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There's a lot to say about Robert Mugabe. I'll say some of it in the next couple of days. But even if you have no interest in Zimbabwe or in postcolonial Africa, here's something that he might mean to you. 1/
Looking back from the 1990s, when Mugabe's turn to authoritarianism became undeniable for anyone but his shifting cast of stooges and various excuse-makers, something became clearer that many of us had not wanted to see or engage. 2/
Mugabe became the head of ZANU in a series of internal struggles in the 1970s. His disciplined commitment to the armed struggle against the Rhodesians looked necessary compared to various compromised and compromising approaches from other leaders. And it was! 3/
But the other side of that approach was the means by which Mugabe took control of the party: conspiracy, assassination, and general ruthlessness of a highly skilled and methodical kind. 4/
So the thing you can learn from Mugabe if you are involved in any struggle might be that while you should not listen to the hand-wringing of outsiders who are essentially concern trolls, the ways that you handle power and practice inside your struggle matter. 5/
A struggle or movement is not just fighting for the future it wants to see against a world that prohibits that future. A struggle is also the forge of that future within itself. You cannot win the world if you cannot live the life you aspire to live as much as possible. 6/
It was necessary for Zimbabweans to fight Rhodesian rule. It was not necessary for the fighters to use cruelty against their own communities or within their own ranks. It was not necessary for Robert Mugabe to be in control of that fight. That is no revolution. 7/
Mugabe lost the fight for a better Zimbabwean future before he ever took power because of the way he and the people he elevated conceptualized power. Zimbabweans have had to fight that battle over and over again since 1980 as a result. They are fighting it now. 8/
If you are in struggle, you are by definition desperate. But false prophets and cruel leaders will try to tell you that your desperation forbids you to try to live into the world you are dreaming about--that you will have to wait. Do not wait. Don't listen to them. 9/
You have to live in struggle with the honesty and compassion and justice that you want to win for the world. There are no shortcuts. The only people who should not be welcome in the revolution are the revolutionaries who want to own it. Like Mugabe. They steal the future.
