Hyderabad: In the span of three-and-half-decades, Robert Mugabe as president of Zimbabwe had transformed himself into a two-faced Janus: One, he took a lead role in Zimbabwe's liberation movement and went on to become one of the most influential of Africa's post-colonial leaders that put him along with such revolutionaries as Nelson Mandela and Che Guevara.
Two, Mugabe became synonymous with an autocrat who butchered opponents, rigged votes, took away the lands of the whites and "presided over the decline of one of Africa’s most prosperous lands".
After suffering from prolong illness, the revolutionary guerrilla leader died while undergoing treatment at a Singapore hospital. He was 95.
Born on 21 February 1924, Mugabe is known for his fight against white minority rule and fated as a colossus in African liberation.
Often compared to South Africa's venerated freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, Mugabe ruled the nation for 37 years which was earlier divided by white colonial rule for century. He spent years in jail as a political prisoner.
In 1966, when his infant son died of malaria in Ghana, Mugabe was not granted parole to attend the funeral which later resulted in his bitterness towards white.
In the mid-70s, he assumed leadership of the political wing of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU-PF), a militant liberation movement based in Mozambique.
He became the first black Prime Minister of independent Zimbabwe, earlier known as Rhodesia, after elections in February 1980. But the descent into tyranny didn't take long as he abolished the office in 1987 and became president.
Mugabe's early years were praised for broadening access to health and education for the black majority, booming economy, construction of roads and dams.
Later, his hard-line policies drove the country's flourishing economy to disintegrate after a programme of land seizures from white farmers, and agricultural output plummeted and inflation soared.
Mugabe presided over forces that carried out a string of massacres in opposition strongholds, and the country's Fifth Brigade is believed to have killed up to 20,000 people, mostly supporters of his main political rivals.
As the country was plunged into economic ruin, Mugabe and his wife Grace faced fierce criticism for leading lavish lifestyles.
The country witnessed even more harder day when the economy slumped by more than a third from 2000 to 2008, resulting unemployment to cross pass above 80 per cent.
Mugabe – who infamously had claimed that "only God" could ever remove him from office – was deposed in the 2017 coup when members of his own party turned against him after he dismissed his longtime ally, then-Vice President Mnangagwa, to make way for his much younger wife.
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