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Foreign Affairs
Africa's Mess, Mugabe's Mayhem
By Robert I. Rotberg
Venal leaders are the curse of Africa, and Robert Mugabe is a walking reminder of how much damage they can do, says Harvard's Robert I. Rotberg. No mere thug like Idi Amin, the gifted Mugabe created modern Zimbabwe and then robbed it of its enormous potential. The comparatively well-run, well-off country that he inherited is now a corruption-riddled, autocratic mess sent into economic free fall by its kleptomaniacal president's whims including tampering with elections, sending troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and hiring goons to invade white-owned farms. An indulgent world contributed to Mugabe's sense of invincibility. Mugabe and his ilk should now be ostracized instead.
Because Mugabe is genuinely talented and because Zimbabwe is a modern state that could have one of Africa's better economies and has, per capita, one of its best-educated populations, his madcap abuse has been that much more tragic.
Mugabe grew more and more insufferable because he could thumb his nose at the international lending institutions, the Commonwealth, and the big powers. No one has yet called his bluff.