(21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019)
A Tribute to Robert Gabriel Mugabe!
By All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC)
11 September 2019
It is with our deepest sadness that the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC) learned of the passing of our Comrade, older Brother, and Friend Robert Gabriel Mugabe. We offer our sincere apologies and condolences to the Mugabe family, our revolutionary sisters and brothers in the ZANU-PF, in Zimbabwe and throughout Africa and the African Diaspora. Africa and the World have lost a true and noble revolutionary leader.
Robert Mugabe, like so many of his predecessors and contemporaries, was forged in the fire of the ant-racist, anti-colonial and anti-imperialist, nationalist, Pan-Africanist and socialist struggles which engulfed the African continent and world during the 20th century and still burns in the hearts and minds of more than 1.5 billion of Africa’s and the African Diaspora’s oppressed and exploited masses into the 21st century. The liberation of Zimbabwe dealt a crippling blow to racism, colonialism and imperialism that helped shape the course of events in Africa since. With a population of barely 12 million people, Zimbabwe under Mugabe’s leadership, became a spear of Pan-Africanism to strike a blow against imperialism on multiple fronts – militarily, educationally, agriculturally, economically and politically. That spear is now passed on!
Not only did Mugabe lead the forces of liberation to remove the illegal, racist, settler-colonial regime of Rhodesia, one of England’s colonial spawns, he and the revolutionaries of ZANU-PF aided the struggle for liberation against the forces of colonialism across Southern and Central Africa – in Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, the Congo, and throughout Africa and the African Diaspora. He defended liberation movements and helped beat back forces of imperialism, colonialism, and racism worldwide. They should not sleep to deep or long, celebrating his transition. He championed African and world liberation in all international forums, challenging the African Union and the United Nations against Africa’s continued subjugation.
During the early days of independence, Mugabe reached out to the progressive and revolutionaries of the African world, inviting all who wished to build a strong and united Africa, to come home and help build Zimbabwe. Several members of the A-APRP and allied organizations enthusiastically took up his call and returned home. They are still living there today. He fought against forces, European and African, within and around Zimbabwe to secure the future of liberation. He championed mass education that has made the Zimbabwean population among the most well educated on the continent.
In spite of all the negative criticism and propaganda around Zimbabwe’s land reform, the policy of land indigenization is historically and morally correct. It is proving to be the most practical and expedient solution to two of Africa’s and the world’s many problems—homelessness and hunger. Were it not for the courage and steadfastness of Mugabe, the legacy ZANU-PF and the persistence of Zimbabwe’s working masses, the seeds of land indigenization without compensation may have gone generations more without taking root? These seeds have spread to every corner of the African world, and they will blossom one day; a glorious sight to behold.
The Zimbabwean Revolution did not begin with Mugabe, and it will not be entombed with his mortal remains, as his enemies hope. It is one of countless revolutions whose promises, and demands have not yet been completed or won. It is an idea, a movement whose time has come; and no force on earth can contain or crush it for long. And despite any setbacks and attacks that such just and righteous policies must endure, we are eternally grateful to our Comrade “Gushungo” Mugabe for his tenacity, wisdom, and steadfastness to lead us on this revolutionary path. Mistakes and errors have and will be made during that journey; victories have been and will be won.
Throughout the last half-century, most Africans in all parts of the world, have looked to Zimbabwe with pride and loyalty because of Zimbabwe’s fight against the international and domestic criminal enemies of Africa! Dear comrade Mugabe, we will continue to look for your guidance and wisdom among our ancestors as we continue our revolutionary, Pan-Africanist struggle, in which you have served us so completely. It is with the utmost admiration, respect, love, and honor that we pay tribute to you, one of Africa’s most noble and enduring Fighters. We thank you and all the revolutionary fighters of Zimbabwe, living, dead and as yet unborn, for your and their eternal contributions to the cause of African unity, liberation, and socialist transformation.
Osagefyo Kwame Nkrumah’s revolutionary, Pan-African vision of a truly liberated, unified and socialist Africa, from Cape Town to Cairo, will be materialized one day; and your contributions to the struggle will be remembered. In the meantime, the revolutionary youth of Africa, living and yet unborn, will remain steadfast, unbending and unyielding, faithful and true to our revolutionary, Pan-Africanist values and principles, objectives and beliefs. The masses of African People, 1.5 billion of us worldwide, are the true makers of history.
Nothing can stop the African winds and rains, that nourish our lives and feeds our graves!
Long Live the Pan-African Revolution!
Izwe Letu!