Robert Mugabe’s downfall has left deep fractures in the society of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe 2017: The downfall of a liberator turned tyrant marked a historic moment for the burgeoning democracy, writes Kim Sengupta
The final chapter in the story of Robert Mugabe did not follow the pattern of the downfall of other strongmen I have covered in recent years. The departures of Muammar Gaddafi, of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, which was the start of the Arab Spring, and Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine had taken place after an uprising, a period of violence of varying duration, then a sudden and, in the case of the Libyan leader, brutal ending.
The decline and fall of Zimbabwe’s president was a slow-burn, a prolonged affair. The outcome was inevitable, but it was one played out with those who deposed him going through a supposed adherence to the laws and customs and traditions, national and tribal, of the country.
Mugabe’s overthrow, his life under semi-captivity, and then his death at the age of 95 removed from the international stage one of its most well known leaders, a man who led his country to freedom from British colonial rule, and became a respected inspiration to a generation of revolutionary political activists in Africa.
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