Robert Mugabe

==Public image and legacy==
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=The story of Robert Mugabe is a microcosm of what bedevils African democracy and economic recovery at the beginning of the 21st century. It is a classic case of a genuine hero—the guerrilla idol who conquered the country's former leader and his white supremacist regime—turning into a peevish autocrat whose standard response to those suggesting he steps down is to tell them to get lost. It is also the story of activists who try to make a better society but bear the indelible scars of the old system. Mugabe's political education came from the autocrat Ian Smith, who had learnt his formative lessons from imperious British colonisers.| salign=right |source=— Heidi Holland{{sfn|Holland|2008|pp=xiv–xv}} }}

By the twenty-first century, Mugabe was regarded as one of the world's most controversial political leaders.{{sfn|Ndlovu-Gatsheni|2009|p=1139}} According to ''[[The Black Scholar]]'' journal, "depending on who you listen to...Mugabe is either one of the world's great tyrants or a fearless nationalist who has incurred the wrath of the West."{{sfn|Shire|2007|p=32}} He has been widely described as a "dictator", a "tyrant", and a "threat",{{sfn|Shire|2007|p=35}} and has been referred to as one of Africa's "most brutal" leaders.{{sfn|Alao|2012|p=xi}} At the same time he continued to be regarded as a hero in many [[Third World]] countries and received a warm reception when travelling throughout Africa.{{sfn|Holland|2008|p=214}} For many in Southern Africa, he remained one of the "grand old men" of the African liberation movement.{{sfn|Howard-Hassmann|2010|p=911}} Mugabe was known to have close ties with former [[Prime Minister of Malaysia|Malaysian Prime Minister]] [[Mahathir Mohamad]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-10-07 |title=Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe In Surprise Visit To Malaysia |url=https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/zimbabwes-robert-mugabe-in-surprise-visit-to-malaysia-1471275 |access-date= |website=NDTV.com}}</ref>

According to Ndlovu-Gatsheni, within ZANU–PF, Mugabe was regarded as a "demi-god" who was feared and rarely challenged.{{sfn|Ndlovu-Gatsheni|2015|p=2}} Within the ZANU movement, a [[cult of personality]] began to be developed around Mugabe during the Bush War and was consolidated after 1980.{{sfn|Ndlovu-Gatsheni|2015|p=13}} Mugabe had a considerable following within Zimbabwe,{{sfn|Tendi|2013|p=966}} with David Blair noting that "it would be wrong to imply that he lacked genuine popularity" in the country.{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=38}} Holland believed that the "great majority" of Zimbabwe's population supported him "enthusiastically" during the first twenty years of his regime.{{sfn|Holland|2008|p=192}} His strongholds of support were Zimbabwe's Shona-dominated regions of [[Mashonaland]], [[Manicaland]], and [[Masvingo]], while he remained far less popular in the non-Shona areas of Matabeleland and [[Bulawayo]],{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=38}} and among the Zimbabwean diaspora living abroad.{{sfn|Onslow|Redding|2009|p=71}}

At the time of his 1980 election victory, Mugabe was internationally acclaimed as a revolutionary hero who was embracing racial reconciliation,{{sfn|Meredith|2002|p=15}} and for the first decade of his governance he was widely regarded as "one of post-colonial Africa's most progressive leaders".{{sfn|Holland|2008|p=xx}} David Blair argued that while Mugabe did exhibit a "conciliatory phase" between March 1980 and February 1982, his rule was otherwise "dominated by a ruthless quest to crush his opponents and remain in office at whatever cost".{{sfn|Blair|2002|p=46}} In 2011, the scholar Blessing-Miles Tendi stated that "Mugabe is often presented in the international media as the epitome of the popular leader gone awry: the independence struggle hero who seemed initially a progressive egalitarian, but has gradually been corrupted through his attachment to power during a long and increasingly repressive spell in office."{{sfn|Tendi|2011|p=307}} Tendi argued that this was a misleading assessment, because Mugabe had displayed repressive tendencies from his early years in office, namely through the repression of ZAPU in Matabeleland.{{sfn|Tendi|2011|p=308}} Abiodun Alao concurred, suggesting that Mugabe's approach had not changed over the course of his leadership, but merely that international attention had intensified in the twenty-first century.{{sfn|Alao|2012|p=xi}}
For many Africans, Mugabe exposed the [[double standards]] of Western countries; the latter had turned a blind eye to the massacre of over 20,000 black Ndebele civilians in the Gukarakundi but strongly censured the Zimbabwean government when a small number of white farmers were killed during the land seizures.{{sfn|Holland|2008|p=214}}

[[File:Demonstration against Mugabe.JPG|thumb|left|Example of foreign criticism: a demonstration against Mugabe's regime next to the Zimbabwe embassy in London (mid-2006)]]
During the guerrilla war, Ian Smith referred to Mugabe as "the apostle of Satan".{{sfnm|1a1=Blair|1y=2002|1p=13|2a1=Meredith|2y=2002|2p=14|3a1=Norman|3y=2008|3p=162|4a1=Alao|4y=2012|4p=4}} George Shire expressed the view that there was "a strong racist animus" against Mugabe within Zimbabwe, and that this had typically been overlooked by Western media representations of the country.{{sfn|Shire|2007|p=33}} Mugabe himself was accused of racism; [[John Sentamu]], the Uganda-born [[Archbishop of York]] in the United Kingdom, called Mugabe "the worst kind of racist dictator", for having "targeted the whites for their apparent riches".<ref>Sentamu, John, [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/sep/16/comment.foreignpolicy Saving Zimbabwe is not colonialism, it's Britain's duty] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161128105246/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/sep/16/comment.foreignpolicy |date=28 November 2016 }}, ''The Observer'' 16 September 2007. Retrieved 24 June 2008.</ref><ref name="ukanger">{{cite news|title=UK anger over Zimbabwe violence|work=BBC News|date=1 April 2000|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/698175.stm|access-date=4 January 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090930103546/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/698175.stm|archive-date=30 September 2009}}</ref><ref name="mcgreal2007">{{cite news|first=Peter|last=McGreal|title=Corrupt, greedy and violent: Mugabe attacked by Catholic bishops after years of silence|work=The Guardian|date=2 April 2007|url=https://www.theguardian.com/zimbabwe/article/0,,2048032,00.html| location=London}}</ref><ref name="Bentley2007">{{cite news |first=Daniel |last=Bentley |title=Sentamu urges Mugabe Action |work=The Independent |date=17 September 2007 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sentamu-urges-mugabe-action-402591.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120906052233/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sentamu-urges-mugabe-action-402591.html |archive-date=6 September 2012 |url-status=live |issn=0951-9467}}</ref> [[Desmond Tutu]] stated that Mugabe became "increasingly insecure, he's hitting out. One just wants to weep. It's very sad."{{sfn|Norman|2008|p=162}} South African President [[Nelson Mandela]] was also critical of Mugabe, referring to him as a politician who "despise[s] the very people who put [him] in power and think[s] it's a privilege to be there for eternity".{{sfn|Norman|2008|p=162}}

Writing for the ''[[Human Rights Quarterly]]'', Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann claimed that there was "clear evidence that Mugabe was guilty of crimes against humanity".{{sfn|Howard-Hassmann|2010|p=909}} In 2009, [[Gregory Stanton]], then President of the [[International Association of Genocide Scholars]], and [[Helen Fein]], then executive director of the [[Institute for the Study of Genocide]], published a letter in ''[[The New York Times]]'' stating that there was sufficient evidence of crimes against humanity to bring Mugabe to trial in front of the [[International Criminal Court]].{{sfn|Howard-Hassmann|2010|p=917}} Australia and New Zealand had previously called for this in 2005,{{sfn|Howard-Hassmann|2010|p=917}} and a number of Zimbabwean NGOs did so in 2006.{{sfn|Howard-Hassmann|2010|p=917}}

A 2005 article from the New American titled "Democide in Zimbabwe" says that Mugabe reduced the population of Zimbabwe by millions in just a few years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Democide+in+Zimbabwe.-a0134782923|title=Democide in Zimbabwe|date=July 2005|website=The Free Library|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201035822/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Democide+in+Zimbabwe.-a0134782923|archive-date=1 December 2017|url-status=live|access-date=6 December 2017}}</ref>

In 1994, Mugabe received an honorary knighthood from the British state; this was stripped from him at the advice of the UK government in 2008.{{sfn|Norman|2008|p=174}} Mugabe held several honorary degrees and doctorates from international universities, awarded to him in the 1980s; at least three of these have since been revoked. In June 2007, he became the first international figure ever to be stripped of an honorary degree by a British university, when the [[University of Edinburgh]] withdrew the degree awarded to him in 1984.<ref name="timesonline.co.uk">{{cite news|work=The Times|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article1896047.ece|title=Mugabe stripped of degree by Edinburgh|access-date=4 July 2007|first1=Shirley|last1=English|first2=David|last2=Lister|date=7 June 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012204017/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article1896047.ece|archive-date=12 October 2008}} See also: {{cite news|work=The New York Observer|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/jul/15/highereducation.internationaleducationnews|title=Edinburgh University revokes Mugabe degree|author=Paul Kelbie|date=15 July 2007|access-date=28 June 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130831180901/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/jul/15/highereducation.internationaleducationnews|archive-date=31 August 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6724271.stm|title=Mugabe stripped of degree honour|publisher=BBC|date=6 June 2007|access-date=4 January 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070912175134/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6724271.stm|archive-date=12 September 2007}} See also: {{cite news |url=http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/mugabe-loses-honorary-degree-from-umass/?hp |title=Mugabe loses Honorary Degree from UMass|work=The New York Times|access-date=28 June 2008|first=Mike|last=Nizza|date=13 June 2008|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002081032/http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/mugabe-loses-honorary-degree-from-umass/?hp|archive-date=2 October 2012}}</ref> On 12 June 2008, the [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]] Board of Trustees voted to revoke the law degree awarded to Mugabe in 1986, the first time one of its honorary degrees has been revoked.<ref name="boston.com">{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/06/umass_revokes_m.html|title=UMass revokes Mugabe's honorary degree|work=[[The Boston Globe]]|access-date=28 June 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220192434/http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/06/umass_revokes_m.html|archive-date=20 February 2009}}</ref> In the month after being deposed, but before he died, many of the public references to Mugabe – street names, for example – had been removed from public places.<ref>{{cite web |first=Murdoch |last=Stephens |title=What's left of the Mugabe way? |date=2018-01-31 |url=https://pantograph-punch.com/posts/mugabe-public-space |access-date=2023-09-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230901233810/https://pantograph-punch.com/posts/mugabe-public-space |archive-date=2023-09-01 |location=New Zealand |website=Pantograph Punch |url-status=live}}</ref>