Robert Mugabe quotes

Robert Mugabe was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister and later President of Zimbabwe. Under his leadership, Zimbabwe achieved independence from British colonial rule but later faced political and economic turmoil. He remains a controversial figure in African and global history. Here are 53 of his quotes:

The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans. (Robert Mugabe)
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. View quote
Robert Mugabe
I wish to assure you that there can never be any return to the state of armed conflict which existed before our commitment to peace and the democratic process of election under the Lancaster House agreement. View quote
Robert Mugabe
Stay with us, please remain in this country and constitute a nation based on national unity. View quote
Robert Mugabe
It may be necessary to use methods other than constitutional ones. View quote
Robert Mugabe
Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy! View quote
Robert Mugabe
I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people, and their right to their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold. Ten times, that is what we stand for. View quote
Robert Mugabe
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. View quote
Robert Mugabe
People are free to campaign and they will be free to vote. There won't be any soldiers, you know, at the queues. Anyone who has the right to vote is free to go and cast his vote anywhere in his own area, in his own constituency. View quote
Robert Mugabe
We pride ourselves as being top, really, on the African ladder... We feel that we have actually been advancing rather than going backwards. View quote
Robert Mugabe
The Commonwealth is a mere club, but it has become like an 'Animal Farm' where some members are more equal than others. How can Blair claim to regulate and direct events and still say all of us are equals? (Robert Mugabe)
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. View quote
Robert Mugabe
We don't mind having sanctions banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans. View quote
Robert Mugabe
Mr Bush, Mr. Blair and now Mr Brown's sense of human rights precludes our people's right to their God-given resources, which in their view must be controlled by their kith and kin. I am termed dictator because I have rejected this supremacist view and frustrated the neo-colonialists. View quote
Robert Mugabe
Our economy is a hundred times better, than the average African economy. Outside South Africa, what country is [as good as] Zimbabwe? ... What is lacking now are goods on the shelves-that is all. View quote
Robert Mugabe
That isn't true. Zimbabwe is the most highly developed country in Africa. After South Africa, I want to see another country as highly developed. [We have 14 universities and a literacy rate of over 90%, the highest in Africa. ] And yet they talk about us as a fragile state. We have a bumper harvest, not only maize, but also tobacco and many other crops. We are not a poor country. If anyone wants to call us fragile, they can. You can also call America fragile. View quote
Robert Mugabe
I have died many times. I have actually beaten Jesus Christ because he only died once. View quote
Robert Mugabe
We cannot have a situation where people decide to sit in places not allowed and when police remove them they say no. We can't have that. That is a revolt to the system. Some are crying that they were beaten. Yes you will be thoroughly beaten. When the police say move you move. If you don't move, you invite the police to use force. View quote
Robert Mugabe
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. View quote
Robert Mugabe
What we hate is not the colour of their skins but the evil that emanates from them. View quote
Robert Mugabe
What was the most important thing for (Mandela) was his release from prison and nothing else. He cherished that freedom more than anything else and forgot why he was put in jail. (Robert Mugabe)
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. View quote
Robert Mugabe
The congress is due in a few weeks from now and I will preside over its processes, which must not be prepossessed by any acts calculated to undermine or to compromise the outcomes in the eyes of the public. View quote
Robert Mugabe
It was from Tito that I drew inspiration while searching for the best road to take and when making crucial decisions during our liberation struggle. I often thought, what would Tito do at that moment? View quote
Robert Mugabe
Of the twelve million hectares that the farmers have, we said we needed about half of that for a start. Even then you will say, of course, "Take all of it!" (laughs) Even deep down as we stand by our revolutionary principles, we still recognize that there should be some little measure of charity. No? Well, I will take your message back home. View quote
Robert Mugabe