April 18, 1980, was a momentous day in history. The Rufaro stadium in Salisbury was bustling with thousands of people. Among them were foreign dignitaries and heads of states: Shehu Shagari, the President of Nigeria, Kenneth Kaunda, President of Zambia, Seretse Khama, President of Botswana, Malcolm Fraser, the Prime Minister of Australia – and Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India.
As the union jack was lowered, Charles, Prince of Wales, gave a farewell salute and the Rhodesia signal corps played ‘God Save the Queen.’ As a new flag was hoisted, Zimbabwe, a new, independent country emerged from the shackles of colonialism.
The man who led the revolution was a quiet, bespectacled man named Robert Gabriel Mugabe. In the early eighties, he was hailed as a great hero, a liberator who fought for freedom, liberty and independence from an oppressive white minority regime. His role in waging a sustained guerrilla war against the Rhodesian government, led by Ian Smith, won him great acclaim.
Mugabe’s electoral victory in 1980 saw him take on the reins of power as the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. Much like the Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Mugabe was seen as a Pan-African revolutionary who fought against colonial oppression.
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