Robert Gabriel Mugabe (born 1924) was in the forefront of the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) for nearly two decades. Despite detention and harassment from the white settler regime, Mugabe resisted attempts to break him and maintained a fierce commitment to the principles of racial equality and democracy. In 1980 he was rewarded by becoming Zimbabwe's first elected black prime minister.

Robert Mugabe was born on February 21, 1924, at Kutama Mission in Zvimba, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) four months after it became a British Crown colony. Mugabe was the son of a peasant farmer and carpenter. He began his education at a nearby Jesuit mission and soon proved an able student under the guidance of Father O'Hea. For nine years he taught in various schools while also continuing to study privately for his matriculation certificate before going on to the University of Fort Hare in South Africa, where he...