“We belong to this continent, Africa. We don’t mind having and bearing sanctions banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans. We have not asked for any inch of Europe. ... So, Blair — keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe.” (2002)
- “We belong to this continent, Africa. We don’t mind having and bearing sanctions banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans. We have not asked for any inch of Europe. … So, Blair — keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe.” (2002)
- “We are still exchanging blows with the British government. They are using gay gangsters. Each time I pass through London, the gangster regime of Blair expresses its dismay.” — Reference to Peter Tatchell after attempted arrest (October 1999)
- “We need continuity in our race, and that comes from the woman, and no to homosexuality. John and John, no; Maria and Maria, no … I keep pigs, and the male pigs know the female ones.” (2013)
- “The only white man you can trust is a dead white man.”
- If President Barack Obama wants me to allow marriage for same-sex couples in my country, he must come so that I marry him first.” — 2015 after US Supreme Court legalises same-sex marriages
- “Some are saying, ‘Mr Mugabe is old, so he should step down’ … No! When my time comes, I will tell you.” (2014)
- “Our party must continue to strike fear in the heart of the white man, our real enemy.” — Addressing a political rally in 2000
- “The British were brought up as a violent people, liars, scoundrels and crooks… I am told that (former British PM Tony) Blair was a troublesome little boy at school.” (2001)
- “Mandela has gone a bit too far in doing good to the non-black communities, really in some cases at the expense of (blacks)… That’s being too saintly, too good.” (2013)
- “I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people.” — Funeral of a Cabinet minister (2003)
- “Some of us were embarrassed, if not frightened, by what appeared to be the return of the biblical giant gold Goliath. Are we having a return of Goliath to our midst, who threatens the extinction of other countries?… May I say to the United States President, Mr Trump, please blow your trumpet. Blow your trumpet in a musical way towards the values of unity, peace, cooperation, togetherness, dialogue, which we have always stood for.” — United Nations General Assembly (2013)
- “I wanted children and this is how I thought I could get them. I knew what I was doing and my wife knew.” (Before his first wife died in 1992, Mugabe started a relationship with Grace, whom he married in 1996.) (1998)
- “African resources belong to Africa. Others may come to assist as our friends and allies, but no longer as colonisers or oppressors, no longer as racists.” — After election as AU chair in 2015
- “I have died many times. That’s where I have beaten Christ. Christ died once and resurrected once. I have died and resurrected and I don’t know how many times I will die and resurrect.” — State radio on 88th birthday
- “Only God, who appointed me, will remove me — not the MDC, not the British. Only God will remove me!” — 2008 election rally
- “Britain is a very cold, uninhabitable country with small houses.” — Mutare rally 2013
- “We have fought for our land, we have fought for our sovereignty, small as we are we have won our independence and we are prepared to shed our blood… So, Blair keep your England, and let me keep my Zimbabwe.” — Earth Summit, South Africa (2002)
- “Cricket civilises people and creates good gentlemen. I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe; I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen.” (Widely reported quote)
- “Let Mr Bush read history correctly. Let him realise that both personally and in his representative capacity as the current president of the United States, he stands for this ‘civilisation’, which occupied, which colonised, which incarcerated, which killed. He has much to atone for and very little to lecture us on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His hands drip with [the] innocent blood of many nationalities.” — UN General Assembly (2007)
- “Grooming a successor, is it an inheritance? In a democratic party, you don’t want leaders appointed that way. They have to be appointed properly by the people.” — Television interview (2016)
- “The wrongs of the past must now stand forgiven and forgotten. If ever we look to the past, let us do so for the lesson the past has taught us, namely that oppression and racism are inequalities that must never find scope in our political and social system. It could never be a correct justification that just because the whites oppressed us yesterday when they had power, the blacks must oppress them today because they have power. An evil remains an evil whether practised by white against black or black against white.” — Independence speech (1980)
- “The courts can do whatever they want, but no judicial decision will stand in our way … My own position is that we should not even be defending our position in the courts. This country is our country and this land is our land … They think because they are white they have a divine right to our resources. Not here. The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans, Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans.” — 2001 at the height of farm invasions
- “The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans.” — Zanu PF conference (2000)
