Robert mugabe who is

In his later years, people called him all sorts of names, but now is probably the time when Zimbabweans will think back to his 37 years in power, she says.

There's a local saying that whoever dies becomes a hero, and we're likely to see that now, our correspondent adds. Obituary: Robert Mugabe. In pictures: The life of Robert Mugabe. Mugabe: From war hero to resignation. Is Zimbabwe worse off now than under Mugabe? From tanks to resignation: Mugabe's last days in power. Mugabe divides Zimbabweans in death. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

Zimbabwean and global reaction to Mugabe's death. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. View original tweet on Twitter.

Who was Robert Mugabe? Image source, Getty Images. Zimbabwe's week of upheaval that saw Mugabe ousted. Shackled to one man. Image source, Reuters. Mr Mugabe's downfall came after suspicions that his wife Grace might succeed him.

What has the reaction been? Not everyone agreed, however. Robert Mugabe in - just recently named prime minister of an independent Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe was known for his fiery speeches. Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell: "Mugabe became a tyrant". In , after graduating, he returned to teach in Rhodesia, later moving to Northern Rhodesia now Zambia and Ghana, a period during which he accumulated more university degrees, and met his first wife, Sally Hayfron. In , he returned to Rhodesia and worked as publicity secretary for the newly founded anti-colonialist, African nationalist National Democratic Party.

He and his comrades insisted the white leadership was illegitimate, had occupied his people's land and made them "a race of no rights beyond those of chattel. In , he returned and was arrested for making subversive statements. He spent almost eleven years in jail, during which time he continued his political activism and study, earning university degrees in education, economics, administration and law.

When the war ended in , Mugabe was hailed as a war hero at home and abroad. He went on to lead the newly independent Zimbabwe -- as prime minister from to , when he became its president. Articulate and smartly dressed, Mugabe came to power commanding the respect of a nation.

He had a strong head start, inheriting a country with a stable economy, solid infrastructure and vast natural resources.

But the descent into tyranny didn't take long. His hardline policies drove the country's flourishing economy to disintegrate after a program of land seizures from white farmers, and agricultural output plummeted and inflation soared. At first, Mugabe preached reconciliation with former enemies at home and abroad.

For the country's black majority, Mugabe built schools and hospitals and promoted agriculture for peasant farmers. He was lauded by the West as a new kind of African liberation leader, particularly by former colonial ruler Britain, which had refused to recognize Smith's government and leveled economic sanctions against the country. But early on in his rule, Mugabe showed a penchant for dealing with opponents ruthlessly. The most startling example was the Gukurahundi killings between and Mugabe was accused of leading the massacre against political opponents.

Tens of thousands of ethnic Ndebeles were killed -- including many found in mass graves that the victims reportedly had to dig themselves. His reputation for ruthlessness stemmed from this period. Later Mugabe would boast of having a "degree in violence". Despite the turmoil, Zimbabwe's economy was strong in the early years of Mugabe's rule. The country was known as the "breadbasket" of southern Africa and showed startling improvements in literacy rates. But the tone began to change in when Mugabe consolidated his power, assuming the office of president and head of the armed forces.

In the early s, the government began to amend laws allowing it to purchase land for resettlement and redistribution, prompting objections from landowners and the US and UK. As land-grabs escalated, the economy began a downward spiral in that culminated in catastrophic hyperinflation. Mugabe's government faced charges of elitism, cronyism and corruption. In , he married his former secretary, Grace Marufu following the death of his first wife in Elections that year became a one-man contest, after all other opponents dropped out days before the poll.

President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace pictured at their wedding ceremony on August 17 Voters rejected a new constitution, handing the longtime president an unexpected blow in what was widely considered a confidence vote on his government. The rejection emboldened the newly formed opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change MDC , but it also prompted Mugabe to take drastic measures to stay in power.

As the economy continued to worsen, Mugabe gave his blessing to roving bands of so-called war veterans to embark on often violent seizures of hundreds of white-owned farms they claimed had been stolen by settlers. Mugabe called the land battle "The Third Chimurenga," deliberately linking the farm seizure program to Zimbabwe's struggle against colonial rule.

Many of the farms were turned over to Mugabe's cronies, who subsequently did not harvest the land, further contributing to Zimbabwe's economic collapse. International aid and foreign investment dried up in the wake of the land-seizure program, and the US and European Union imposed economic sanctions on the country. In the following years, his government charged the MDC's leader Tsvangirai with treason and passed increasingly tough laws aimed at stifling the independent media and public dissent.

In , the University of Edinburgh withdrew the honorary degree it awarded Mugabe in for his services to education in Africa. In , the UK stripped him of his knighthood and the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees revoked the honorary law degree it gave to Mugabe in But at elections marred by deadly violence and accusations of vote rigging in , Mugabe was forced to concede some of his power.

How Zimbabwe became world's most expensive place to fuel a car. Mugabe claimed victory, but he was forced to hold talks to resolve the ongoing political dispute. Tsvangirai accepted the post of prime minister in a power-sharing deal negotiated by South Africa -- though claims of ZANU-PF harassment and violence against opposition politicians persist to the present.

Despite Zimbabwe's deepening economic crisis, Mugabe continually rebuffed calls to step down, insisting he would leave office only when his "revolution" was complete. Even today, Zimbabwe boasts among the highest literacy rates in Africa. Mugabe also emerged as a Pan-Africanist leader, rallying other African states against the racist apartheid government in South Africa.

Two years into his rule, he fired Nkomo and accused him of creating a new army to topple the government. By the mids, Mugabe had crushed his main rivals and consolidated control of the state. He made no secret of his desire to see a one-party system and aligned himself closely to Cuba, China, and the Soviet Union.

There was, however, no strong political opposition, just the remnants of a disgruntled white ruling class that had been leaving in droves to set up shop in apartheid South Africa. Meanwhile, veterans of the liberation struggle, who had long ago been promised land as part of the transition to independence, were growing impatient, opening the president up to new political challengers.

By , Mugabe found himself cornered between the demands of the veterans and the rise of a new opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change MDC , that was led by trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai and rapidly gaining support among urban workers. The Western media will of course remember how the president backed himself out of this corner, adopting controversial land reform laws that saw several generations of white farmers kicked off their properties in a haphazard and often violent operation.

The move precipitated the total collapse of the Zimbabwean economy. Large-scale commercial farms that had been cultivating cash crops such as cotton and tobacco or exporting beef to neighboring countries were gone in the blink of an eye, leading to hyperinflation and the notorious printing of trillion-dollar notes. But the land reform laws did mean that poor black farmers, who had owned little during generations of white rule, became tobacco farmers overnight as the government divvied up the spoils.

Unfortunately, most of the spoils went to government ministers and other Mugabe loyalists. In especially egregious cases, ministers acquired as many as ten properties, despite a law that theoretically limited new farmers to one farm per person.

Internationally, Mugabe became a pariah. As a result, the opposition boycotted the poll, paving the way for Mugabe to win. Yet across Africa he was being hailed as a hero, the only leader willing to stand up to the West. It is no accident that his assumption of the post of chairman of the African Union in elicited praise from leaders from across the continent.

For that he looked to his powerful ZANU-PF party, which for more than three decades wielded the army, police, and intelligence apparatus to keep his foes at bay.

After 37 years at the helm, Mugabe will be remembered as both a liberator and a tyrant, a man who led his country to independence only to turn a blind eye to those who were looting it until the day he died.

Farai Sevenzo is a filmmaker and broadcast journalist. He was born in Harare and has reported regularly for radio and television. He is based in London. Robert Mugabe seized white-owned farms. Shusha was the key to the recent war between Azerbaijan and Armenia.