President Mugabe: In His Own Words

So today marks the 88th birthday The Head of State and Government and Commander in Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.

We thought of no better way than to celebrate this moment than to put up a couple of quotes that will linger forever and define the man that he is today.

Speech at a meeting in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, 9 April 1962:

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.

In 1976 at the height of the liberation struggle

Our votes must go together with our guns. After all, any vote we shall have, shall have been the product of the gun. The gun which produces the vote should remain its security officer – its guarantor. The people’s votes and the people’s guns are always inseparable twins.

A plea to the white population of Zimbabwe in a speech at a ZANU-PF rally, 27 January 1980

Stay with us, please remain in this country and constitute a nation based on national unity.

Speech at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg (2 September 2002)

We have fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are we have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood…. So, Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.

UN General Assembly in New York on the US-led Invasion of Iraq. 2004-09-23

We are now being coerced to accept and believe that a new political-cum-religious doctrine has arisen, namely that there is but one political God, George W Bush, and Tony Blair is his prophet.

Speech to ZANU-PF Congress, 5 December 2003

Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans. Our people are overjoyed. The land is ours. We are now the rulers and owners of Zimbabwe.

And in the same place he added

If the choice was made for us, one for us to lose our sovereignty and become a member of the Commonwealth or to remain with our sovereignty and lose membership of the Commonwealth, then I would say, then let the Commonwealth go. What is it to us? Our people are overjoyed, the land is ours. We are now the rulers and owners of Zimbabwe.

Remarks following a meeting with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete (15 March 2007), commenting on a violent clash between members of his party and the opposition MDC

When they criticise the government when it tries to prevent violence and punish perpetrators of that violence we take the position that they can go hang.

88th birthday ZBC interview

We were very suspicious of each other at the beginning, but as time went on, we got to know each other. Now Tsvangirai can drink a cup of tea which I make and I have no objections drinking a cup of tea which he makes.

Also from the same interview

Not only have they [the current crop of African leaders] become cowards, but have become sellouts of our own people. Betraying, betraying the nations of Africa. That’s that AU thing. They just think of money, money, money. Material things!

We send our best wishes to His Excellency.

Also born on this day:W.H. Auden (1907), Nina Simone (1933), Alan Rickman (1946), Victor Sokolov (1947), Kelsey Grammer (1955), Mary Chapin Carpenter (1958), James Dean Bradfield (1969).

Sources: Wikiquotes, Euronews, Herald