Africa's oldest heads of state

CAIRO

By Yassin Juma

The 22nd African Union Summit, which wrapped up last week in Addis Ababa, brought together many African leaders, including all but one of the continent's five oldest heads of state.

The following are brief biographies of these five elder statesmen, from Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe – who will turn 90 later this month – to Michael Chilufya Sata, Zambia's septuagenarian president. 

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe

Born in 1924 in Salisbury in what was then Southern Rhodesia, Robert Mugabe currently holds the unofficial title of Africa's oldest leader.

In the 1960s, he rose to prominence as secretary-general of the African National Union party, which opposed the white-minority government of Ian Smith. This led to a lengthy stint in prison, from 1964 to 1975.

Upon his release, Mugabe joined guerilla fighters in Mozambique, thus becoming a revolutionary.

He emerged from the independence war a hero, winning the 1980 elections to become Zimbabwe's first prime minister.

After holding the premiership for seven years, Mugabe assumed the presidency in 1987.

He was re-elected – amid widespread claims of vote-rigging and intimidation – in 1990, 1996 and 2002.

Mugabe was reelected again in the hotly-contested 2008 polls, which were followed by the signing of a power-sharing agreement with political rival Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change.

In 2013, Mugabe clinched yet another term as president, which is slated to end in 2018.

Over the years, he has been revered as a pan-African visionary by supporters while being accused of racism by his critics.

During the 1980s, Mugabe's socialist policies saw the national economy thrive. Since then, however, national GDP has declined by some 40 percent, according to World Bank figures, due largely to hyperinflation and land reforms that saw white-owned farms taken over by blacks.

His anti-white land reforms saw Western nations impose sanctions on Zimbabwe and suspend the country's membership in the Commonwealth.

Mugabe has often accused the US and the UK of pursuing "imperialistic" policies.

According to his profile on the Zimbabwean government's official website, Mugabe – a father of four – wed Sally Hayfron in 1961.

They remained married until her death in 1992.

Four years later, he married Grace Marufu, his former secretary.

A Roman Catholic, Mugabe is an alumnus of the University of London, the University of South Africa and the University of Fort Hare.

Cameroon's Paul Biya

At 81 years old, Cameroonian President Paul Biya currently represents Africa's second oldest ruler.

He was born in 1933 in the majority-Christian southern part of then French Cameroon.

Biya studied at the Lycee Le Grand in the Sorbonne and Sciences Po Paris, graduating in 1961 with a degree in international relations.

Upon his return to Cameroon, he climbed the ranks of the government, becoming a minister in 1968 before becoming prime minister in 1975 after the unification of Anglophone and Francophone Cameroon.

Following the resignation of Ahmadou Ahidjo in 1982, Biya became Cameroon's second president.

Running on the ticket of the People's Democratic Movement Party, he was the sole candidate in the race.

Biya survived an attempted military coup later the same year.

In the early 1990s, under mounting pressure, Biya pledged to introduce multiparty politics in the West African nation.

In 1992, he won the country's first multiparty elections, going on to win the 1997, 2004 and 2011 polls.

Biya's critics accuse him of being out of touch with the country's day-to-day affairs.

His "short stays" abroad have been fodder for the opposition, who criticize what they see as a misuse of public funds.

According to the Cameroonian government's official website, Biya has two children by wife Chantal Vigoroux, who is his junior by 38 years.

The two were married in 1994 following the death of Biya's first wife, Jeanne Irene.

Namibia's Hifikepunye Pohamba

Born in 1935, Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba currently represents Africa's third oldest head of state.

According to the Namibian government's official website, Pohamba received his earliest education at an Anglican mission.

By the age of 25, Pohambo had already entered politics, becoming a founding member of what would become Namibia's dominant party, the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO).

His political activities saw him briefly exiled to Zimbabwe and later imprisoned in Namibia.

In the early 1980s, he studied politics in the former USSR.

Pohambo served as the country's home affairs minister from 1990 to 1995.

From 1995 to 1997, he headed the country's Fisheries Ministry, before serving as a minister of state until 2000.

From 2001 to 2005, he served as minister of lands, resettlement and rehabilitation, during which he introduced several new policies in a country whose best agricultural land was still held by a white minority.

He assumed the presidency in 2005 winning the elections on a SWAPO ticket.

He was reelected in the 2009 polls.

The 78-year-old's presidential term is slated to end later in 2014. 

Sao Tome and Principe's Manuel Pinto Da Costa

The Portuguese- and German-speaking president of the cocoa-producing island-nation of Sao Tome and Principe is the African continent's fourth-oldest leader.

Born in 1937, Da Costa received his education in economics in the former East Germany.

His first stint as president lasted from 1975 to 1991.

He ruled the former Portuguese colony with an iron fist and was seen by his critics as excessively authoritarian.

Da Costa did not contest the 1991 presidential elections, the first after the legalization of opposition political parties.

An attempted comeback saw Da Costa defeated in the 1996 presidential poll.

Another electoral bid in 2001 met with a similar fate.

Following the introduction of multiparty politics in 2011, Da Costa ran again as an independent.

This time around, he won the election two decades after losing it with a campaign that promised to provide political stability and eradicate government corruption.

The opposition's main concern has been to avert any moves by Da Costa that could bring the country back to authoritarian rule. 

Zambia's Michael Chilufya Sata

Michael Chilufya Sata was born in 1937 in the village of Chitulika in the country's northern Mpika district.

During the colonial era, which ended with independence from Britain in 1964, Sata worked as a police officer, a railway worker, a porter and a trade unionist, according to his official biography.

He spent time in London at one point where he found work sweeping railway platforms.

Colonial-era trade union politics, however, eventually gave him a foothold in mainstream politics.

A social democrat, Sata became governor of the capital Lusaka in 1985 before later becoming a member of parliament.

Upon the reinstatement of multiparty politics in 1991, during the presidency of Kenneth Kaunda, he joined the ranks of the opposition, which, under Fredrick Chiluba, won elections that year.

During Chiluba's administration, Sata headed up three different ministries.

Internal wrangling within the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, however, saw him eventually part ways with Chiluba.

In 2001, Sata set up the Patriotic Party, but lost in that year's election to Levy Mwanawasa, who Chiluba had nominated for the presidency.

A second presidential bid by Sata in 2006 was likewise lost to Mwanawasa.

That election resulted in a wave of rioting after Sata's supporters disputed the poll results.

Sata's relationship with the Zambian government eventually became strained, and in 2006 he was arrested for allegedly misrepresenting the size of his financial assets.

He later reconciled with Mwanawasa, who died of a heart attack at a French hospital in 2008.

The same year, Sata lost presidential elections to Rupiah Banda.

In 2011 polls, however, Sata – by then 74 years old – beat Banda to become the fifth president of Africa's largest copper-producing country since independence.

englishnews@aa.com.tr