Robert Mugabe Steps Down After 37 Years of Dictatorship

1980

Robert Mugabe and Lord Soames in Rhodesia, which gains independence on 18 April after 90 years as a British colony, taking the new name Zimbabwe.Mugabe, head of the Zimbabwe African National Union, takes the reins as prime minister. Joshua Nkomo, head of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union, Mugabe’s partner in the armed struggle, becomes interior minister
Photograph: Herbie Knott/Rex/Shutterstock