If there’s any doubt the world is a better place without him, consider just this one factoid about dictator Robert Mugabe from the U.K. Daily Mail ~
When Mugabe came to power in 1980, life expectancy at birth in Zimbabwe was 59.4 years, rising to 60.8 years in 1986, according to the World Bank. It then crashed to just 44.1 years by 2002 – a devastating indictment of his rule.
The old commie managed to live more than twice as long as the average, unfortunate Zimbabwean. Adding insult to untold injuries, he lived in luxury in Singapore until he checked out last Friday, at age 95.
Robert Mugabe’s woeful legacy will forever be the transformation of his country – as the popular phrase goes – from the bread basket of Africa to the basket case of Africa. Tragic ~
During his 37 years in power he rigged elections, trashed the economy and unleashed death squads that massacred thousands of his opponents, making him a pariah in the West and reducing thousands of his countrymen to grinding poverty and starvation.
When Mugabe was born, in 1924, Zimbabwe was known as Rhodesia, a British colony, operating under white-minority rule.
Drawn to Marxism and black nationalism in college, he spent several years in prison during the sixties for seditious activities ~
While still in prison in 1973 he became leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) which remained his power base for the next 44 years.
Contrary to what many Mugabe apologists are claiming in the wake of the tyrant’s death, he did not shake off white-minority rule. That, as The New American points out, was something that Rhodesians agreed to themselves long before Mugabe came to power ~
Nor was he the nation’s first post-colonial ruler — it was Prime Minister Ian Smith’s government that declared unilateral independence from the British empire, making him the nation’s first post-colonial leader, followed by a moderate black prime minister.
The truth is, Robert Mugabe was a violent, Marxist revolutionary, who drove a once-prosperous African nation to ruin. Frontline Mission summarized the devastation two years ago, before Mugabe was finally deposed ~
Over 1.5 million people in Zimbabwe have had their homes destroyed by Mugabe’s army and police. Independent newspaper and radio stations have been attacked and blown up. Judges who have made rulings against ZANU-PF have been attacked by mobs, even assaulted in their chambers in court.
Pastors have been arrested for “subversive prayers”. Hundreds of churches have been bulldozed or burned. Wildlife sanctuaries have been devastated. Vast herds of elephants, rhino, buffalo and endangered animals, such as cheetah, have been slaughtered. Huge forests have been razed to the ground. Hundreds of thousands of human rights abuses have been recorded.
Over 5 million people have fled Zimbabwe. Even people who used to be supporters of Mugabe’s regime are now describing it as “a criminal enterprise” guilty of “ethnic cleansing”, “genocide” and “state sponsored terrorism”.
People often assume that the worst ethnic cleansing episodes in Africa have been between whites and blacks – the scourge of colonialism. In reality it’s traditional tribalism that has accounted for most of the slaughter. In Mugabe’s case he unleashed his minions on the Ndebele people in the southern part of Zimbabwe. The New American describes the horrific genocide ~
Before the murderous land grabs began in 2000, a brutal brigade of Mugabe’s terror forces, trained by the mass-murdering communist regime ruling North Korea, attempted to exterminate the Ndebele people in the infamous Gukurahundi campaign (1983-84). Shortly after the communist bloc and the “Free World” joined forces with the UN to install Mugabe and bring down the Rhodesian government of anti-communist Prime Minister Ian Smith, which had broad support among blacks and was in the process of major reform, the new regime unleashed absolute horror […]
(Mugabe) unleashed a monstrous campaign of mass-murder, terror, and extermination aimed at the Ndebele, fellow black Africans who lived in the southern regions of the country. Tens of thousands of Ndebele were slaughtered, with some estimates suggesting the number could be as high as 80,000 or more […]
The International Association of Genocide Scholars estimated that the Mugabe regime massacred some 20,000 Ndebele in Matabeleland — almost certainly far below the actual numbers.
Where was the west while all this carnage was taking place? Looking the other way!
The U.S. and British governments, which played a crucial role in bringing the monster to power against the wishes of sensible Rhodesian people of all races, knew all about the genocide being perpetrated by the man they put in charge of the once-prosperous nation. And they did virtually nothing to stop it. In fact, they did not even speak out about it publicly, allowing Mugabe to slaughter his victims with impunity without so much as public scrutiny.
It was partially because western nations did nothing to stop him that this madman was able to remain in power for 37 long years. The despot was finally forced to relinquish control in November 2017 ~
In Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, parliament was the scene of unprecedented jubilation as the Speaker of the House read Robert Mugabe’s resignation letter. The House erupted in cheers, singing, dancing, clapping and celebrations – with Members of the Parliament leaping up, jumping on their chairs and tables, flinging their arms high above their heads, shouting with joy and exuberance.
So don’t fall for any of the ~ Fake News Media: Marxist Mass-Murderer Mugabe Was “Liberator” ~
Despite lies by the establishment media and fellow autocrats, Mugabe’s legacy is clear and beyond dispute. He was not a liberator. He was not a hero. He was a monster, a murderer, and a barbarian with an uncontrollable lust for money and power that cost the lives of untold numbers of innocent people. And he presided over one of the most significant national tragedies to have occurred in the last 50 years.
South African historian and scientist Dr. Harry Booyens, author of the definitive historical book on South Africa AmaBhulu: The Birth and Death of the Second America, has studied Mugabe’s legacy extensively. “If ever there were a man about whom one can say with 100 percent confidence that there was no redeeming aspect, then Robert Mugabe would be that man,” Booyens told The New American.
“The nature of this man was known to people of Southern Africa, but neither the British nor Jimmy Carter would listen. And that is how Carter got to hug this despoiler of nations in the White House. His successor, Emmerson Mnangagwe, was the actual formulator and implementor of many of Mugabe’s excesses and in particular of his genocide of the Matabele in Western Zimbabwe. It mystifies the thinking human being how the West can be so absolutely mindless in its dealings with the people of Africa.”
It’s not at all clear that Zimbabwe’s new “president,” Emmerson Mnangagwa, is any less tyrannical than the previous thug. Time will tell. It surely can’t get much worse for the Zimbabwean people, who deserve so much better than one more evil dictator.
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Related:
Tucker Calls For U.S. Ambassador To Zimbabwe To Be ‘Recalled’ For Statement Praising Dead Dictator ~ This is unbelievable! What are Obama holdovers still doing in the State Department? ~
“Former Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe died today,” said the Fox News host on Friday night’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight. “He was 95 years old and hiding in Singapore when he died. Here is how the U.S. Embassy chose to commemorate the death of a dictator, and we are quoting, ‘The United States extends its condolences to the Mugabe family and the people of Zimbabwe as they mourn the passing of former President Robert Mugabe. We join the world in reflecting on his legacy in securing Zimbabwe’s independence.’”
“It’s hard to believe that’s real, but it is real,” Carlson continued. “Apparently the U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe signed off on it. He should be recalled for that. Meanwhile back in Washington, the State Department released a statement praising Mugabe for, and we’re quoting, ‘liberating Zimbabwe’ This is when you know the executive branch of government is completely out of control, that it’s being run by bureaucrats who don’t care at all who was elected, who are acting out of their left wing agendas without any restraint whatsoever.”
How Mugabe Destroyed Zimbabwe ~ A (2010) mostly straightforward assessment from Nicholas Kristof (NYT columnist) ~
“When the country changed from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, we were very excited,” one man, Kizita, told me in a village of mud-walled huts near this town in western Zimbabwe. “But we didn’t realize the ones we chased away were better and the ones we put in power would oppress us.”
“It would have been better if whites had continued to rule because the money would have continued to come,” added a neighbor, a 58-year-old farmer named Isaac. “It was better under Rhodesia. Then we could get jobs. Things were cheaper in stores. Now we have no money, no food.”
