Robert Mugabe in verse and disappointment

Chaka Sichangi invited three poets to his Philharmonic Poet blog to collaborate on portraits of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The results, in four hugely different styles, portray not the political and economic conflicts he and his government have become increasingly known for, but rather the promise and the disappointment that Mugabe has signified not just to his own people but to the rest of Africa and the international community. Philippa Hatendi, Lavern Rutivi, Peter Kawuma and Sichangi touch on mythology, the corrupting influence of power, and the frequently recurring patterns that make up and eventually lead to the demise of the image of a savior. Where another form could have conveyed a specific grievance with Mugabe's policies, these four poems, written independently of one another, communicate more effectively the general exhaustion (and familiarity) with a political hero's fall from grace than any detailing of his controversies.

Riddle me an African Revolution,
A guerrilla riddled with an illustrious academic pallet and conscious of western ways,
And so gentlemen cast in their lot with rebels, and indeed what is civility in the absence of freedom?