He lived and terrorized people for 95 years. Mugube became a blood-soaked tyrant who took his country from the bread basket of Africa to basket case in one generation.

His 40-year leadership of the former British colony was marked with bloodshed, persecution of political opponents and vote-rigging on an industrial scale. Mugabe once said he was the “Hitler” of his time.

He once said ‘only God’ could ever remove him.

Mugabe sanctioned the massacre of as many as 20,000 mostly ethnic Ndebele people in western Zimbabwe. The carnage came soon after he helped end white colonial rule in the African country in 1980.

Mugabe led massacres against political opponents. Tens of thousands of ethnic Ndebeles were killed — including many found in mass graves that the victims reportedly had to dig themselves.

As the economy continued to worsen under Magube he gave his blessing to roving bands of so-called war veterans to embark on often violent seizures of hundreds of white-owned farms they claimed had been stolen by settlers.

Mugabe called the land battle “The Third Chimurenga,” deliberately linking the farm seizure program to Zimbabwe’s struggle against colonial rule.

Many of the farms were turned over to Mugabe’s cronies, who subsequently did not harvest the land, further contributing to Zimbabwe’s economic collapse. International aid and foreign investment dried up in the wake of the land-seizure program, and the US and European Union imposed economic sanctions on the country.

His reputation for ruthlessness stemmed from this period. Later Mugabe would boast of having a “degree in violence”.

The genocide came to be known as Gukurahundi, a Shona language word that is loosely translated to mean the “early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains.”

In 2007, the University of Edinburgh withdrew the honorary degree it awarded Mugabe in 1984 for his services to education in Africa. In 2008, the UK stripped him of his 1994 knighthood and the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees revoked the honorary law degree it gave to Mugabe in 1986.

Mugabe’s lasting legacy was epitomised by British author Andrew Norman in his book, Robert Mugabe and the Betrayal of Zimbabwe. He wrote:

“Instead of leading his people to the promised land, Mugabe on the one hand amassed a fortune for himself, his family and his followers and on the other hand presided over the deliberate murder, torture and starvation of those who opposed him. In short Mugabe betrayed his people.”

Born on February 21, 1924, in what was then British-ruled Southern Rhodesia, the self-confessed Marxist was raised in a Catholic mission before becoming a school teacher. In 2000 he led a campaign to evict white farmers from their land, which was given to black Zimbabweans, and led to famine.

In 2000, Mugabe launched a campaign to evict white farmers from their land and give it to black Zimbabweans, a move that led to famine.

Mugabe’s henchmen attacked white farmers, killing many, setting their homes ablaze, looting their property, and confiscating their land.

“Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy,” Mugabe declared in 2002.  Mugabe retained a firm grip over Zimbabwe for 37 years by rigging elections and crushing dissent.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Mugabe’s desire to be the supreme, unchallenged and lifetime leader of Zimbabwe birthed political violence, forced disappearances, tortures, rigged elections, corruption and an economy that collapsed multiple times in one generation, leaving millions desperately poor.

In his “retirement,” Mugabe was rarely seen in public, instead spending his time between Singapore, where he received medical treatment, and his plush 25-room Blue House residence in Harare.

Sightings of his wife, nicknamed “Gucci Grace” for her love of designer goods, became similarly scarce. The couple were criticized for their luxury lifestyles as the country was plunged into economic ruin.

He celebrated his 85th birthday with an opulent party that cost a reported $250,000 and continued to hold such birthday events annually, last year spending a reported $800,000 and celebrating in a region suffering drought and food shortages.

Xi Jinping the Chinese leader welcomed Mugabe to Beijing in 2011, describing him as an “old friend” of China and the “famed leader of the national liberation movement in Africa.”

The Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcomed Mugabe to Tehran in 2012, praising his “brilliant record in fighting the western arrogant powers.”

After assuming power in 1980, Mugabe struck up a rapport with communist dictator Kim Il-Sung, the grandfather of Kim Jong-un who founded the modern Stalinist state. The pair reached an agreement where Pyongyang would train a wing of the Zimbabwean army, known as the Fifth Brigade, which Mugabe sought complete control as part of his bid to consolidate power in the country. The Fifth Brigade was responsible for the Gukurahundi genocide of the Ndebele people, which is believed to have resulted in at least 20,000 deaths.

In 2010, Mugabe sparked international outrage from animal welfare advocates and conservationists after sending a range of wild animals, including baby elephants too young to leave their mothers, to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il as a gift. As noted by ABC, the animals “faced almost certain death” as a result of trauma and the regime’s inability to fulfill their basic needs.

Castro’s Cuba

With the Castro regime long interested in pursuing relationships with African countries such as South Africa and Angola, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe was also a close ally of the regime. In 2007, state propaganda outlet Granma announced Cuba’s “solidarity with the people and government of Zimbabwe, the support for its struggle in defense of the most sacred and inalienable rights, and the absolute rejection of attempts to isolate that African country.”

In 2004, the late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez praised Mugabe as a “freedom fighter” during a visit to Caracas, bestowing him with a replica of South American independence hero Simón Bolívar’s sword.

Mugabe was forced to resign in November 2017, at age 93.

His brutal record will live long after his name is forgotten.

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