Book on Mugabe's political career set for launch next week

Leaders for Africa Network (LAN) in partnership with the Southern African Political-Economy Series (SAPES) Trust, is set to launch a book on the late former president Robert Gabriel Mugabe's political career as part of commemorating his second death anniversary.

Mugabe who ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years before he was toppled by the military in November 2017 to pave way for the current President Emmerson Mnangagwa, later died on September 6, 2019.

"Leaders for Africa Network (LAN) in partnership with renowned academic Ibbo Mandaza's regional think-tank, the Southern African Political-Economy Series (SAPES) Trust, is set to launch a book tracing the philosophical footpath and political grounding of the former President of Zimbabwe, the late Robert Gabriel Mugabe," said LAN Research and Publication Coordinator, Pofela Ndzozi in a statement.

"The book will be launched at an extraordinary session of the SAPES Policy Dialogue on Thursday, 09 September 2021."

The launch of the book, Re/membering Robert Gabriel Mugabe: Politics, Legacy, Philosophy, Life and Death, Ndzozi said is a befitting homage to an African leader.

"The book highlights Robert Mugabe's statecraft milestones and pitfalls before and after Zimbabwe's independence in April 1980," explained Ndzozi.

"The essays in the book also interrogate Mugabe's statesmanship within the broad-based ideological benchmarks of African nationalism and pan-Africanism. In his foreword, the founding proponent of the Afrocentricity theory, Prof. Molefi Kete Asante, who is also Professor and Chair, Department of Africology and African American Studies, Temple University, applauded LAN Readers for producing this book."

He said the "good work" should be credited to the editors of the volume who have championed science and decency, love of truth and revelations about inadequacies, and achievements that have sustained the nation," he said.

"The readers will understand that Robert Mugabe as a Zimbabwean political figure was not a perfect man; neither was he the devil that he was painted to be by the Western media. That is not to say that he was not eccentric in some ways, but rather to try to understand the circumstances of his paranoia at being surrounded by international forces seeking to bring down one's country."

The book was edited by Namibian-based Zimbabwean scholar Dr Collen Sabao, Richard Runyararo Mahomva, the Executive Coordinator of Leaders for Africa Network, and Dr Lawrence Mhandara, a senior lecturer with the University of Zimbabwe's Department of Governance and Public Management.

The fourteen-chapter volume draws its contributions from a cohort of reputable and upcoming academics and active politicians who include Zanu-PF's Secretary for Administration and a long-serving cabinet minister in Mugabe's government, Dr Obert Mpofu

Other notable figures among the contributors include Prof Jairos Kangura, Dr Enerst Jakaza, Isaac Mhute, Nelson Mlambo, Richard Muranda, Lenin Chisaira, and Avoid Masiraha, among others.

Mugabe, born on 21 February 1924 was Zimbabwe's head of state for almost four decades, first as prime minister (1980 – 1987) and later as executive president (1987 – 2017).