The Military’s Role in the Fall of Robert Mugabe in 2017

Zimbabwe’s long-time president Robert Mugabe was forced to resign the presidency in November 2017, following a political intervention by the country’s military, alongside wide-scale popular calls for his resignation. This historic moment was underpinned by almost two decades of chronic political and economic crisis, including intensified factional fighting within Mugabe’s dominant party, Zanu PF.  Miles Tendi was in Zimbabwe from December 2017 to January 2018 and again in March 2018, conducting fieldwork in which he attempted to understand the military’s motivations and vision for Zimbabwe’s political future.  In this talk, he discusses some of the key findings from this research.

Miles Tendi is Associate Professor in African Politics at the University of Oxford, where he holds joint appointments in the African Studies Centre and the Department of Politics and International Relations. Before joining the University of Oxford, he worked as a risk consultant for Control Risks (London). His research interests include: intellectuals, society and the state; civil-military relations; the existence and uses of ‘evil’ in politics; intelligence studies; security sector reform (SSR); biographical research; and southern African politics in general. He has published widely on these themes. His forthcoming book, Ashes & Fire: Life of Solomon Mujuru, will be published by Cambridge University Press in Autumn 2018.

Please note that in order for the speaker to discuss his work freely and to protect the identity of his sources, this talk will be under Chatham House rule.