AS Zimbabwe gets ready to celebrate Independence Day on April 18, we look back at some wise words from President Mugabe over the years. One of his famous quotes is “the only white man you can trust is a dead white man.”
Below are some of his quotable quotes.
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“Africa must revert to what it was before the imperialists divided it. These are artificial divisions which we, in our pan-African concept will seek to remove.” – 1962.
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“An evil remains an evil whether practised by white against black or by black against white. Our majority rule could easily turn into inhuman rule if we oppressed, persecuted or harassed those who do not look or think like the majority of us. Democracy is never mob-rule. It is and should remain disciplined rule requiring compliance with the law and social rules. Our independence must thus not be construed as an instrument vesting individuals or groups with the right to harass and intimidate others into acting against their will. It is not the right to negate the freedom of others to think and act, as they desire.” – 1980.
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“Tomorrow is thus our birthday, the birth of a great Zimbabwe, and the birth of its nation. Tomorrow we shall cease to be men and women of the past and become men and women of the future. It’s tomorrow then, not yesterday, which bears our destiny. As we become a new people we are called to be constructive, progressive and forever forward looking, for we cannot afford to be men of yesterday, backward-looking, retrogressive and destructive. Our new nation requires of every one of us to be a new man, with a new mind, a new heart and a new spirit. Our new mind must have a new vision and our new hearts a new love that spurns hate, and a new spirit that must unite and not divide.” – 1980.
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“We are still exchanging blows with the British government. They are using gay gangsters. Each time I pass through London, the gangster regime of Blair expresses its dismay.” – 1999.
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“Our present state of mind is that you (white commercial farmers) are now our enemies because you really have behaved as enemies of Zimbabwe.” – 2000.
“What we hate is not the colour of their skins, but the evil that emanates from them.” – 2000
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“Mr Bush, Mr Blair and now Mr Brown’s sense of human rights precludes our people’s right to their God-given resources, which in their view must be controlled by their kith and kin. I am termed dictator because I have rejected this supremacist view and frustrated the neo-colonialists.” – 2004.
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“Gradually over the years, in different, phased programmes, and as a united people, we have transformed that political independence which came on the 18th of April 1980 and raised it onto the next step of economically empowering our people.” – 2012.
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“We are not dreamers anymore –we are now masters of our destiny. My gratitude and that of the leaders here, goes to the people of Zimbabwe, who have refused to be divided by the same enemy they encountered yesterday who, today, like the cunning wolf, comes in sheep’s clothing.”