Latest reports claim that the 92 year old leader of independent Zimbabwe, Robert Gabriel Mugabe was not born in Zimbabwe but born in Malawi in 1924.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born to a Malawian father, Gabriel Matibili, and a Shona mother, Bona, a daughter Chief Gutu of the Karanga tribe and Gumbo mutupo (totem) Masvingo Province at St. Anne’s Hospital in Nhkotakota, one of the oldest hospitals in Malawi. The large fig tree immediately in front of the hospital gate was the site of a meeting between David Livingstone and the Jumbe (chief) in 1863 to forge an agreement to end the slave trade in the region. The hospital opened in 1894. Since then it has gone through several cycles of expansion and contraction. Opening a nursing school closed previously is being considered. There are sections of inpatient beds which are not in use because of lack of patients. The hospital was once the region’s prime maternity and neonatal unit, including a midwifery school begun in 1944. Even though it is not as much utilized as in the past, deliveries and Caesarean sections continue to be a significant part of the hospital activity.

Both Robert Mugabe’s parents, Matibili and Bona, were Roman Catholic. He was the third of six children. He had two older brothers, Michael (1919–34) and Raphael. Both his older brothers died when he was young, leaving Robert and his younger brother, Donato (1926–2007), and two younger sisters – Sabina and Bridgette.

Matibili and Bona left Malawi and later moved to Zvimba with young Robert Gabriel, just outside Harare where Matibili continued to do carpentry work for the local missionary schools and churches. Fed up with the rural life of Zvimba, Mugabe’s father abandoned the family in 1934 after Michael died, in search of work in Bulawayo.

Thus Robert Mugabe grew up without a father and kept to himself with no friends. Growing up, he enjoyed going to church in Zvimba and sang in the choir. Those who know how he grew up speculate that the fact that he was a lonely boy might have resulted in his arrogant and stubborn outlook on life where he never admits that, like all humans, he makes mistakes, and that he is always right. Growing up in racist Rhodesia, he always wanted to find a way to make the white Rhodesians pay back for their evil deeds to black Zimbabweans. It is this drive that pushed him to get into politics. Once he got into power, Mugabe used his power to revenge the whites taking of Zimbabwe ancestors land and going an extra step of seizing their properties and businesses and farms and sharing them among his close friends.

Meanwhile, the Malawians are not very excited to learn that Mugabe was born in their country and are asking that he stays in Zimbabwe as bringing him to Malawi could be disastrous for the Malawi economy as anything that Mugabe touches does not turn to gold but to rust. However, at home, the Zimbabweans have said the Malawians must come and take their son, if they do not take him, the Malawians will be forced to take him anyway.

Elton Mphwiyo