Mugabe Becomes Prime Minister

Date: April 18, 1980 • Location: Rome, Italy

Robert Mugabe became the first prime minister of Zimbabwe, beginning a 37-year period in power.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who led Zimbabwe from 1980 until 2017. He served as the country's first prime minister from 1980 to 1987 and as its second president from 1987 to 2017. He also led the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1975 to 1980 and then its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, and from the 1990s as a socialist.