Quick Facts
- NAME: Robert Mugabe
- OCCUPATION: Prime Minister
- BIRTH DATE: February 21, 1924 (Age: 89)
- EDUCATION: University of Fort Hare, South Africa
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Kutama (formerly Southern Rhodesia), Zimbabwe
- Full Name: Robert Gabriel Mugabe
- AKA: Robert Mugabe
- ZODIAC SIGN: Pisces
Best Known For
Robert Mugabe has served as president of Zimbabwe since 1987, previously serving as prime minister. He has been re-elected to the presidency multiple times, but elections have reportedly been tainted by fraud and voter intimidation.
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Play NowRobert Mugabe. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 01:23, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/robert-mugabe-9417391.
Robert Mugabe. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/robert-mugabe-9417391 [Accessed 19 May 2013].
"Robert Mugabe." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 01:23 http://www.biography.com/people/robert-mugabe-9417391.
"Robert Mugabe," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/robert-mugabe-9417391 [accessed May 19, 2013].
"Robert Mugabe," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/robert-mugabe-9417391 (accessed May 19, 2013).
Robert Mugabe [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/robert-mugabe-9417391.
Robert Mugabe, http://www.biography.com/people/robert-mugabe-9417391 (last visited May 19, 2013).
Robert Mugabe. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/robert-mugabe-9417391. Accessed May 19, 2013.
Synopsis
Robert Mugabe was born on February 21, 1924, in Kutama, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). In 1963, he founded ZANU, a resistance movement against British colonial rule. In 1980, when British rule ended, he became prime minister of the new Republic of Zimbabwe. In 1987, he was elected president of Zimbabwe. Since 2008 he has shared power with Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe faces re-election in 2013.
Quotes
"If the choice were made, one for us to lose our sovereignty and become a member of the Commonwealth or remain with our sovereignty and lose the membership of the Commonwealth, I would say let the Commonwealth go."
"Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy!"
"We are no longer going to ask for the land, but we are going to take it without negotiating."
"We are taking over this country and we will not put up with this nonsense."
Early Life
Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born on February 21, 1924, in Kutama, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), just months after Southern Rhodesia had become a British Crown colony. As a result, the people of his village were oppressed by new laws and faced limitations to their education and job opportunities.
Mugabe’s father was a carpenter. He went to work at a Jesuit mission in South Africa when Mugabe was just a boy, and mysteriously never came home. Mugabe’s mother, a teacher, was left to bring up Mugabe and his three siblings on her own. As a child, Mugabe helped out by tending the family’s cows and making money through odd jobs.
Although many people in Southern Rhodesia went only as far as a grammar school, Mugabe was fortunate enough to receive a good education. He attended school at the local Jesuit mission under the supervision of school director Father O’Hea. A powerful influence on the boy, O’Hea taught Mugabe that all people should be treated equally and educated to the fulfillment of their abilities. Mugabe’s teachers, who called him "a clever lad," were early to recognize his abilities as considerable.
The values that O’Hea imparted to his students resonated with Mugabe, prompting him to pass them on by becoming a teacher himself. Over the course of nine years, he studied privately while teaching at a number of mission schools in Southern Rhodesia. Mugabe continued his education at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and English in 1951. Mugabe then returned to his hometown to teach there. By 1953, he had earned his Bachelor of Education degree through correspondence courses.
In 1955, Mugabe moved to Northern Rhodesia. There, he taught for four years at Chalimbana Training College while also working toward his Bachelor of Science degree in economics through correspondence courses with the University of London. After moving to Ghana, Mugabe completed his economics degree in 1958. He also taught at St. Mary's Teacher Training College, where he met his first wife, Sarah Heyfron, whom he would marry in 1961. In Ghana, Mugabe declared himself a Marxist, supporting the Ghanaian government's goal of providing equal educational opportunities to the formerly designated lower classes.
Early Political Career
In 1960, Robert Mugabe returned to his hometown on leave, planning to introduce his fiancée to his mother. Unexpectedly, upon his arrival, Mugabe encountered a drastically changed Southern Rhodesia. Tens of thousands of black families had been displaced by the new colonial government, and the white population had exploded.
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