Robert Mugabe’s downfall has left deep fractures in the society of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe 2017: The downfall of a liberator turned tyrant marked a historic moment for the burgeoning democracy, writes Kim Sengupta

Mugabe speaks during a press conference held at his ‘Blue Roof’ residence in Harare (Getty)

The final chapter in the story of Robert Mugabe did not follow the pattern of the downfall of other strongmen I have covered in recent years. The departures of Muammar Gaddafi, of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, which was the start of the Arab Spring, and Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine had taken place after an uprising, a period of violence of varying duration, then a sudden and, in the case of the Libyan leader, brutal ending.

The decline and fall of Zimbabwe’s president was a slow-burn, a prolonged affair. The outcome was inevitable, but it was one played out with those who deposed him going through a supposed adherence to the laws and customs and traditions, national and tribal, of the country.

Mugabe’s overthrow, his life under semi-captivity, and then his death at the age of 95 removed from the international stage one of its most well known leaders, a man who led his country to freedom from British colonial rule, and became a respected inspiration to a generation of revolutionary political activists in Africa.