Robert Mugabe's Journey From Freedom Fighter to Oppressor
During a trip to Harare a few years ago, I met with local officials and businesspeople, chatting with them in their offices, in hotel lobbies, and in cafés. In each place, a large framed photograph of Robert Mugabe—regal, bespectacled, sporting his trademark faux-Hitlerian mini-moustache—beamed down on me. Such portraits are common across Africa, showing respect for the leader while implicitly intimidating the public in an Orwellian Big Brother is watching you sort of way.
On a more recent trip, well after Mugabe’s deposal as Zimbabwe’s president, I noticed that while some of these places had replaced his portrait with that of his successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, many had left Mugabe’s picture up, either on its own or alongside Mnangagwa’s.
Why was Mugabe’s image—of a leader who had clearly outstayed his welcome—still up
