Robert Mugabe

He tied the knot with Sally Hayfron in April 1961. The couple was blessed with a son who died at the age of three after suffering from cerebral malaria.

His wife died of a kidney problem in 1992. At the time of her death, Mugabe was already in a parallel relationship with his former secretary, Grace Marufu, who was married to someone else and was 41 years younger to Mugabe.

He married Grace Marufu on 17 August 1996. He already had two children with Grace when he married her. She initially became pregnant when he was still married to his first wife, Sally. His wife is sometimes mockingly called, ‘Gucci Grace’ for her ostentatious ways and lifestyle.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born on February 21, 1924 as the third of the six children to Gabriel Matibili and Bona, both of whom were Roman Catholic. His elder brothers died when he was very young and in 1934, his father deserted the family.

He studied in all-exclusive Jesuit, Roman Catholic schools and also attended the Kutama College, where he is believed to have led a solitary life and preferred to keep company with his books.

He was meant to become a teacher but then decided to study at Fort Hare in South Africa, from where he graduated in 1951. He then went on to study at Salisbury, Gwelo, Tanzania and subsequently earned six more degrees in addition to his Bachelor of Arts degree, which he obtained from the University of Fort Hare.

After graduation, he became a lecturer at Chalimbana Teacher Training College in Northern Rhodesia between the years 1955 to 1958. It was around this time he was highly influenced by Marxist works and by the-then Prime Minister of Ghana, Kwame Nikrumah.

In 1960, he joined the National Democratic Party and he formed the group 'Zimbabwe African Peoples Union' (ZAPU), after it was banned in September. ZAPU was led by Joshua Nkomo.

In 1963, he left ZAPU and formed the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), established on the basis of Africanist philosophies of the Pan Africanist Congress in South Africa.

Both ZANU and ZAPU were officially banned on August 26, 1964 after a long spell of political unrest. It was during this time that Mugabe was arrested and imprisoned indeterminately.

In 1974, while still in confinement, he was elected to take over ZANU. The same year, he was released from prison along with other separatist leaders, so that he could go to a conference in Lusaka, Zambia.

He fled back to the border of Southern Rhodesia and accumulated a troop of Rhodesian rebel trainees. The struggle continued through the 1970s and the economy of Zimbabwe went in a state of pandemonium.

When he was elected the President of Zimbabwe, he decided to implement a five-year plan, starting from 1989. In the course of this five-year plan, he loosened price limits for farmers, allowing them to set their own prices and he also built a number of clinics and schools for the people. By the end of the five year period, the economy had seen drastic positive change in manufacturing, mining and farming industries.