mugabed2803_468x6491“Hitler had only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources…If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold.” It is difficult to believe that any modern politician would make such a statement.  To make a proud personal comparison to Adolf Hitler seems like political insanity. Nonetheless, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe’s words are indicative of the kind of leader he has become. Much like Hitler, Mugabe is a powerful and paranoid dictator.  Also like Hitler, the world has a chance to stop him.  Hopefully, the world will not pass the chance up once more.


In 1980, Robert Mugabe, became the president of newly formed Zimbabwe. Once considered a hero of independence, Mugabe has now become a fierce tyrant, and managed to single handedly ruin the country’s prospects for the future. In order to keep complete control over the country, Mugabe has been accused of ballot stuffing, and using intimidation and violence to win the majority he needs to technically be a democratic leader. The guerilla war led by Mugabe ended centuries of imperialism. White-ruled Rhodesia became black-ruled Zimbabwe. Initially the country thrived and was regarded as a success. Life expectancy increased, and education became a priority under the Mugabe government. Zimbabwe was known as the bread basket of Africa, with a thriving farming industry. But Mugabe continues to use imperialism as an excuse while he creates fear and hysteria in the people, and the breadbasket cannot even feed her own people. Historically, there was much racism in the commercial farm industry between imperialist white farm owners, and the black men who worked the land. There was an obvious imbalance as the white minority farmers owned majority of the land and power.
Mugabe devised a plan, known as the Land Reform Program, which meant to right the wrongs of the previous years; essentially giving back land to the black people of Zimbabwe. Naively, the Western World saw justice in his plan. But under Mugabe’s twisted rule the white farms have been invaded and ravaged by groups of war veterans, and this erupted into a chaotic land grab. Even party officials and government workers descended upon commercial farms, looting, killing livestock, and living in abandoned buildings. Ironically, the reform program became a racist attack.
When this catastrophic reform program began, the Commercial Farmers Union warned that within 4 years agricultural productions would drop by 25%, and food shortages, even starvation could result. Sure enough, the CFU’s warning has come true. The majority of Zimbabwe’s population now lives off on grain handouts from humanitarian groups. The plan may have balanced the power, but it upset the balance of nature. Mugabe blames the food shortages, and even the current cholera outbreak, on Britain, the commonwealth, and any other of its white allies.
As the world became aware of his Hitler-esque tendencies, many have reacted appropriately. According to the Queen’s spokespeople , his knighthood has been revoked, because of the “abuse of human rights and abject disregard for the democratic process in Zimbabwe over which President Mugabe has presided”. Several honorary degrees and the Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger have also been revoked. Clearly Mugabe feels the insult of the recalls, but does he the message of them, and reconsider his actions?

No. He doesn’t reassess his actions; instead he slaps the helping hands of his allies. Zimbabwe was once a part of the commonwealth but now Mugabe has made the decision for the entire country to leave the commonwealth and all the allies and trading partners that go along with it. The real reason for leaving the Commonwealth is that Mugabe feels threatened by Western nations that speak out against his rule, and the human rights he violates. Like Hitler at the end of his tyranny, he has become a paranoid wreck, and is uncapable of running a country. Mugabe even goes so far as to blame homosexuality on British imperialists. He has started a bitter campaign against homosexuals, and introduced legislation that bans homosexual acts. Mugabe is an outright racist and homophobe who has managed to gain complete control over a nation, and yet it seems as though no one will stop him. He goes on racist rants blurting out things like “the only white man you can trust is a dead white man.” Such ugly words remind us of the Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan, yet now the roles have been reversed. It is our guilty past that prevents us from stepping in and removing Mugabe from power completely. Many Zimbabweans know Mugabe has gone too far, but speaking out against Mugabe is dangerous. Activists have gone missing, and some have been killed. Just recently Bothwell Pasipamire, an elected town councilor, escaped from one of Mugabe’s holding cells, after begin abducted in December.

Pasipamire was subjected to “humiliating abuse that was not to extract information from me, but to take away my will to resist Mugabe.” He described his experience saying, “I cannot tell you how it is to be unable to sleep and surrounded by the sounds of men crying in pain”. Dozens of opposition or human rights activists have been kidnapped, abused, and kept isolated at a remote farm turned torture chamber.
Horrific tales such as this have led to a modern day exodus; Zimbabweans don’t speak against Mugabe out of fear, they simply pack up their bags and they leave. Seventy percent of Zimbabweans now work and live outside the country. The doctors leave, the businessmen leave, and the educated individuals leave. They leave a country that has no hope with a man like Mugabe residing over it.

After Hitler was elected in the late 1930’s, insightful Jews began to flee the German state. Sadly, not enough people foresaw the hell into which the Fuhrer was leading them. We are supposed to learn from history. Did we learn nothing from the Holocaust? Mr. Mugabe has gone too far, and he and his party need to know that their actions are unacceptable. Until Mugabe is removed from office the madness will continue – the recent inauguration of Mr. Tsvangirai seems to be nothing more than pittance to Western inclinations – perhaps Mr. Mugabe’s avenue into the release of sanctions against his nation. The outcome of the appointment of Mr. Tsvangirai is yet to be witnessed; however, even if the new prime minister plays a puppet’s role, he will still have paved the way for the eventual downfall of ZANU-PF and the eventual rise of Zimbabwean democracy. Although Mr. Mugabe may have seen himself as a Rhodesian Mandela, his actions have caused history to see him as a near-opposite – decolonisation gone wrong. Zimbabweans, and indeed, the world, can only hope that Mr. Tsvangirai will give his nation a better role in the history books.