Mugabe, Robert (Gabriel)

(born Feb. 21, 1924, Kutama, Southern Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]) First prime minister (1980–87) and executive president (from 1987) of Zimbabwe. With Joshua Nkomo, Mugabe led a Marxist-inspired guerrilla war that forced the white-dominated government of Ian Smith to accept universal elections, which Mugabe's party, Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), easily won. He formed a coalition government with Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), but he removed Nkomo in 1982. In 1984 the two parties were merged as ZANU–Patriotic Front, as Mugabe moved to convert Zimbabwe from a parliamentary democracy into a one-party socialist state. His rule was marked by violence and intimidation and by a decreasing tolerance of political opposition. Long-simmering political tensions between Mugabe and the opposition party, headed by Morgan Tsvangirai, led to a hotly contested presidential election in 2008 and a protracted political crisis. An agreement for a power-sharing government was reached in September 2008, in which Mugabe would remain president but would cede some power to Tsvangirai, who would become prime minister. The power-sharing government was implemented in February 2009.

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