Like Uganda's Amin - but unlike South Africa's Mandela - Robert Mugabe fully understood that national liberation meant little if it was not underpinned by popular economic emancipation. That is why Amin and Mugabe became enemies of the west, but Mandela was embraced as an icon. The people celebrating Mugabe's fall do not understand imperialism. Mugabe's true legacy will be appreciated in the coming days.
Discussions about Robert Mugabe's excesses as a classic "African dictator" are incomplete without comparisons with Uganda's Idi Amin. Interestingly, as Amin was leaving power in 1979, Mugabe was just ascending as a victorious anti-colonial hero.
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