Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born on 21 February 1924 at the Kutama Mission village in Southern Rhodesia's Zvimba District. His father, Gabriel Matibiri, was a carpenter while his mother Bona taught Christian catechism to the village children. They had been trained in their professions by the Jesuits, the Roman Catholic apostolic order which had established the mission. Bona and Gabriel had six children: Miteri (Michael), Raphael, Robert, Dhonandhe (Donald), Sabina, and Bridgette.
They belonged to the Zezuru clan, one of the smallest branches of the Shona tribe. Mugabe's paternal grandfather was Constantine Karigamombe, alias "Matibiri", a strong powerful figure, who served King Lobengula in the 19th century.
The Jesuits were strict disciplinarians and under their influence Mugabe developed an intense self-discipline, while also becoming a devout Catholic. Mugabe excelled at school, where he was a secretive and solitary child, preferring to read alone rather than playing sport or socialising with other children. He was taunted by many of the other children, who regarded him as a coward and a mother's boy.
Here are some facts you never knew about Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president:
* You Won’t Believe Mugabe is this Old! Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born on February 21, 1924, near Kutama Jesuit Mission in the Zvimba District northwest of Salisbury, in Southern Rhodesia, to a Malawian father, Gabriel Matibili, and a Shona mother, Bona, both Roman Catholic. He is 93 years old!
* He was Raised by his Mother. Looking at the tyrannical nature of Mugabe, one may think that he was raised by an autocrat as a father, but that’s far from the truth. Mugabe’s father was a carpenter. He was an unusually disciplined and stern young man. He had a difficult youth after all — by age 10, he had lost both of his two older brothers. One died of poisoning and shortly after, his Malawian father left the family. He went to work at a Jesuit mission in South Africa, and mysteriously never came home. Mugabe’s mother, a teacher, was left to bring up Mugabe and his three siblings on her own.
* As a child, Mugabe helped out by tending the family’s cows and making money through odd jobs.
* He has Been the Leader of Zimbabwe Since her Independence
In 1963, he founded ZANU, a resistance movement against British colonial rule. In 1980, when British rule ended, Mugabe became prime minister of the new Republic of Zimbabwe. In 1987, he was elected president of Zimbabwe.
* He served a Long Jail Term – Earned Degrees there. Mugabe led conflict against the conservative white-minority government of Rhodesia, and as a result, he was imprisoned. The jail term lasted for more than 10 years between 1964 and 1974. While in prison, Mugabe taught English to his fellow prisoners and earned two Law graduate degrees by correspondence from the University of London.
* He served a Long Jail Term – Earned Degrees there
Mugabe led conflict against the conservative white-minority government of Rhodesia, and as a result, he was imprisoned. The jail term lasted for more than 10 years between 1964 and 1974. While in prison, Mugabe taught English to his fellow prisoners and earned two Law graduate degrees by correspondence from the University of London.
* He was an Educationist Before he Turned to Politics. Although many people in Southern Rhodesia went only as far as a grammar school, Mugabe was fortunate enough to receive a good education. He attended Marist Brothers and Jesuit schools, including the exclusive Kutama College, headed by an Irish priest, Father Jerome O’Hea, who took him under his wing. He graduated from Katuma’s St. Francis Xavier College in 1945. For the next 15 years he taught in Rhodesia and Ghana and pursued further education at Fort Hare University in South Africa.
* He Turned Zimbabwe’s Literacy Status Around. Despite all criticisms leveled against the tyrannical Mugabe, there are no doubts about the tremendous transformation he brought about in the education system of his country since he assumed leadership.
* The literacy level of Zimbabwe has risen as high as 90% under former presidency Robert Mugabe. This achievement can be traced to his love for education. He has seven different degrees! They cover the areas of education, economics, administration and law.
* He Proposed Marriage to the US President. Robert is famous for his violent crusades against homosexuality. After the US legalized same-sex marriage, this was his response to Barack Obama.
‘I’ve just concluded – since President Obama endorses the same-sex marriage, advocates homosexual people and enjoys an attractive countenance – thus if it becomes necessary, I shall travel to Washington, DC, get down on my knee and ask his hand. I can’t understand how this people dare to defy Christ’s explicit orders as our Lord prohibited mankind from sodomy’. He went on to accuse the U.S. government of being run by ‘perverted Satan-worshipers who insult the great American nation.’
* He Held One of the Most Extravagant Parties on his 91st Birthday
I call it a wasteful jamboree. His party took place at an exclusive lodge, spa and golf course in Victoria Falls, and it was estimated to have cost $1 million (£648,000). Almost a ‘zoo’ was consumed in the course of the celebration. According to reports, among other outrageous expenses, two elephants, two buffaloes, five impalas, two sables, 40 cows, a lion and a crocodile, were slaughtered. Also, seven mattress-sized cakes were also made available for the celebration.
* Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe, UN reports reveal that one out of every three children suffer stunted growth as a result of hunger.
* He has a Disturbing Habit of Dozing off in Public Occasions. The reputable Zimbabwean president, in all his power and dignity, has been caught several times taking a deep nap in the public. Some attribute this misdemeanor to his age, while some others affirm that he does a lot of thinking! He has this funny ability to comfortably sleep off in different sitting positions. Both the comforting and discomforting ones. It does not matter if it is a local or international conference, the old man just buzzes off, waiting for the end of the whole show in a most peaceful slumber. One of the latest of such behaviors was at the inaugural ceremony of the new Nigerian president, General Muhammadu Buhari where he was well captured by Sahara Reporters.
* Mugabe has Been Stripped of Many Honors and Awards. In 1994, Mugabe was appointed an honorary Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Bath by Queen Elizabeth II, and on 25th June 2008, the Queen cancelled and annulled the honorary knighthood after advice from the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom. This action has been taken as a mark of revulsion at the abuse of human rights and abject disregard for the democratic process in Zimbabwe over which President Mugabe has presided.
* Mugabe also holds several honorary degrees and doctorates from international universities, awarded to him in the 1980s; but 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.
* Marital Life; Mugabe’s first wife, First Lady Sally Hayfron died in 1992 and on 17 August 1996, Mugabe married a second wife. She was his former secretary, Grace Marufu, 41 years his junior, with whom he already had two children. She first became pregnant by Mugabe while he was still married to his first wife, Sally, and while Grace was married to another man, Stanley Goreraza, who is now a diplomat in China.
* Mugabe had a Child at the Age of 73. Mugabe has three children (one girl and two boys): Bona Mugabe, Robert Peter Mugabe Jr. and Chatunga Bellarmine Mugabe; and one stepson with Grace Mugabe, his second wife: Russell Goreraza.The last son was born in 1997, when Mugabe was already 73 and his wife 38.
* He is a Writer. Robert Mugabe has written a number of books which include:
-The Third Chimurenga: Inside the Third Chimurenga (2001).
-War, Peace, and Development in Contemporary Africa (1987)
-The Role of the University in the Process of Social Transformation (1983)
-Our War of Liberation (1983)
* He Claims to have Died Severally
Several rumours about the presidents’ state of health has been on over the years but he continues to live on. His constant medical care, exercise routine, guided diet and so on has helped to keep him in shape despite his age. “I have died many times – that’s where I have beaten Christ. Christ died once and resurrected once,” he said when he turned 88.
* He enjoys being compared to Hitler. When someone made the comparison, due to his alleged racist attitudes towards white people, Mugabe responded, ‘I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people, and their right to their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold.’
* A popular conspiracy theory suggests that Mugabe died long ago and has been replaced by his own body double.
* Mugabe often drops provocative quotes about how much he hates white people, such as, ‘The white man is here as a second citizen. The only man you can trust is a dead white man.’
* Some sources also report that Mugabe’s father went to South Africa to work at a Jesuit mission when Mugabe was still a little boy, but he never came back home.
* His mother was left alone to raise Mugabe and his three other siblings on her own.
* Mugabe tried to help his mother by tending cows and doing odd jobs in his childhood.
* Mugabe had a special interest in education. He had his schooling under the guidance of the school director Father O’Hea.
* Mugabe luckily had a good influence in his childhood as he was under the supervision of O’Hea, who taught him to treat all people equally and directed toward education fulfilment. His teachers used to often call him “a clever child”.
* He diligently finished his college education from the Katuma’s St. Francis Xavier College in the year 1945. He didn’t lose his touch with the education sector as he chose the profession of a teacher and taught in Rhodesia and Ghana.
* Mugabe often drops provocative quotes about how much he hates white people, such as, ‘The white man is here as a second citizen. The only man you can trust is a dead white man.’
* Sir Robert Mugabe Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath knighted in 1994 by her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth of Britain.
* In 1979 Sir Robert sold his country at Lancaster House agreements where to this day the transcripts have not been declassified and are not available to the Zimbabweans the people whom Mugabe says he serves. The agreements at Lancaster had far reaching effects on Zimbabwe’s economy that many citizens never understood because of the secrecy surrounding this agreement. Even though Mugabe was Prime Minister in 1980 lessons from Lancaster indicate that whites still controlled Zimbabwe.
* At Lancaster Mugabe agreed to redistribute land after 10 years yet land was the central theme of the liberation movement. This allowed many white citizens to continue to control the land a central part of the economy and they had guaranteed positions in Cabinet and Parliament.
* The Lancaster House Agreement left land in the hands of the minority whites and pacified blacks with a mirage of power merely symbolic in the form of political power but no economic power.
* Sir Robert in his policy of Reconciliation did not rock the boat and upheld the status quo for minority whites in the country. Whites were still controlling Zimbabwe but with a black face as Prime Minister and as President later.
* Sir Robert was alleged to have murdered more than 20,000 people in Matabeleland but Western nations turned a blind eye because these lives were of black citizens yet fought Mugabe tooth and nail over the death of 100 minority whites.
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