Mugabe's Ghana connection

Do you know that during his stay in Ghana, Robert Gabriel Mugabe was influenced and inspired by Ghana's then-Prime Minister, Kwame Nkrumah? In addition, do you know his Ghanaian wife Sally Hayfron, a teacher and political activist also honed his political life? Do you know Mugabe holds seven degrees?

President Mugabe was born on February 21, 1924, near Kutama, northeast of Harare. He fought a bloody guerrilla warfare against the white colonial rulers campaigning for majority rule in the then Southern Rhodesia in the early 1960s as publicity secretary of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU).

Mugabe and some of his Zimbabwe African National Union party cadres received instruction at the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute, then at Winneba.At the end of the war in 1979, Mugabe emerged as a hero in the minds of many Africans.Mugabe then became the first Prime Minister after calling for reconciliation between formerly warring parties, including the white people as well as rival parties.According to a 1995 World Bank report, after independence, Zimbabwe gave priority to human resource investments and support for smallholder agriculture,and as a result, smallholder agriculture expanded rapidly during the first half of the 1980s and social indicators improved quickly.From 1980 to 1990 infant mortality decreased from 86 to 49 per 1000 live births, under five mortality was reduced from 128 to 58 per 100,000 live births, and immunisation increased from 25% to 80% of the population. Also, child malnutrition fell from 22% to 12% and life expectancy increased from 56 to 64. By 1990, Zimbabwe had a lower infant mortality rate, higher adult literacy and higher school enrollment rate than average for developing countries. He even received the Knight Grand Cross by the Queen Elizabeth II. However he was stripped of his honorary KGC by the Queen, as a mark of revulsion at the abuse of human rights and abject disregard for the democratic process in Zimbabwe over which President Mugabe has presided.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was elected Prime Minister of Zimbabwe at the age of 52. Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union, ZANU, won 57 of the 80 available seats in the 100 seat Assembly (the 20 seats reserved for whites were won by Ian Smith's Rhodesian Front). Joshua Nkomo, the Zimbabwe African People's Union, ZAPU, leader is included in Mugabe's cabinet. Independence is internationally recognized on 18 April 1980.

Following the death of his Ghanaian wife from kidney failure, in 1996, Mugabe married his onetime secretary, Grace Marufu, who is more than four decades younger than Mugabe, and with whom he had two children while his wife Sally's health was failing. Mugabe and Grace have three children: Bona, Robert Peter Jr., and Bellarmine Chatunga.