Darth Mugabe

I came across this very interesting and emotional article the other day. I am sure not many people have heard this story before and they assume Robert Mugabe has always been the monster he is today. It’s a sad tale if one looks at what is currently happening in Zimbabwe.

As I was thinking of this piece in the days after I read it, I realised there is a well-known character in popular culture which closely resembles Robert Mugabe’s life story on many fronts. Does the name Anakin Skywalker ring a bell?

And for some bitter irony, how about this quote from the man himself in a 1987 Foreign Affairs article talking about Apartheid in South Africa and and its impact on the larger Southern African region:

The decision to fight for independence is not a phenomenon peculiar to southern Africa. Nor is the decision to fight for a nonracial society. Americans, more than most, must be aware of this, and also Europeans, who fought only 45 years ago to free their countries from Nazi occupation. Independence and the right of the majority to decide their destiny is, or should be, a sacred principle to all of us.

Bob Marley & The Wailers said it all with this song, played live in Zim in 1980 by invitation from the government to celebrate their independence from British rule.