whites were killed, while others had to leave their farms. Only then, it seems, the world around us realized that Mugabe is a dictator. In a low voice, they started talking about the fact that Queen Elizabeth II had once granted a noble title to Mugabe.

However, on the African continent, his popularity was unshakable for a long time. Mugabe is seen as one of Africa's greatest leaders. Back in 2004, New African conducted a study asking readers to list the 100 most important Africans.

Robert Mugabe was in third place after Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, and South African liberator leader and President Nelson Mandela. No matter how great an African leader is, once you don't make your mind to step down after a number of years, surely, you'll become a dictator.