Robert Gabriel Mugabe, the former Zimbabwean leader who died in a Singapore hospital on September 6 aged 95, was a colonial liberation hero who later turned into the archetypal African strongman.
Like many of his contemporaries, Mugabe was baked in the crucible of the African Independence struggle, leading his people in a bloody war against white supremacist rule. Lasting just under seven years, that war culminated into independence for Zimbabwe in April 1980.
