African leaders honor Mugabe at state funeral in Zimbabwe

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe gave former president Robert Mugabe a state funeral on Saturday in Harare with African leaders paying tribute to Mugabe who was lauded him as a liberation hero.

Mugabe died in Singapore on Sept 6 at the age of 95. The former leader of Zimbabwe, who ruled the country for nearly four decades until forced to resign in 2017, was set to be buried at the National Heroes Acre in Harare after completion of a mausoleum being built for him at the top of the shrine.

In his eulogy, Equatorial Guinea President Teodore Obiang Nguema said the whole of Africa was mourning the loss of a great fighter and a worthy combatant of Africa's causes.

The whole of the African continent and particularly the people of Zimbabwe have lost a contemporary leader of this millennium. A true defender of human dignity all over the world and a strong defender of the sovereign rights of the people of Zimbabwe, he said.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said Mugabe will be remembered as a pan-Africanist who selflessly dedicated his life to the emancipation of Zimbabwe and Africa.

"He was a visionary leader and relentless champion of African dignity. Mugabe has left an indelible mark in the history of Zimbabwe and African continent at large through his political astuteness and zeal for the economic and political liberation of Africa," Kenyatta said.

He said keeping Mugabe's dream of a truly free and prosperous Africa will be the most befitting tribute that Africa can pay to the departed African statesman.

Former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings said Mugabe was not only a teacher but an impressive moral campus.

"Our enduring affection for Mugabe is equally rooted in the strong bonds of brotherhood that derived from his growing up, studying and teaching and by marrying a Ghanaian girl," Rawlings said, referring to Mugabe's first wife Sally, who was from Ghana. She died in Harare in 1992 and was buried at the National Heroes Acre.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Mugabe stood by South Africa during the years it was fighting apartheid.

He was a committed pan-Africanist, unwavering in his belief and destiny and fortunes of Africa, Ramaphosa said.

Former Namibian president Sam Nujoma said Mugabe was a great freedom fighter who made great contribution to the total liberation of Africa.

Gu Shengzu, a special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and also vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said China will fondly remember Mugabe's great contribution to the all-round development of China-Zimbabwe and China-Africa ties.

The vice-president of Cuba, Ines Maria Chapman, said Mugabe was a historic leader of Africa who worked tirelessly for the development of close ties between Zimbabwe and Cuba.

"Mugabe was a very good friend of Cuba and a good friend of our historic leader Fidel Castro," she said.

Xinhua - AFP

(China Daily Global 09/16/2019 page7)