The politics of Zimbabwe have been closely linked – much for the worse – to the fortunes of one man, Robert Gabriel Mugabe. Born in 1924, the wily octogenarian has led his state from prosperity to utter misery, with a ruined economy, a collapsed public health system, and a hungry and sometimes starving population. A massive ten-month cholera outbreak beginning in August 2008 is only the latest in a series of disasters. Details of how such a massive catastrophe occurred require far more space than is available here, but a short overview shows how this failed state has ruined the lives not only of its own population, but of thousands more living in the Southern African region.

Mugabe rose to prominence in the 1960s as the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). Frequently threatened and sometimes jailed by the dominant white minority in what was then Southern Rhodesia, Mugabe fled the country in 1974 to join the “Second Chimurenga,” as the war for liberation was called. Mugabe emerged victorious at the end of the war in 1979 and won a sweeping victory in the general elections the next year. With the help of violent intimidation, Mugabe as prime minister consolidated power over ZANU's rival, the Zimbabwe African Peoples' Union (ZAPU), led by Joshua Nkomo. ZAPU drew most of its support from the Ndebele-speaking region in the south, centered on Bulawayo, the country's second city, whereas ZANU was dominated by Shona-speaking peoples in Harare and in rural Zimbabwe outside Matableland.