Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Has Died

Aljazeera reports that Zimbabwe's former president and leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), Robert Mugabe, has died at the age of 95. The former statesman, who was forced to resign back in 2017 in the infamous "coup-not-coup", had ruled the country for close to four decades. In his latter years, although he denied reports that he was suffering from advanced prostate cancer, he frequented Singapore for medical treatment and was visibly frail.

Mugabe's death admittedly leaves very few Zimbabweans sorrowful. Initially touted as a liberation hero for his fight in the armed struggle which ultimately brought independence to what was then the British colony called Rhodesia, Mugabe became the stereotypical embodiment of "absolute power corrupts absolutely".

While several Pan-Africanist scholars and leaders have lauded Mugabe for his notorious expropriation of land from White Farmers in 1980, there are also those who feel that he was nothing but a glorified dictator. Under his brutal rule, many Zimbabwean citizens, activists such as Itai Dzamara and politicians including Joshua Nkomo were allegedly killed for their political dissent. The genocide of at least 20,000 Ndebele people, known as Gukurahundi, occurred under his regime. The country's economy, under Mugabe, began to spiral and has never recovered since.

Following his infamous fall back in 2017, Mugabe's health declined quite rapidly. We cannot report that he will be missed by many Zimbabweans.