Robert Mugabe was a liberator, dictator and ‘Black Victorian’ – but who was the real man?

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Robert Mugabe is often remembered as the liberation hero who became a dictator, presiding over Zimbabwe’s economic collapse and political turmoil. But was there more to the man than this familiar narrative?

Zimbabwean journalist and writer Percy Zvomuya believes so. In his new book, Robert Mugabe: The Black Victorian, he explores the contradictions, personal tragedies and political ambitions of one of Southern Africa’s most consequential figures.

Speaking to CapeTalk’s Lester Kiewit during a visit to Cape Town for the book’s launch, Zvomuya explained why understanding Mugabe requires looking beyond the familiar labels of liberator and dictator.

Drawing on more than a decade of research, the book examines Mugabe’s upbringing, his rise through Zimbabwe’s liberation movement, and the personal influences that helped shape his worldview.

Why Robert Mugabe was more complicated than a liberator-turned-dictator

Mugabe’s legacy is defined by two seemingly irreconcilable chapters: his role in bringing Zimbabwe to independence in 1980 and his subsequent leadership, during which the country experienced political repression and devastating economic decline.

For Zvomuya, those contradictions are central to understanding the former president.

“He’s an African. He’s also a Black Victorian. He’s a Black man who’s also a Roman. He’s a dictator who’s also a liberator,” Zvomuya told Kiewit.

He said his task was to untangle these contradictions rather than produce an unquestioning celebration of Mugabe’s life.

Zvomuya also pointed to Mugabe’s education policies during the 1980s, when his government pushed back against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s opposition to expanding education spending.

Zvomuya said he was a direct beneficiary of those policies, which prioritised educating Zimbabweans despite financial constraints.

However, he argued that the expansion of education was not matched by sufficient job creation during the 1990s.

The resulting economic pressures were among the factors that contributed to Zimbabwe’s economic implosion in the 2000s.

The meaning behind Mugabe’s ‘Black Victorian’ identity

The book’s title is deliberately provocative, given Mugabe’s association with African nationalism and the armed struggle against colonial rule.

But Zvomuya explained that he was not suggesting Mugabe was literally a Victorian.

Queen Victoria died in 1902, but the author uses the term to describe Mugabe as a product of the colonial expansion that took place during her reign.

The former president’s identity was shaped by seemingly conflicting influences, including his deep Catholic faith, African nationalism, and connections to British culture.

These influences help explain why Zvomuya believes Mugabe cannot easily be understood through conventional political labels.

The four women who influenced Robert Mugabe

One of the more personal aspects of Zvomuya’s research is his examination of the women who influenced Mugabe throughout his life.

The author identifies four particularly important figures: Mugabe’s mother, his first wife Sally, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and his second wife, Grace Mugabe.

Zvomuya said Mugabe had spoken about his connection to his mother, describing how people from his hometown of Kutama regarded him as his mother’s child.

The author said these relationships were among the themes he explored in trying to understand Mugabe beyond his public political persona.

He also highlighted the former president’s complicated views on women and their participation in politics, including remarks in which Mugabe questioned why there were not more women in leadership positions in ZANU-PF and the Zimbabwean government.

Zvomuya believes Mugabe’s life deserves renewed attention, even years after his removal from power in a 2017 palace coup and his death two years later.

He argued that Zimbabwe has little tradition of Black Zimbabwean writers producing biographies of prominent figures from their own history.

For him, it was important that a Black Zimbabwean should write about Mugabe.

Zvomuya also described the former president as the second most important figure in Southern Africa after Nelson Mandela, arguing that his life warranted a full-length biography.

Mugabe’s political legacy also raises questions about the relationship between an individual and the institutions of an entire country.

Kiewit pointed out that Mugabe had become so closely associated with Zimbabwe that the country’s institutions, economy and political identity appeared increasingly tied to one individual.

Zvomuya agreed, saying this was ultimately what led to the 2017 palace coup.

He said Mugabe’s personhood and the state had effectively become one, and that the two had to be disentangled.

For Zvomuya, understanding Mugabe means confronting the contradictions of a man who helped bring Zimbabwe to independence, but whose presidency became inseparable from the country’s subsequent political and economic crisis. Never miss a major story. Get breaking news and the latest developments from South Africa and beyond as they happen.

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