Mugabe, Sally (1932–1992)

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Mugabe, Sally (1932–1992)

Ghanaian-born Zimbabwean political leader. Name variations: also known as "Amai," Mother of the Nation. Born Sarah Francesca Hayfron in Accra, Gold Coast (now Ghana), in 1932; died in Harare, Zimbabwe,on January 27, 1992; had twin sister; married Robert Mugabe (first prime minister and executive president of Zimbabwe); children: son, Nhamodzenyika.

Sally Mugabe was first lady of a newly independent Zimbabwe for nearly a dozen years. For many citizens of this struggling African nation, which was experiencing a number of growing pains endemic to Third World societies, Mugabe was an inspiration and role model, particularly to Zimbabwe's educated women. She was born Sarah Francesca Hayfron in 1932 in Accra, then the British Crown Colony of the Gold Coast. Her family, which included lawyers and newspaper editors, was part of the small and increasingly confident African elite. Along with her twin sister Edith , she was an excellent student. By the time Sally was in her mid-teens she had become an enthusiastic follower of the independence movement led by a charismatic nationalist named Kwame Nkrumah. She decided to work as a schoolteacher, hoping to bring progress to the least privileged of her people. When the Gold Coast became an independent nation—the first in Black Africa to do so—on March 4, 1957, she had already begun her teaching career.

In 1959, the course of Sally's life changed forever when she met and fell in love with fellow teacher Robert Mugabe. Personally compatible, the couple would share similar political ideals and aspirations for the next three decades. Born in a rural area of Rhodesia in 1924, the son of a village carpenter, Robert was trained to be a teacher in a Roman Catholic mission school and, for a number of years, had gained experience teaching in one of these schools. He had known racism and discrimination from birth, living in what was at the time the British colony of Southern Rhodesia. Determined to dwell in an African nation that was ruled by its own citizens, Robert had accepted a teaching assignment in the newly independent Ghana during the summer of 1958. In May 1960, he returned home to take part in the rapidly growing black Rhodesian nationalist movement. In 1961, Sally married Robert in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) and adopted her husband's Roman Catholic religion. She would be a devout believer for the rest of her life.

The move from Ghana to white-governed Rhodesia was a profound shock for Sally Mugabe. She lived with her husband not in a spacious home like those she and her neighbors were accustomed to in Ghana, but rather in a matchbox township house in one of Salisbury's segregated districts reserved for "natives." As her husband's political career flourished, Sally Mugabe too became a political activist in her adopted homeland, organizing women's protests which were soon banned and broken up by police. Both she and her husband were arrested because of their political activities. During this time, she became pregnant and was placed under house arrest. Although she slipped away, the stress was likely responsible for the child being stillborn. In 1963, she went to Tanzania where she gave birth to another child, a son Nhamodzenyika ("the country is suffering"). Taken by his mother to Ghana so that he could grow up in safer conditions than those found in Rhodesia, he died of cerebral malaria at age three.

Robert Mugabe was in a Rhodesian prison when his young son died. Convicted on charges of "subversive speech," he was serving the third year of what would turn out to be ten years of imprisonment and detention. The white-rule government of Prime Minister Ian Smith (which declared unilateral independence from the British Crown in November 1965, changing its official name from Southern Rhodesia to Rhodesia) refused Robert permission to attend his son's funeral. Sally Mugabe wrote later: "I am a mother. I could have gone out and grabbed Ian Smith by the throat when I had to write and tell my husband that our child had died. … But he taught me to realise that if you spend all your time wanting revenge you stay always in the position that you were before you gained your freedom."

Soon after her son's death, Sally moved to London, where many of the leaders of the black Rhodesian freedom movement lived. In London, she took courses and also worked at a variety of jobs including teaching at the Africa Centre, but she was often short of money. She spent long hours copying in longhand sections of books she had borrowed from a local public library; these pages were then mailed to Robert, who, incarcerated in Wha Wha Prison in the heart of Rhodesia, had decided to use his time behind bars to earn bachelor of law and bachelor of administration degrees through correspondence courses offered by the University of London. He also devoted many hours tutoring other prisoners. By the time he was finally released as part of a general amnesty in December 1974, he was studying for a master of law degree.

The Mugabes were reunited in Mozambique in November 1974. For the next five years, the struggle against Ian Smith's Rhodesian regime continued, both diplomatically and in the bush, where a bloody guerilla war was waged. As the wife of a key leader of the only nationalist organization fighting for independence, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), Sally Mugabe was already filling the role of the yet-to-be-born nation's "Amai" (mother in the Shona language). When she appeared before Zimbabwean guerilla forces being trained in the neighboring nations of Mozambique and Tanzania, Mugabe was often hailed by the troops as their "Comrade Sally." By the end of the 1970s, the Mugabes' dream of an independent Zimbabwe—based on nonracial principles, working to achieve a socialist society, and nonaligned in the global Cold War—was finally coming to fruition. In January 1980, they returned in triumph to Rhodesia. After free elections that gave ZANU 63% of the total black vote, steps were taken to create a new government. On April 18, 1980, Robert Mugabe took the oath of office to become the first prime minister of the nascent nation, now called the Republic of Zimbabwe.

Freedom for Zimbabwe did not guarantee prosperity or a perfect democratic society. Quarrels with some of Robert Mugabe's former allies in the freedom struggle marred the first years of Zimbabwean nationhood. Throughout the 1980s, Robert Mugabe maneuvered to create a one-party system, with himself at the head. The introduction of a constitutional amendment in 1987 abolished the office of prime minister, creating a new "executive presidency" that combined the roles of head of state, head of government, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. On December 31, 1987, he was inaugurated as Zimbabwe's first executive president. Although her husband now wielded immense power, Sally Mugabe continued to exercise at least some restraint when it came to perceptions of her own power, diplomatically avoiding the appearance of any interest on her own part.

She had been able to exercise considerable influence as a member of both the ZANU Central Committee and, more important, its Politburo in the 1980s, but she did not assume the post of secretary of the ZANU Women's League until October 1989. This took place after her husband annulled elections held by a party subsidiary whose show of autonomy had apparently displeased him. Some critics of the Mugabe regime accused Sally of having manipulated her husband in this matter. Local political observers noted that while by 1990 her husband had given up the idea of creating a one-party state in Zimbabwe, she differed with him by continuing to support the idea. Some of her political critics even tried to link her with high-level corruption, but no hard evidence of this could ever be produced. The public image she succeeded in projecting was one of dedication to charitable and relief activities, which included founding a national Child Survival Foundation, the main task of which was the channeling of international aid to various child-welfare projects. Toward the end of her life, she often spoke of her particular concern for the plight of some of Zimbabwe's most vulnerable children, those who were both impoverished and disabled.

The achievement of Zimbabwean independence in 1980 brought stability to the lives of the Mugabes, who had been together for only six out of the first nineteen years of their marriage. Now, as Zimbabwe's Mother of the Nation, Sally could charm official foreign guests with a combination of natural grace and spontaneity. Domestically, she never stopped campaigning for her husband and went on many gruelling but necessary overseas visits. At home, she also carved out for herself a role as an activist first lady, giving countless speeches, appearing at official ceremonies, and visiting schools and hospitals. In the area of fashion, too, she left her mark by wearing long Africanprint dresses with turban-like headdresses.

Soon after independence, Sally Mugabe was diagnosed as suffering from kidney failure. She accepted the news philosophically and for 11

years would endure regular dialysis treatments, which were at best no more than palliative in nature. On several occasions, she suffered systemic collapses, undergoing major surgery in both London and Zimbabwe. Each time, she managed to recover, but by 1991 her body could no longer repair the physical damage brought on by a decade of severe illness. In October 1991, Zimbabwe hosted the meeting of Commonwealth heads of government, an occasion that included a visit by British Queen Elizabeth II . The two weeks of ceremonials, festivities, and meetings took an immense toll on Sally Mugabe's fragile health. Toward the end of the events, observers noted that the usually vivacious first lady could barely summon the strength to shuffle in and out of her scheduled appearances.

After the conference, Mugabe's health continued to deteriorate. A kidney transplant was ruled out as not feasible in her weakened condition, and, although emergency surgery brought on a brief recovery, her condition declined rapidly. She died in Harare, Zimbabwe, on January 27, 1992. Although many of the citizens of her adopted country thought well of their first lady, by the time of her death in 1992 the country's problems were immense, with little prospect of improvement. Although Robert Mugabe remained popular as a near-legendary leader, his government was generally disliked. Public reaction to Sally Mugabe's death reflected the sober national mood at the start of a second decade of independence. Upon hearing the news, many workers simply wanted to know whether or not a public holiday would be declared for her funeral (it was not).

Despite Zimbabwe's problems and the widespread disillusionment among the people, Sally Mugabe's funeral was an event filled with sadness, as well as pomp and circumstance. Here, her Ghanaian heritage dominated center stage. During her life, many of the first lady's colleagues had found it difficult fully to accept her as a Zimbabwean because she had never been able to completely master with fluency all of the subtleties of Shona, the national vernacular. But now, the customs of her native Ghana were asserted with pride as she lay in state on a golden bed which had been flown in specially from Ghana. She wore an elaborate white lace dress, and her hands and neck were adorned with traditional Ghanaian gold jewelry and trade beads. Sitting around the bed, Zimbabwean Catholic nuns sang traditional songs, alternating with Ghanaian drumming and music. Reporter Andrew Meldrum called the ceremony, "a spellbinding mix of Ghanaian and Roman Catholic traditions, as well as Zimbabwean and Western customs." As thousands of Zimbabweans filed by the bed, Robert Mugabe shook hands with each one. During the mourning period of six days, he revealed the extent of his loss by commenting, "She was a great support and help to me. I don't know if I can carry on without her." After the conclusion of the final ceremony, Sally Mugabe was declared to be a National Hero of Zimbabwe and was buried alongside 16 leading national patriots at Heroes Acre. In London, where she had once lived in exile, a building was named in her honor in May 1993 by the Phoenix Women's Health Organisation of the Borough of Southwark.

The years after her death did not bring to Zimbabwe the advancements for which its people yearned. The regime she and her husband had created was close to being a one-party state, and a flourishing culture of corruption as well as economic stagnation marred Zimbabwe's social landscape. By 1998, food riots convulsed Harare, causing the deaths of at least eight people. Discontent remained strong at the start of the new millennium. In April 2000, proand anti-Mugabe forces clashed in the streets of the national capital. Members of the emerging antiregime coalition, calling themselves the National Constitutional Assembly, were seriously injured when they were attacked by pro-government veterans of the war of liberation. Several of the protesters, including the journalist Grace Kwinjeh , were detained by police after they complained about official brutality. After two decades of independence in Zimbabwe, it was clear that the creation of a prosperous and caring society based on a respect for human rights was at least as difficult a goal to achieve as freedom once had been.