title: Amanita muscaria

text: In cases of serious poisoning the mushroom causes delirium, somewhat similar in effect to anticholinergic poisoning (such as that caused by "Datura stramonium"), characterised by bouts of marked agitation with confusion, hallucinations, and irritability followed by periods of central nervous system depression. Seizures and coma may also occur in severe poisonings. Symptoms typically appear after around 30 to 90 minutes and peak within three hours, but certain effects can last for several days. In the majority of cases recovery is complete within 12 to 24 hours. The effect is highly variable between individuals, with similar doses potentially causing quite different reactions. Some people suffering intoxication have exhibited headaches up to ten hours afterwards. Retrograde amnesia and somnolence can result following recovery.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: Medical attention should be sought in cases of suspected poisoning. If the delay between ingestion and treatment is less than four hours, activated charcoal is given. Gastric lavage can be considered if the patient presents within one hour of ingestion. Inducing vomiting with syrup of ipecac is no longer recommended in any poisoning situation.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: There is no antidote, and supportive care is the mainstay of further treatment for intoxication. Though sometimes referred to as a deliriant and while muscarine was first isolated from "A. muscaria" and as such is its namesake, muscimol does not have action, either as an agonist or antagonist, at the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor site, and therefore atropine or physostigmine as an antidote is not recommended. If a patient is delirious or agitated, this can usually be treated by reassurance and, if necessary, physical restraints. A benzodiazepine such as diazepam or lorazepam can be used to control combativeness, agitation, muscular overactivity, and seizures. Only small doses should be used, as they may worsen the respiratory depressant effects of muscimol. Recurrent vomiting is rare, but if present may lead to fluid and electrolyte imbalances; intravenous rehydration or electrolyte replacement may be required. Serious cases may develop loss of consciousness or coma, and may need intubation and artificial ventilation. Hemodialysis can remove the toxins, although this intervention is generally considered unnecessary. With modern medical treatment the prognosis is typically good following supportive treatment.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: The wide range of psychoactive effects have been variously described as depressant, sedative-hypnotic, psychedelic, dissociative, or deliriant; paradoxical effects such as stimulation may occur however. Perceptual phenomena such as synesthesia, macropsia, and micropsia may occur; the latter two effects may occur either simultaneously or alternatingly, as part of Alice in Wonderland syndrome, collectively known as dysmetropsia, along with related distortions pelopsia and teleopsia. Some users report lucid dreaming under the influence of its hypnotic effects. Unlike "Psilocybe cubensis", "A. muscaria" cannot be commercially cultivated, due to its mycorrhizal relationship with the roots of pine trees. However, following the outlawing of psilocybin mushrooms in the United Kingdom in 2006, the sale of the still legal "A. muscaria" began increasing.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: Professor Marija Gimbutienė, a renowned Lithuanian historian, reported to R. Gordon Wasson on the use of this mushroom in Lithuania. In remote areas of Lithuania, "Amanita muscaria" has been consumed at wedding feasts, in which mushrooms were mixed with vodka. The professor also reported that the Lithuanians used to export "A. muscaria" to the Sami in the Far North for use in shamanic rituals. The Lithuanian festivities are the only report that Wasson received of ingestion of fly agaric for religious use in Eastern Europe.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: "Amanita muscaria" was widely used as an entheogen by many of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. Its use was known among almost all of the Uralic-speaking peoples of western Siberia and the Paleosiberian-speaking peoples of the Russian Far East. There are only isolated reports of "A. muscaria" use among the Tungusic and Turkic peoples of central Siberia and it is believed that on the whole entheogenic use of "A. muscaria" was not practised by these peoples. In western Siberia, the use of "A. muscaria" was restricted to shamans, who used it as an alternative method of achieving a trance state. (Normally, Siberian shamans achieve trance by prolonged drumming and dancing.) In eastern Siberia, "A. muscaria" was used by both shamans and laypeople alike, and was used recreationally as well as religiously. In eastern Siberia, the shaman would take the mushrooms, and others would drink his urine. This urine, still containing psychoactive elements, may be more potent than the "A. muscaria" mushrooms with fewer negative effects such as sweating and twitching, suggesting that the initial user may act as a screening filter for other components in the mushroom.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: The Koryak of eastern Siberia have a story about the fly agaric ("wapaq") which enabled Big Raven to carry a whale to its home. In the story, the deity "Vahiyinin" ("Existence") spat onto earth, and his spittle became the "wapaq", and his saliva becomes the warts. After experiencing the power of the "wapaq", Raven was so exhilarated that he told it to grow forever on earth so his children, the people, could learn from it. Among the Koryaks, one report said that the poor would consume the urine of the wealthy, who could afford to buy the mushrooms. It was reported that the local reindeer would often follow an individual intoxicated by the muscimol mushroom, and if said individual were to urinate in snow the reindeer would become similarly intoxicated and the Koryak people's would use the drunken state of the reindeer to more easily rope and hunt them.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: The Finnish historian T. I. Itkonen mentions that "A. muscaria" was once used among the Sami people: sorcerers in Inari would consume fly agarics with seven spots. In 1979, Said Gholam Mochtar and Hartmut Geerken published an article in which they claimed to have discovered a tradition of medicinal and recreational use of this mushroom among a Parachi-speaking group in Afghanistan. There are also unconfirmed reports of religious use of "A. muscaria" among two Subarctic Native American tribes. Ojibwa ethnobotanist Keewaydinoquay Peschel reported its use among her people, where it was known as (an abbreviation of the name "oshtimisk wajashkwedo" (= "red-top mushroom")). This information was enthusiastically received by Wasson, although evidence from other sources was lacking. There is also one account of a Euro-American who claims to have been initiated into traditional Tlicho use of "Amanita muscaria". The flying reindeer of Santa Claus, who is called Joulupukki in Finland, could symbolize the use of "A. muscaria" by Sámi shamans.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: The notion that Vikings used "A. muscaria" to produce their berserker rages was first suggested by the Swedish professor Samuel Ödmann in 1784. Ödmann based his theories on reports about the use of fly agaric among Siberian shamans. The notion has become widespread since the 19th century, but no contemporary sources mention this use or anything similar in their description of berserkers. Muscimol is generally a mild relaxant, but it can create a range of different reactions within a group of people. It is possible that it could make a person angry, or cause them to be "very jolly or sad, jump about, dance, sing or give way to great fright". Comparative analysis of symptoms have, however, since shown "Hyoscyamus niger" to be a better fit to the state that characterises the berserker rage.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: "Amanita muscaria" is traditionally used for catching flies possibly due to its content of ibotenic acid and muscimol.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: Recently, an analysis of nine different methods for preparing "A. muscaria" for catching flies in Slovenia have shown that the release of ibotenic acid and muscimol did not depend on the solvent (milk or water) and that thermal and mechanical processing led to faster extraction of ibotenic acid and muscimol.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: In 1968, R. Gordon Wasson proposed that "A. muscaria" was the "soma" talked about in the Rigveda of India, a claim which received widespread publicity and popular support at the time. He noted that descriptions of "Soma" omitted any description of roots, stems or seeds, which suggested a mushroom, and used the adjective "hári" "dazzling" or "flaming" which the author interprets as meaning red. One line described men urinating "Soma"; this recalled the practice of recycling urine in Siberia. Soma is mentioned as coming "from the mountains", which Wasson interpreted as the mushroom having been brought in with the Aryan migrants from the north. Indian scholars Santosh Kumar Dash and Sachinanda Padhy pointed out that both eating of mushrooms and drinking of urine were proscribed, using as a source the "Manusmṛti".


title: Amanita muscaria

text: In 1971, Vedic scholar John Brough from Cambridge University rejected Wasson's theory and noted that the language was too vague to determine a description of Soma. In his 1976 survey, "Hallucinogens and Culture", anthropologist Peter T. Furst evaluated the evidence for and against the identification of the fly agaric mushroom as the Vedic Soma, concluding cautiously in its favour. Kevin Feeney and Trent Austin compared the references in the Vedas with the filtering mechanisms in the preparation of Amanita muscaria and published findings supporting the proposal that fly-agaric mushrooms could be a likely candidate for the sacrament. Other proposed candidates include "Psilocybe cubensis", "Peganum harmala," and "Ephedra."


title: Amanita muscaria

text: While far from widely accepted, philologist, archaeologist, and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar John Marco Allegro postulated that early Christian theology was derived from a fertility cult revolving around the entheogenic consumption of "A. muscaria" in his 1970 book "The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross." This theory has found little support by scholars outside the field of ethnomycology. The book was widely criticized by academics and theologians, including Sir Godfrey Driver, Emeritus Professor of Semitic Philology at Oxford University and Henry Chadwick, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. Christian author John C. King wrote a detailed rebuttal of Allegro's theory in the 1970 book "A Christian View of the Mushroom Myth"; he notes that neither fly agarics nor their host trees are found in the Middle East, even though cedars and pines are found there, and highlights the tenuous nature of the links between biblical and Sumerian names coined by Allegro. He concludes that if the theory were true, the use of the mushroom must have been "the best kept secret in the world" as it was so well concealed for two thousand years.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: The toxins in "A. muscaria" are water-soluble: parboiling "A. muscaria" fruit bodies can detoxify them and render them edible, although consumption of the mushroom as a food has never been widespread. The consumption of detoxified "A. muscaria" has been practiced in some parts of Europe (notably by Russian settlers in Siberia) since at least the 19th century, and likely earlier. The German physician and naturalist Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff wrote the earliest published account on how to detoxify this mushroom in 1823. In the late 19th century, the French physician Félix Archimède Pouchet was a populariser and advocate of "A. muscaria" consumption, comparing it to manioc, an important food source in tropical South America that must also be detoxified before consumption.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: Use of this mushroom as a food source also seems to have existed in North America. A classic description of this use of "A. muscaria" by an African-American mushroom seller in Washington, D.C., in the late 19th century is described by American botanist Frederick Vernon Coville. In this case, the mushroom, after parboiling, and soaking in vinegar, is made into a mushroom sauce for steak. It is also consumed as a food in parts of Japan. The most well-known current use as an edible mushroom is in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. There, it is primarily salted and pickled.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: A 2008 paper by food historian William Rubel and mycologist David Arora gives a history of consumption of "A. muscaria" as a food and describes detoxification methods. They advocate that "Amanita muscaria" be described in field guides as an edible mushroom, though accompanied by a description on how to detoxify it. The authors state that the widespread descriptions in field guides of this mushroom as poisonous is a reflection of cultural bias, as several other popular edible species, notably morels, are also toxic unless properly cooked.


title: Amanita muscaria

text: The red-and-white spotted toadstool is a common image in many aspects of popular culture. Garden ornaments and children's picture books depicting gnomes and fairies, such as the Smurfs, often show fly agarics used as seats, or homes. Fly agarics have been featured in paintings since the Renaissance, albeit in a subtle manner. For instance, in Hieronymus Bosch's painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights, the mushroom can be seen on the left-hand panel of the work. In the Victorian era they became more visible, becoming the main topic of some fairy paintings. Two of the most famous uses of the mushroom are in the "Mario" franchise (specifically two of the Super Mushroom power-up items and the platforms in several stages which are based on a fly agaric), and the dancing mushroom sequence in the 1940 Disney film "Fantasia".


title: Amanita muscaria

text: An account of the journeys of Philip von Strahlenberg to Siberia and his descriptions of the use of the "mukhomor" there was published in English in 1736. The drinking of urine of those who had consumed the mushroom was commented on by Anglo-Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith in his widely read 1762 novel, "Citizen of the World". The mushroom had been identified as the fly agaric by this time. Other authors recorded the distortions of the size of perceived objects while intoxicated by the fungus, including naturalist Mordecai Cubitt Cooke in his books "The Seven Sisters of Sleep" and "A Plain and Easy Account of British Fungi". This observation is thought to have formed the basis of the effects of eating the mushroom in the 1865 popular story "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". A hallucinogenic "scarlet toadstool" from Lappland is featured as a plot element in Charles Kingsley's 1866 novel "Hereward the Wake" based on the medieval figure of the same name. Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel "Gravity's Rainbow" describes the fungus as a "relative of the poisonous Destroying angel" and presents a detailed description of a character preparing a cookie bake mixture from harvested "Amanita muscaria". Fly agaric shamanism is also explored in the 2003 novel "Thursbitch" by Alan Garner.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: X-Men: Days of Future Past is a 2014 American superhero film directed and produced by Bryan Singer and written by Simon Kinberg from a story by Kinberg, Jane Goldman, and Matthew Vaughn. The film is based on the Marvel Comics superhero team The X-Men, the fifth mainline installment of the "X-Men" film series, a sequel to "" (2006) and "" (2011), a follow-up to "The Wolverine" (2013), and the seventh installment overall. It stars an ensemble cast, including Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Elliot Page, Peter Dinklage, Ian McKellen, and Patrick Stewart. The story, inspired by the 1981 "Uncanny X-Men" storyline "Days of Future Past" by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, focuses on two time periods, with Logan traveling back in time to 1973 to change history and prevent an event that results in unspeakable destruction for both humans and mutants.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Vaughn had directed "" and was set to return in "Days of Future Past" before leaving for "" and the 2015 version of "Fantastic Four". Thus Singer, who had directed the first two "X-Men" films, made his return as a director, and brought along most of the crew from those productions. With a budget of $205 million principal photography began in Montreal, Quebec in April 2013 and concluded in August the same year, with additional filming and pick-ups taking place in November 2013 and February 2014. Twelve companies handled the visual effects.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: "X-Men: Days of Future Past" premiered in New York City on May 10, 2014, and was theatrically released on May 23 by 20th Century Fox. The film received praise for its story, visual effects, action sequences, acting, and thematic elements, with many considering it to be one of the best films in the franchise. During its theatrical run, the film earned over $746 million worldwide, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2014, as well as the third-highest- grossing film in the series behind "Deadpool" and "Deadpool 2". The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects, making it the first "X-Men" film to be nominated for an Oscar. A sequel, titled "", was released on May 27, 2016.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In a dystopian 2023, robots called Sentinels have been programmed to hunt down and kill mutants. In Moscow, they attack a small band of X-Men survivors consisting of Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Blink, Warpath, Bishop, Iceman, and Sunspot. With no way out, the remaining mutants intentionally sacrifice themselves to buy Kitty enough time to send Bishop's consciousness a few days into the past to warn the others of the coming attack and ensure their survival.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Having averted the attack, the group retreats to a remote Chinese temple, where they are joined by Storm, Wolverine, Professor Charles Xavier, and Magneto. Xavier explains that the Sentinels were originally conceived by Bolivar Trask, a weapons designer whom Raven Darkhölme assassinated in 1973. In response, government forces captured Raven and experimented on her, using her DNA to eventually create Sentinels capable of adapting to any mutant power. Xavier plans to go back in time and prevent Trask's assassination in hopes of altering the future, but since he would not live if he tried, Wolverine volunteers to go instead because his regenerative abilities would allow him to survive the trip.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Awakening in his younger body in 1973, Wolverine goes to the X-Mansion, learning from Hank McCoy that the school has been closed for years due to the Vietnam War, and Lehnsherr (Magneto) being falsely arrested for assassinating JFK. A young, broken Xavier turned to alcoholism and frequently uses a serum that allows him to walk but suppresses his telepathic abilities. Hoping to reunite with Raven, Xavier agrees to help Wolverine. Aided by the newly recruited Quicksilver, the trio break Lehnsherr out of The Pentagon.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Raven discovers Trask has been experimenting on mutants and plots to assassinate him at the Paris Peace Accords, but Xavier, McCoy, and Logan foil her attempt. Lehnsherr attempts to kill Raven, believing this would change the future. McCoy fights him, allowing Raven to escape but publicly exposing the three as mutants. Trask takes advantage of this and convinces President Richard Nixon to authorize the Sentinel program.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Lehnsherr retrieves his helmet and secretly takes control of Trask's Sentinel prototypes by infusing them with steel. Returning to the X-Mansion, Xavier abandons the serum and by reading Logan's mind, is able to communicate with his future self, who inspires him to protect the relationship between mutants and humans. After Xavier uses his mutant-tracking computer Cerebro to find Mystique, he, McCoy, and Logan travel to Washington, D.C. to stop Raven from assassinating Trask.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: At a ceremony where Nixon unveils the Sentinels, the three search for the disguised Raven. Lehnsherr appears, activates the Sentinels, and barricades the White House with the RFK Stadium. During the battle, Lehnsherr impales Logan with rebar and throws him into the Potomac River. Nixon, Trask, and a disguised Raven retreat to the White House Bunker, but Lehnsherr rips the bunker out of the building with the intention of killing everyone inside. In 2023, the X-Men make their last stand as an onslaught of Sentinels attack the temple. Many mutants perish while trying to buy more time, with Magneto suffering severe injuries. In 1973, Raven reveals herself and subdues Lehnsherr with a plastic gun, saving Nixon and his cabinet. She attempts to kill Trask but Xavier telepathically convinces her to spare him, leading the public to believe that a mutant saved the president. As a result, the Sentinel program is decommissioned, altering the timeline and erasing the dark future of 2023 from history. The mutants in the past depart separately; Trask is later arrested for selling military secrets to foreign governments.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Wolverine awakens in 2023 at the X-Mansion to find that Xavier's school is thriving and the X-Men are all still alive. Logan asks Xavier for information about modern history from 1973 to the present and upon realizing that the Wolverine from the original timeline has returned, the professor assents. Back in 1973, the younger Logan is rescued by Raven, having disguised herself as Major William Stryker.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In a post-credits scene set in ancient Egypt, a crowd is seen chanting to En Sabah Nur, who telekinetically elevates building blocks to build pyramids as his Four Horsemen observe him from afar.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Additionally, Famke Janssen and James Marsden reprise their roles as Jean Grey and Scott Summers, respectively, in cameo appearances. Lucas Till reprises his role as Havok. Evan Jonigkeit portrays Toad. Gregg Lowe portrays Ink. X-Men comic book writers Len Wein and Chris Claremont appear as United States congressmen. Michael Lerner plays Senator Brickman. Mark Camacho portrays U.S. President Richard Nixon. Zehra Leverman portrays Quicksilver's mother Ms. Maximoff. Archive footage of Brian Cox's portrayal as William Stryker in "X2: X-Men United" is used in Wolverine's flashback. Singer cameos as a man with a small film camera as Magneto walks away after Mystique's escape in Paris. In a post-credits scene, Brendan Pedder portrays the ancient mutant, En Sabah Nur.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Producer Lauren Shuler Donner stated in August 2006 that a continuation of the "X-Men" main film series would require a renegotiation. New cast members of "" were signed, while the older cast members were not. Donner said, "There is forty years worth of stories. I've always wanted to do "Days of Future Past" and there are just really a lot of stories yet to be told". She later pitched the idea of a fourth installment of the "X-Men" franchise to director Bryan Singer, following the completion of the 2011 prequel "". In March 2011, Donner said the film was in "active development at Fox"; she said, "We took the treatment to Fox and they love it ... And "X4" leads into "X5"".


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: 20th Century Fox saw "X-Men: First Class" as the first film of a new "X-Men" trilogy. Donner compared the franchise plans to the darker, more mature content of the "Harry Potter" film series. Early reports said Matthew Vaughn and Singer were returning to direct and produce the sequel, respectively. While still attached to the project as a director, Vaughn said, ""First Class" is similar to "Batman Begins", where you have the fun of introducing the characters and getting to know them, but that takes time. But with the second one, you can just get on with it and have a rollicking good time. That's the main difference between "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight"". Describing the possible beginning of the film, Vaughn said, "I thought it would be fun to open with the Kennedy assassination, and we reveal that the magic bullet was controlled by Magneto". Singer said the film could be set around the civil rights movement or the Vietnam War, and that Wolverine could once again be featured. Singer also talked about "changing history" in an interview with "Empire" magazine. He said he does not want people to panic about events in the past "erasing" the storylines of the previous X-Men films, as he believes in multiverses, explaining the possibility of certain events can exist equally in the histories of alternate universes.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Kinberg said the main focus of this film was the future of the "X-Men" film series. With the use of cast members from the original trilogy and from "First Class", they needed to decide the sequels' destination. In preparation for the film, Kinberg studied films about time travel, including "Back to the Future", "The Terminator", and "". Singer originated a philosophy and a set of rules for the time travel in the film so the story would be as plausible as possible.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: "Days of Future Past" is a storyline in the Marvel Comics comic book The Uncanny X-Men issues #141–142, published in 1981. It deals with a dystopian future in which mutants are incarcerated in internment camps. An adult Kate Pryde transfers her mind into her younger self, the present-day Kitty Pryde, who brings the X-Men to prevent a fatal moment in history that triggers anti-mutant hysteria. This storyline was the basis for the film.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: According to Kinberg, as they were writing the script, they thought it was more sensible for Wolverine to travel between time periods instead of Kitty Pryde, because of his ageless look and ability to heal rapidly. He further stated of making Wolverine the time traveler, "We made the decision for a lot of reasons  ...  he's the protagonist of the franchise, and probably the most beloved character to a mass audience". Kinberg and Vaughn considered Bishop and Cable candidates for the role of time traveler. Kinberg said Rachel Summers was in the first draft of the script; she sent Wolverine back to 1973. The character was later replaced with Kitty Pryde, to whom Kinberg gave a secondary power of sending people's consciousnesses into the past. Angel Salvadore, Juggernaut, Jubilee, Nightcrawler and Psylocke were also considered for the film.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Singer was asked how the film integrates the themes of the earlier "X-Men" films; he said, "It establishes that some villain characters may have been right with their fears. It confronts the notions of hope and second chances. Its characters that are lost trying to find themselves. In "X-Men 1" and "2", the characters had come into their own and knew who they were. In this one, they're all lost and they're trying to keep it together".


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In November 2011, Simon Kinberg—co-writer of "X-Men: The Last Stand" and co-producer of "X-Men: First Class"—was hired to write the film's screenplay. In May 2012, 20th Century Fox announced the film would be released on July 18, 2014. The release was later moved forward to May 23, 2014. In August 2012, the title for the film was confirmed to be "X-Men: Days of Future Past". The film is inspired by Chris Claremont and John Byrne's X-Men comic book storyline, "Days of Future Past", which introduced the idea of an alternate future for mutants that grew from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants' killing of a senator, leading to a future in which mutants are hunted by Sentinels.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In October 2012, Vaughn left the role of director to focus on Mark Millar's "" (2014). He originally wanted a different "First Class" sequel helmed by another director with a young Wolverine possibly played by Tom Hardy, before returning to direct "Days of Future Past" (set in the 1980s) himself. Singer was later announced as the film's director; it was his third directorial role in the "X-Men" film series. In preparation for the film, Singer approached James Cameron to discuss time travel, string theory and multiverses. In the same month, Richard Stammers was approached to be the visual effects supervisor, as Singer liked his work in the 2012 film "Prometheus".


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Singer brought back most of the crew he had in "X-Men" and "X2". In December 2012, two long-absent designers were hired: production designer John Myhre, who had only done "X-Men", and costume designer Louise Mingenbach—who also did "X2" and "". In February 2013, John Ottman—who aside from "X-Men", collaborated on all of Singer's works since the 1995 film "The Usual Suspects"—was confirmed to work on the music and the editing of the film.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Singer used the online social networking service Twitter to announce casting of the film. In November 2012, he announced that James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult would reprise their roles from "X-Men: First Class". Later the same month, he announced that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen would reprise their respective roles as the older versions of the characters played by McAvoy and Fassbender. In December, Singer announced that Hugh Jackman would reprise his role as Wolverine.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In January 2013, Singer announced that Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, and Elliot Page would reprise their roles of Rogue, Iceman, and Kitty Pryde. In February, Singer announced that Peter Dinklage would star in the film as the main antagonist. In March, Singer announced that French actor Omar Sy had joined the cast. Halle Berry said in an interview that she would reprise her role as Storm, which was followed by an announcement from Singer that Berry would be in the film. Singer tweeted a picture of the cast, which confirmed that Daniel Cudmore would return as Colossus and that Fan Bingbing and Booboo Stewart had joined the cast.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In April, Singer announced that American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga had joined the cast as Dazzler, but it was later revealed as an April Fools' Day prank. Singer retweeted a photograph of himself, Adan Canto, and confirmed cast members Patrick Stewart, McKellen, and Ashmore, which was followed by a confirmation from Canto that he had joined the cast. In May, Singer announced that Evan Peters had been cast as Quicksilver. In June, Australian actor Josh Helman was cast in a role. In July, Singer tweeted a picture of actor Lucas Till on the set of the film, which confirmed that he was returning as Havok. In January 2014, Evan Jonigkeit had been cast as the younger version of Toad.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Stan Lee, co-creator of the X-Men, was scheduled to shoot a cameo appearance in late August 2013 at Montreal, Canada, but ultimately chose to attend the Fan Expo in Toronto instead.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: "X-Men: Days of Future Past" had a production budget of $205 million. Principal photography began on April 15, 2013, at Mel's Cité du Cinema in Montreal, Canada, and ended on August 17, 2013. Filming had to begin in April 2013 to accommodate the cast's individual schedules. Olympic Stadium, Montreal City Hall, and McGill University were also used as filming locations. An aerial plate unit was sent to film in Washington, D.C. Additional filming took place in Montreal in November 2013 and February 2014. According to the "Calgary Herald", the film is the second most expensive produced by 20th Century Fox after "Avatar" (2009). Comic book writer Chris Claremont said in an interview that he was consulted for the film.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: "X-Men: Days of Future Past" is the first "X-Men" film to be filmed in native 3D; it was shot using Arri Alexa-M cameras with Leica Prime lenses and Fujinon Zoom lenses, along with 3ality Technica TS-35 camera rigs and Stereo Image Processor (SIP) technology systems. Director of photography Newton Thomas Sigel was asked about using Arri Alexa-M cameras; he said, "For Bryan and myself, the Alexa has been almost the gateway to getting the look we like in film". Sigel added that the Arri Alexa-M camera's small size was a big advantage to the film's main unit, which carried three 3D rigs. The film also used the Alexa XTs for the production's 2D work.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Production designer John Myhre said his work load was "six months squeeze[d] down in to 3-4 months", given the sets were massive but he did not have the usual time to design and build before principal photography began. The lue underground hallways and Cerebro sets were faithful recreations of the sets seen in the first "X-Men", albeit ransacked and damaged to imply the government had raided the mansion. The sets had many hidden "Xs", including the staircase of the X-Mansion. Myrhe said he wanted to embrace the 1970s setting in the same way "First Class" embraced its 1960s setting, and costume designer Louise Mingenbach also drew heavily from 1970s styles for the clothing seen in the 1973 scenes. Hoult wore corduroys, Jackman a wooden-paneled buckle and a peacock-print shirt, and McAvoy wore a brown leather jacket. Peters wore 1981-inspired clothing; this was Mingenbach's way of showing Quicksilver's irreverence for the exact time and place. In one scene, Mingenbach gave Fassbender as the younger Erik Lehnsherr a fedora as a nod to the one the character wore in the first X-Men film. For the future period of the film, Mingenbach wanted a darker, slightly futuristic and tactical look for the characters. This included changing the suit Patrick Stewart had previously worn as Xavier to battle fatigues.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: The Sentinels had two separate versions, to depict how the earlier prototypes built by Trask in the 1970s evolved into the adaptable killing machines of the dystopian future. Singer described the 1973 version as "a little fun and stylish but also a little retro", with a key element being that they are made of plastic to be unaffected by Magneto's powers. Myhre used styles from molded plastics from the 1970s to design Sentinels from that period, and cited inspiration from both the cars of the decade and "those wonderful TV sets that were round with smoked glass panels". The overall style was bulky to fit "the traditional idea of a robot looks like", and drew the most from the comics version, such as the purple color and a humanoid shape, while trying to stand out on its own with its retro design. The robots' ability to fly was compared to a Harrier jump jet, as the Sentinels had vertical takeoff and could glide. Life-sized Sentinels were built by Legacy Effects to be featured on the set, and had articulated joints to be fully poseable. The sound effects averted metallic noises, while adding woof effects on the Sentinels' footsteps to display its weight on the ground.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: On the other hand, the future Sentinels would resemble "giant versions of Mystique" to show how their technological development was based on studying the shapeshifting mutant's DNA. Thus their design is sleek and feminine, with a body covered in mechanical scales that move during the process of adapting to a mutant's attack, while also featuring angular and dark faces to enhance the intimidation. The future robots would feature what Singer described as "biomechanical technology to transform to adapt to other mutants, to take on their physicality and some of their powers to use against mutantkind", which the director imagined to be fueled by nanotechnology and "the ability to really change things almost at a molecular level". The Sentinels' heads would also open up as an extra weapon, and for straighter combat the robots could create blades and spikes out of their limbs. The crackling sound of the robots' scales was made by rubbing riveted belts on shale rocks.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: For the future setting of the film, a set featuring a hillside monastery was built. Myhre was inspired by Chinese temples built on the sides of cliffs. The future set also featured a mixture of architectural styles from China, India, and Indonesia. Part of the set was a big wall, which was inspired by the Great Wall of China.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: "X-Men: Days of Future Past" had 1,311 visual effects shots produced by twelve studios. Richard Stammer served as the overall effects supervisor based on his work for "Prometheus". The leading company was Moving Picture Company, who created the future Sentinels and worked on the sequences involving the X-Jet and Cerebro's red virtual world. The Sentinels' scaled bodies were created by adapting a tool originally developed to create hair and fur, which would later evolve into creating a proxy representation of each individual scale as a "follicle". Another major contributor was Digital Domain, with effects from the 1973 portion that encompassed nearly a third of the work. These included the Sentinels, Mystique's transformations and eyes, and various digital environments. Digital augmentation turned a remote airstrip into a Vietnam prisoner camp and added Paris' famed mansard rooftops to the Montreal locations. The environment work based on Washington, D.C. required the team to study period references of the National Mall and White House, and photograph almost all of RFK Stadium to create a detailed digital replica.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Rising Sun Pictures created a sequence considered by many reviewers the centerpiece of the film's effects, where Quicksilver uses his super speed in the Pentagon kitchen. Depicting how, to a speedster, actions in real time come down to a virtual standstill, objects float around in slow motion. After doing a LIDAR scan of the kitchen set, the digital recreation added many computer generated props—cooking gear, cutlery, vegetables and water released by a fire sprinkler system—rendered in near microscopic detail regarding placement and lighting, particularly because the footage had to work in 3D. To simulate Quicksilver running on the walls, Evan Peters and a stunt double were filmed in both the set being suspended by a harness and on a treadmill that stood in front of a chroma key green screen. Only Peters' legs were digitally replaced. Despite the sequence only having 29 effects shots, it required nearly seven months of work from RSP's team of 70 artists.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Rhythm and Hues Studios worked on Beast's transformations, the creation of Xavier's plane, and speed effects for Quicksilver. They also worked with Digital Domain on the sequence featuring the inside of the 1973 Sentinel. Mokko Studio worked on Mystique's eyes and costume fixes. Cinesite worked on the future New York City in the opening prologue along with clean-ups, wire removals, and production fixes. Fuel VFX worked on holographic effects and Havok's mutant powers. Vision Globale worked on visual effects relating to a dream and flashback sequence. Hydraulx, Lola and Method Studios handled a number of compositions and production fixes. The Third Floor worked on extensive story-boarding and visualisation.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Director Bryan Singer's regular collaborator John Ottman worked on the score of the film, in addition to being its editor, thereby becoming the first composer to score more than one film in the X-Men film series, having previously scored "X2" (2003). He reused some of themes from "X2", including the title theme, which is a first for a X-Men film. He also used modern instrumentation and synth elements for the score, upon Singer's request, as it could be compared to other contemporary superhero scores.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: The soundtrack was digitally released by Sony Classical Records on May 26, 2014 and followed by a physical release on June 30, 2014. An expanded version of the soundtrack, including music exclusive to "The Rogue Cut", was released on July 10, 2015.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: The world premiere of "X-Men: Days of Future Past" occurred at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City on May 10, 2014. It was released in international markets in 2D and 3D theaters on May 21, 2014, and in the United States on May 23, 2014. Premiere events were also held in London, Beijing, Moscow, Singapore, São Paulo, Melbourne, and Tokyo.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In June 2013, 20th Century Fox presented a set tour video of "X-Men: Days of Future Past" at the CineEurope conference in Barcelona; director Bryan Singer acted as the tour guide. The set tour video was included with the home video release of the 2013 film "The Wolverine". In July 2013, Singer, writer Simon Kinberg, producers Lauren Shuler Donner and Hutch Parker, together with cast members Jennifer Lawrence, Evan Peters, Omar Sy, Elliot Page, Shawn Ashmore, Anna Paquin, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, and Peter Dinklage presented at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con International. Footage from the film was screened. In August 2013, Singer presented footage from the film at the Fantasia International Film Festival. In March 2014, 20th Century Fox presented footage from the film at CinemaCon. In April 2014, Page presented footage from the film at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards. Kinberg and Dinklage attended WonderCon to discuss the film. Singer withdrew from the publicity rounds for the film because of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse filed against him. In July 2014, 20th Century Fox and Oculus Rift presented a "virtual reality experience" in 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International. Attendees were given a chance to sit in a replica of Professor X's wheelchair and virtually hunt Mystique in the San Diego Convention Center.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In July 2013, a mid-credits scene teasing "X-Men: Days of Future Past" was attached to the theatrical release of "The Wolverine". The scene, set two years after the events of "The Wolverine", depicts Wolverine going through an airport security checkpoint while a commercial for Trask Industries plays in the background. Suddenly, Wolverine notices that all the metal objects around him start to shake and levitate. He turns around to see Magneto, who says he needs Wolverine's help to combat a threat to all mutants. When Wolverine asks Magneto why he should trust him, the people around them freeze as Xavier approaches Wolverine and assures him that Magneto is telling the truth. Adam Pockross of Yahoo! Movies described the mid-credits scene as the coolest part of "The Wolverine" and wrote, "Boom! And that's how you tease the next film: by giving us so much to chew on, yet so few answers".


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: The first official trailer for "X-Men: Days of Future Past" was released in October 2013. Jason Callina of New Jersey's "Herald News" gave the trailer a positive response, saying, "it is fantastic to see characters that I grew up with in the flesh ... we still have to wait till the end of May to see if Fox succeeded, but for now they have my interest". Ben Child of "The Guardian" criticized the trailer for the number of characters that would appear in the film. Child wrote, "overloading the movie with superheroes might please fans of the comic books, but the rest of us will be chewing on our own spleens when the umpteenth brightly coloured dude turns up to spout one line of dialogue, then drop off the map".


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: A mid-credits scene teasing "X-Men: Days of Future Past" was attached to the theatrical release of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" in April 2014. In the scene, which is set during the Vietnam War, Mystique tries to infiltrate a military camp led by William Stryker to recruit fellow mutants Havok, Ink, and Toad. "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" director Marc Webb had an existing contract with Fox Searchlight Pictures to direct another film following "500 Days of Summer" (2009). After "The Amazing Spider-Man", Webb's negotiations with Sony Pictures Entertainment stalled because of his commitment to Fox. Fox eventually agreed to allow Webb to direct the sequel of "The Amazing Spider-Man", and in exchange, Sony promoted the X-Men film without charge. In addition, three viral websites were launched before the release of the film—Trask-Industries.com in July 2013, TheBentBullet.com in November 2013 and 25Moments.com in April 2014. To further promote the film, Jackman made a guest appearance on the April 28, 2014, episode of "WWE Raw". The segment received mixed reactions.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In April 2014, just one month before the film's release date, director Bryan Singer was accused in a civil lawsuit of sexual assault of a minor. According to the suit filed by attorney Jeff Herman, Singer was alleged to have drugged and raped actor and model Michael Egan in Hawaii after meeting him at parties hosted by convicted sex offender Marc Collins-Rector in the late 1990s. Singer's attorney called the allegations "completely fabricated" and said Singer planned to countersue. Singer denied the allegations in a statement, calling them "outrageous, vicious, and completely false." As a result, Singer withdrew from the publicity rounds for the film because of the sexual abuse lawsuit alleging sexual abuse filed against him. On May 22, 2014, just a day before the film's release date, Singer's attorney presented evidence to Federal District Judge Susan Oki Mollway stating that neither Singer nor Egan were in Hawaii at the time. In early August 2014, Egan sought to withdraw his lawsuit via a Request for Court Order of Dismissal, and asked that it be granted "without prejudice or an award of costs or fees, in the interest of justice."


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In May 2014, another lawsuit was filed by attorney Jeff Herman on behalf of an anonymous British man. Both Singer and producer Gary Goddard (who was also named separately in the first case) were accused of sexually assaulting "John Doe No. 117." According to the lawsuit, Goddard and Singer met the man for sex when he was a minor and engaged in acts of "gender violence" against him while in London for the premiere of "Superman Returns". The charge against Singer in this case was dismissed, at the accuser's request, in July 2014.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Singer's controversies was later cited in the 2014 documentary film on child sexual abuse in Hollywood, "An Open Secret", but details of Egan's allegations were omitted after Egan withdrew his lawsuit during the film's production. Author Bret Easton Ellis alleged that two of his former partners had attended underage sex parties hosted by Singer and fellow director Roland Emmerich.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In July 2013, CKE Restaurants and 20th Century Fox announced a promotional partnership for the theatrical release of "X-Men: Days of Future Past". The promotion included advertising, in-restaurant merchandising, collectors' cups, and a film-themed burger, the Western "X-Tra" Bacon Thickburger, sold at CKE Restaurants outlets Hardee's and Carl's Jr. Zachary Eller, senior vice president of marketing partnerships & promotions at 20th Century Fox, said, "their fun and irreverent advertising campaigns are a great fit with our film and we couldn't be more thrilled to join together to feed mutants everywhere!"


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Mountain Dew partnered with the film to promote it globally; the promotion included prizes, a television commercial, online exclusives, in-store and in-theater advertisements, and commemorative packaging featuring X-Men characters from future and past. Anna Roca, senior vice president of international promotions at 20th Century Fox, stated, "The adventurous, energetic attitude of [Mountain Dew's] fan base mirrors the franchise's own—and their international reach helps bring our beloved mutants to more corners of the world than ever before".


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In March 2014, British train operator Virgin Trains West Coast revinyled a Class 390 "Pendolino" train, featuring the film characters on the carriages. It was launched at London Euston station with Hugh Jackman and James McAvoy attending the launch.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Kia Motors collaborated with 20th Century Fox to promote the home media release of the film with a Wolverine-themed Sorento. The SUV made its debut at the 2015 Australian Open, with a series of videos featuring Rafael Nadal teaming up with the X-Men to save the tennis event from the Sentinels.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In June 2014, cable network FX acquired the television rights to "X-Men: Days of Future Past". The film was released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on digital download on September 23, 2014, and on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on October 14, 2014. In the United Kingdom, it was released on November 10, 2014. Three versions were released; a Deluxe Edition containing the Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and digital download; a Blu-ray and digital download combo pack; and a single-disc DVD.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released an alternate version of the film, titled "The Rogue Cut", on July 14, 2015. It added 17 minutes of previously unused footage, including a subplot involving Anna Paquin's character Rogue, whose role was reduced to a brief cameo in the theatrical release. "The Rogue Cut" was also screened at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In the "Rogue Cut", Rogue's role is more consequential, and the narrative is more complex: when Kitty Pryde is accidentally wounded after Wolverine's consciousness experiences a phase between past and future from seeing Stryker in 1973, Bobby Drake (Iceman) proposes breaking into the heavily guarded remains of Cerebro at the former X-Mansion, the one place where Xavier's mind cannot reach others from the outside, in order to rescue Rogue, who is being held captive there. Xavier, Magneto, and Iceman succeed in rescuing Rogue, but at the cost of Iceman's life. Rogue uses her power to take over for Kitty in regards to keeping Wolverine's mind in 1973, for the remaining time until the moment history is changed, with a suggestion that Wolverine is aware of the switch as he appears to feel Rogue's presence. The Sentinels are able to find the X-Men through a tracking device inside a Sentinel's hand that was severed from the X-Jet during their escape. In another major scene, Mystique stops at the X-Mansion the night before the Sentinel-unveiling ceremony, revisits her previous romance with Beast, and destroys Cerebro the following morning in order to prevent Xavier from finding her. A new mid-credits scene shows Bolivar Trask imprisoned at Magneto's former prison cell beneath the Pentagon for selling military secrets to foreign countries.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Worldwide, "X-Men: Days of Future Past" earned $262.8 million during its opening weekend, the highest worldwide opening weekend for an "X-Men" film. The film grossed $233.9 million in the US and Canada, and $512.1 million in other markets, for a worldwide gross of $747.9 million, making it the highest-grossing entry in the "X-Men" film series before being surpassed by "Deadpool" two years later. "Deadline Hollywood" calculated the net profit of the film to be $77.3 million, accounting for production budgets, P&A, talent participations, and other costs, with box office grosses, and ancillary revenues from home media, placing it sixteenth on their list of 2014's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In the United States and Canada, the film earned $8.1 million from Thursday night showings, which is the highest late-night opening for an "X-Men" film. It was also the highest-grossing film during its opening weekend, earning $90.8 million, which made it the second-highest opening weekend of the series, at the time, behind "X-Men: The Last Stand" ($102.7 million). The film also had the third-highest opening weekend for a 20th Century Fox film, after the latter film and "" ($108.4 million). During the four-day Memorial Day weekend, it earned $110.6 million. The audience was 56% male and 59% were older than 25.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Elsewhere, the film was the highest-grossing film during its opening weekend, taking $172 million, making it Fox International's highest opening weekend. The film's highest-grossing debuts were in China, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Malta. It was also the highest-grossing debut for a 20th Century Fox film in 11 markets, including South Korea, Brazil, the Philippines, and India. It became the highest-grossing "X-Men" film in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom & Ireland, and Venezuela.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes "X-Men: Days of Future Past" holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, ""X-Men: Days of Future Past" combines the best elements of the series to produce a satisfyingly fast-paced outing that ranks among the franchise's finest installments." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Sean O'Connell of "CinemaBlend" gave the film four and a half stars out of five, and said it was "the greatest, most complete and staggeringly entertaining ["X-Men" film] to date". "Empire" gave it four out of five stars and called it, "The best X-Men film since the second one". Steve Rose of "The Guardian" rated the film three stars out of five; he said, "Non-devotees might struggle, but director Bryan Singer whips up the action towards a symphonic climax". David Rooney of "The Hollywood Reporter" said, "While it's more dramatically diffuse than the reboot and lacks a definitive villain, the new film is shot through with a stirring reverence for the Marvel Comics characters and their universe". Justin Chang of "Variety" said, "If the characters' quandaries at times feel overly circumscribed, they're also advanced with a bracing emotional directness, devoid of either cynicism or sentimentalism, that touches genuine chords of feeling over the course of the film's fleet 130-minute [sic] running time". In 2016, James Charisma of "Playboy" ranked the film #8 on a list of "15 Sequels That Are Way Better Than The Originals".


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: In contrast, Robbie Collin of "The Daily Telegraph" rated the film two stars out of five and called the plot "a curate's egg, thoroughly scrambled". He concluded, "The film squanders both of its casts, reeling from one fumbled set-piece to the next. It seems to have been constructed in a stupor, and you watch in a daze of future past". Simon Abrams, writing for RogerEbert.com, gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, calling it a "visually driven and paint-by-numbers plot". Abrams was critical of the undeveloped subplots that built up because the film's pacing left little time to develop each element of the story set in the 1970s.


title: X-Men: Days of Future Past

text: Following criticism of "X-Men: The Last Stand" for killing off major characters such as Professor Charles Xavier, Cyclops, and Jean Grey, "X-Men: Days of Future Past" has subsequently been viewed by some critics as a revision of those controversial plot elements in "X-Men: The Last Stand".


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, and as a socialist after the 1990s.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Mugabe was born to a poor Shona family in Kutama, Southern Rhodesia. Educated at Kutama College and the University of Fort Hare, he worked as a schoolteacher in Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Ghana. Angered by white minority rule of his homeland within the British Empire, Mugabe embraced Marxism and joined African nationalists calling for an independent state controlled by the black majority. After making anti-government comments, he was convicted of sedition and imprisoned between 1964 and 1974. On release, he fled to Mozambique, established his leadership of ZANU, and oversaw its role in the Rhodesian Bush War, fighting Ian Smith's predominately white government. He reluctantly participated in peace talks in the United Kingdom that resulted in the Lancaster House Agreement, putting an end to the war. In the 1980 general election, Mugabe led ZANU-PF to victory, becoming Prime Minister when the country, now renamed Zimbabwe, gained internationally recognised independence later that year. Mugabe's administration expanded healthcare and education and—despite his professed desire for a socialist society—adhered largely to mainstream economic policies.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Mugabe's calls for racial reconciliation failed to stem growing white emigration, while relations with Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) also deteriorated. In the Gukurahundi of 1982–1987, Mugabe's Fifth Brigade crushed ZAPU-linked opposition in Matabeleland in a campaign that killed at least 20,000 people, mostly Ndebele civilians. Internationally he sent troops into the Second Congo War and chaired the Non-Aligned Movement (1986–89), the Organisation of African Unity (1997–98), and the African Union (2015–16). Pursuing decolonisation, Mugabe emphasised the redistribution of land controlled by white farmers to landless blacks, initially on a "willing seller–willing buyer" basis. Frustrated at the slow rate of redistribution, from 2000 he encouraged black Zimbabweans to violently seize white-owned farms. Food production was severely impacted, leading to famine, economic decline, and foreign sanctions. Opposition to Mugabe grew, but he was re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2013 through campaigns dominated by violence, electoral fraud, and nationalistic appeals to his rural Shona voter base. In 2017, members of his party ousted him in a coup, replacing him with former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Having dominated Zimbabwe's politics for nearly four decades, Mugabe was a controversial figure. He was praised as a revolutionary hero of the African liberation struggle who helped free Zimbabwe from British colonialism, imperialism, and white minority rule. Critics accused Mugabe of being a dictator responsible for economic mismanagement and widespread corruption and human rights abuses, including anti-white racism and crimes against humanity.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Robert Gabriel Mugabe was born on 21 February 1924 at the Kutama Mission village in Southern Rhodesia's Zvimba District. His father, Gabriel Matibiri, was a carpenter while his mother Bona was a Christian catechist for the village children. They had been trained in their professions by the Jesuits, the Roman Catholic religious order which had established the mission. Bona and Gabriel had six children: Miteri (Michael), Raphael, Robert, Dhonandhe (Donald), Sabina, and Bridgette. They belonged to the Zezuru clan, one of the smallest branches of the Shona tribe. Mugabe's paternal grandfather was Chief Constantine Karigamombe, alias "Matibiri", a powerful figure who served King Lobengula in the 19th century. Through his father, he claimed membership of the chieftaincy family that has provided the hereditary rulers of Zvimba for generations.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: The Jesuits were strict disciplinarians and under their influence Mugabe developed an intense self-discipline, while also becoming a devout Catholic. Mugabe excelled at school, where he was a secretive and solitary child, preferring to read, rather than playing sports or socialising with other children. He was taunted by many of the other children, who regarded him as a coward and a mother's boy.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: In about 1930 Gabriel had an argument with one of the Jesuits, and as a result the Mugabe family was expelled from the mission village by its French leader, Father Jean-Baptiste Loubière. The family settled in a village about away; the children were permitted to remain at the mission primary school, living with relatives in Kutama during term-time and returning to their parental home on weekends. Around the same time, Robert's older brother Raphael died, likely of diarrhoea. In early 1934, Robert's other older brother, Michael, also died, after consuming poisoned maize. Later that year, Gabriel left his family in search of employment in Bulawayo. He subsequently abandoned Bona and their six children and established a relationship with another woman, with whom he had three further offspring.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Loubière died shortly after and was replaced by an Irishman, Father Jerome O'Hea, who welcomed the return of the Mugabe family to Kutama. In contrast to the racism that permeated Southern Rhodesian society, under O'Hea's leadership the Kutama Mission preached an ethos of racial equality. O'Hea nurtured the young Mugabe; shortly before his death in 1970 he described the latter as having "an exceptional mind and an exceptional heart". As well as helping provide Mugabe with a Christian education, O'Hea taught him about the Irish War of Independence, in which Irish revolutionaries had overthrown the British imperial regime. After completing six years of elementary education, in 1941 Mugabe was offered a place on a teacher training course at Kutama College. Mugabe's mother could not afford the tuition fees, which were paid in part by his grandfather and in part by O'Hea. As part of this education, Mugabe began teaching at his old school, earning £2 per month, which he used to support his family. In 1944, Gabriel returned to Kutama with his three new children, but died shortly after, leaving Robert to take financial responsibility for both his three siblings and three half-siblings. Having attained a teaching diploma, Mugabe left Kutama in 1945.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: During the following years, Mugabe taught at various schools around Southern Rhodesia, among them the Dadaya Mission school in Shabani. There is no evidence that Mugabe was involved in political activity at the time, and he did not participate in the country's 1948 general strike. In 1949 he won a scholarship to study at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa's Eastern Cape. There he joined the African National Congress youth league (ANCYL) and attended African nationalist meetings, where he met a number of Jewish South African communists who introduced him to Marxist ideas. He later related that despite this exposure to Marxism, his biggest influence at the time were the actions of Mahatma Gandhi during the Indian independence movement. In 1952, he left the university with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and English literature. In later years he described his time at Fort Hare as the "turning point" in his life.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Mugabe returned to Southern Rhodesia in 1952, by which time—he later related— he was "completely hostile to the [colonialist] system". Here, his first job was as a teacher at the Driefontein Roman Catholic Mission School near Umvuma. In 1953 he relocated to the Highfield Government School in Salisbury's Harari township and in 1954 to the Mambo Township Government School in Gwelo. Meanwhile, he gained a Bachelor of Education degree by correspondence from the University of South Africa, and ordered a number of Marxist tracts—among them Karl Marx's "" and Friedrich Engels' "The Condition of the Working Class in England"—from a London mail-order company. Despite his growing interest in politics, he was not active in any political movement. He joined a number of inter-racial groups, such as the Capricorn Africa Society, through which he mixed with both black and white Rhodesians. Guy Clutton-Brock, who knew Mugabe through this group, later noted that he was "an extraordinary young man" who could be "a bit of a cold fish at times" but "could talk about Elvis Presley or Bing Crosby as easily as politics".


title: Robert Mugabe

text: From 1955 to 1958, Mugabe lived in neighbouring Northern Rhodesia, where he worked at Chalimbana Teacher Training College in Lusaka. There he continued his education by working on a second degree by correspondence, this time a Bachelor of Administration from the University of London International Programmes through distance and learning. In Northern Rhodesia, he was taken in for a time by the family of Emmerson Mnangagwa, whom Mugabe inspired to join the liberation movement and who would later go on to be President of Zimbabwe. In 1958, Mugabe moved to Ghana to work at St Mary's Teacher Training College in Takoradi. He taught at Apowa Secondary School, also at Takoradi, after obtaining his local certification at Achimota College (1958–1960), where he met his first wife, Sally Hayfron. According to Mugabe, "I went [to Ghana] as an adventurist. I wanted to see what it would be like in an independent African state". Ghana had been the first African state to gain independence from European colonial powers and under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah underwent a range of African nationalist reforms; Mugabe revelled in this environment. In tandem with his teaching, Mugabe attended the Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute in Winneba. Mugabe later claimed that it was in Ghana that he finally embraced Marxism. He also began a relationship there with Hayfron who worked at the college and shared his political interests.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: While Mugabe was teaching abroad, an anti-colonialist African nationalist movement was established in Southern Rhodesia. It was first led by Joshua Nkomo's Southern Rhodesia African National Congress, founded in September 1957 and then banned by the colonial government in February 1959. SRANC was replaced by the more radically oriented National Democratic Party (NDP), founded in January 1960. In May 1960, Mugabe returned to Southern Rhodesia, bringing Hayfron with him. The pair had planned for their visit to be short, however Mugabe's friend, the African nationalist Leopold Takawira, urged them to stay.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: In July 1960, Takawira and two other NDP officials were arrested; in protest, Mugabe joined a demonstration of 7,000 people who planned to march from Highfield to the Prime Minister's office in Salisbury. The demonstration was stopped by riot police outside Stoddart Hall in Harare township. By midday the next day, the crowd had grown to 40,000 and a makeshift platform had been erected for speakers. Having become a much-respected figure through his profession, his possession of three degrees, and his travels abroad, Mugabe was among those invited to speak to the crowd. Following this event, Mugabe decided to devote himself full-time to activism, resigning his teaching post in Ghana (after having served two years of the four-year teaching contract). He chaired the first NDP congress, held in October 1960, assisted by Chitepo on the procedural aspects. Mugabe was elected the party's publicity secretary. Mugabe consciously injected emotionalism into the NDP's African nationalism, hoping to broaden its support among the wider population by appealing to traditional cultural values. He helped to form the NDP Youth Wing and encouraged the incorporation of ancestral prayers, traditional costume, and female ululation into its meetings. In February 1961 he married Hayfron in a Roman Catholic ceremony conducted in Salisbury; she had converted to Catholicism to make this possible.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: The British government held a Salisbury conference in 1961 to determine Southern Rhodesia's future. Nkomo led an NDP delegation, which hoped that the British would support the creation of an independent state governed by the black majority. Representatives of the country's white minority—who then controlled Southern Rhodesia's government—were opposed to this, promoting continued white minority rule. Following negotiations, Nkomo agreed to a proposal which would allow the black population representation through 15 of the 65 seats in the country's parliament. Mugabe and others in the NDP were furious at Nkomo's compromise. Following the conference, Southern Rhodesia's African nationalist movement fell into disarray. Mugabe spoke at a number of NDP rallies before the party was banned by the government in December 1961. Many of its members re-grouped as the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) several days later, with Mugabe appointed as ZAPU's publicity secretary and general secretary.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Racial violence was growing in the country, with aggrieved black Africans targeting the white community. Mugabe deemed such conflict a necessary tactic in the overthrow of British colonial dominance and white minority rule. This contrasted with Nkomo's view that African nationalists should focus on international diplomacy to encourage the British government to grant their demands. Nine months after it had been founded, ZAPU was also banned by the government, and in September 1962 Mugabe and other senior party officials were arrested and restricted to their home districts for three months. Both Mugabe and his wife were in trouble with the law; he had been charged with making subversive statements in a public speech and awarded bail before his trial. Hayfron had been sentenced to two years imprisonment—suspended for 15 months—for a speech in which she declared that the British Queen Elizabeth II "can go to hell".


title: Robert Mugabe

text: The rise of African nationalism generated a white backlash in Southern Rhodesia, with the right-wing Rhodesian Front winning the December 1962 general election. The new government sought to preserve white minority rule by tightening security and establishing full independence from the United Kingdom. Mugabe met with colleagues at his house in Salisbury's Highbury district, where he argued that as political demonstrations were simply being banned, it was time to move towards armed resistance. Both he and others rejected Nkomo's proposal that they establish a government-in-exile in Dar es Salaam. He and Hayfron skipped bail to attend a ZAPU meeting in the Tanganyikan city. There, the party leadership met Tanganyika's president, Julius Nyerere, who also dismissed the idea of a government-in-exile and urged ZAPU to organise their resistance to white minority rule within Southern Rhodesia itself.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: In August, Hayfron gave birth to Mugabe's son, whom they named Nhamodzenyika, a Shona term meaning "suffering country". Mugabe insisted that she take their son back to Ghana, while he decided to return to Southern Rhodesia. There, African nationalists opposed to Nkomo's leadership had established a new party, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), in August; Ndabaningi Sithole became the group's president, while appointing Mugabe to be the group's secretary-general "in absentia". Nkomo responded by forming his own group, the People's Caretaker Council, which was widely referred to as "ZAPU" after its predecessor. ZAPU and ZANU violently opposed one another and soon gang warfare broke out between their rival memberships.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Mugabe was arrested on his return to Southern Rhodesia in December 1963. His trial lasted from January to March 1964, during which he refused to retract the subversive statements that he had publicly made. In March 1964 he was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment. Mugabe was first imprisoned at Salisbury Maximum Security Prison, before being moved to the Wha Wha detention centre and then the Sikombela detention centre in Que Que. At the latter, he organised study classes for the inmates, teaching them basic literacy, maths, and English. Sympathetic black warders smuggled messages from Mugabe and other members of the ZANU executive committee to activists outside the prison. At the executive's bidding, ZANU activist Herbert Chitepo had organised a small guerrilla force in Lusaka. In April 1966 the group carried out a failed attempt to destroy power pylons at Sinoia, and shortly after attacked a white-owned farm near Hartley, killing its inhabitants. The government responded by returning the members of the ZANU executive, including Mugabe, to Salisbury Prison in 1966. There, forty prisoners were divided among four communal cells, with many sleeping on the concrete floor due to overcrowding; Mugabe shared his cell with Sithole, Enos Nkala, and Edgar Tekere. He remained there for eight years, devoting his time to reading and studying. During this period he gained several further degrees from the University of London: a masters in economics, a bachelor of administration, and two law degrees.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: While imprisoned, Mugabe learned that his son had died of encephalitis at the age of three. Mugabe was grief-stricken and requested a leave of absence to visit his wife in Ghana. He never forgave the prison authorities for refusing this request. Claims have also circulated among those who knew him at the time that Mugabe was subjected to both physical and mental torture during his imprisonment. According to Father Emmanuel Ribeiro, who was Mugabe's priest during his imprisonment, Mugabe got through the experience "partly through the strength of his spirituality" but also because his "real strength was study and helping others to learn".


title: Robert Mugabe

text: While Mugabe was imprisoned, in August 1964, the Rhodesian Front government—now under the leadership of Ian Smith—banned ZANU and ZAPU and arrested all remaining leaders of the country's African nationalist movement. Smith's government made a unilateral declaration of independence from the United Kingdom in November 1965, renaming Southern Rhodesia as Rhodesia; the UK refused to recognise the legitimacy of this and imposed economic sanctions on the country.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: In 1972, the African nationalists launched a guerrilla war against Smith's government. Among the revolutionaries, it was known as the "Second Chimurenga". Paramilitary groups based themselves in neighbouring Tanzania and Zambia; many of their fighters were inadequately armed and trained. ZANU's military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), consisted largely of Shona. It was based in neighbouring Mozambique and gained funds from the People's Republic of China. ZAPU's military wing, the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), was instead funded by the Soviet Union, was based in Zambia, and consisted largely of Ndebele.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Mugabe and other senior ZANU members had growing doubts about Sithole's leadership, deeming him increasingly irritable and irrational. In October 1968 Sithole had tried to smuggle a message out of the prison commanding ZANU activists to assassinate Smith. His plan was discovered and he was put on trial in January 1969; desperate to avoid a death sentence, he declared that he renounced violence and his previous ideological commitments. Mugabe denounced Sithole's "treachery" in rejecting ZANU's cause, and the executive removed him as ZANU President in a vote of no confidence, selecting Mugabe as his successor. In November 1974, the ZANU executive voted to suspend Sithole's membership of the organisation.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Fearing that the guerrilla war would spread south, the South African government pressured Rhodesia to advance the process of détente with the politically moderate black governments of Zambia and Tanzania. As part of these negotiations, Smith's government agreed to release a number of black revolutionaries who had been indefinitely detained. After almost eleven years of imprisonment, Mugabe was released in November 1974. He moved in with his sister Sabina at her home in Highfield township. He was intent on joining the ZANU forces and taking part in the guerrilla war, recognising that to secure dominance of ZANU he would have to take command of ZANLA. This was complicated by internal violence within the paramilitary group, predominately between members of the Manyika and Karange groups of Shona.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: In March 1975, Mugabe resolved to leave Rhodesia for Mozambique, ambitious to take control of ZANU's guerrilla campaign. After his friend Maurice Nyagumbo was arrested, he feared the same fate but was hidden from the authorities by Ribeiro. Ribeiro and a sympathetic nun then assisted him and Edgar Tekere in smuggling themselves into Mozambique. Mugabe remained in exile there for two years. Mozambique's Marxist President Samora Machel was sceptical of Mugabe's leadership abilities and was unsure whether to recognise him as ZANU's legitimate leader. Machel gave him a house in Quelimane and kept him under partial house arrest, with Mugabe requiring permission to travel. It would be almost a year before Machel accepted Mugabe's leadership of ZANU.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Mugabe travelled to various ZANLA camps in Mozambique to build support among its officers. By mid-1976, he had secured the allegiance of ZANLA's military commanders and established himself as the most prominent guerrilla leader battling Smith's regime. In August 1977, he was officially declared ZANU President at a meeting of the party's central committee held in Chimoio. During the war, Mugabe remained suspicious of many of ZANLA's commanders and had a number of them imprisoned. In 1977 he imprisoned his former second-in-command, Wilfred Mhanda, for suspected disloyalty. After Josiah Tongogara was killed in a car accident in 1979, there were suggestions made that Mugabe may have had some involvement in it; these rumours were never substantiated.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Mugabe remained aloof from the day-to-day military operations of ZANLA, which he entrusted to Tongogara. In January 1976, ZANLA launched its first major infiltration from Mozambique, with nearly 1000 guerrillas crossing the border to attack white-owned farms and stores. In response, Smith's government enlisted all men under the age of 35, expanding the Rhodesian army by 50%. ZANLA's attacks forced large numbers of white landowners to abandon their farms; their now-unemployed black workers joined ZANLA by the thousands. By 1979, ZANLA were in a position to attack a number of Rhodesian cities. Over the course of the war, at least 30,000 people were killed. As a proportion of their wider population, the whites had higher number of fatalities, and by the latter part of the decade the guerrillas were winning.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Mugabe focused on the propaganda war, making regular speeches and radio broadcasts. In these, he presented himself as a Marxist-Leninist, speaking warmly of Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries like Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Fidel Castro. Despite his Marxist views, Mugabe's meetings with Soviet representatives were unproductive, for they insisted on Nkomo's leadership of the revolutionary struggle. His relationship with the People's Republic of China was far warmer, as the Chinese Marxist government supplied ZANLA with armaments without any conditions. He also sought support from Western nations, visiting Western embassies in Mozambique, and travelled to both Western states like Italy and Switzerland and Marxist-governed states like the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Mugabe called for the overthrow of Rhodesia's predominately white government, the execution of Smith and his "criminal gang", the expropriation of white-owned land, and the transformation of Rhodesia into a one-party Marxist state. He repeatedly called for violence against the country's white minority, referring to white Rhodesians as "blood-sucking exploiters", "sadistic killers", and "hard-core racists". In one typical example, taken from a 1978 radio address, Mugabe declared: "Let us hammer [the white man] to defeat. Let us blow up his citadel. Let us give him no time to rest. Let us chase him in every corner. Let us rid our home of this settler vermin". For Mugabe, armed struggle was an essential part of the establishment of a new state. In contrast to other black nationalist leaders like Nkomo, Mugabe opposed a negotiated settlement with Smith's government. In October 1976 ZANU nevertheless established a joint-platform with ZAPU known as the Patriotic Front.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: In September 1978 Mugabe met with Nkomo in Lusaka. He was angry with the latter's secret attempts to negotiate with Smith.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: The beginning of the end for Smith came when South African Prime Minister B. J. Vorster concluded that white minority rule was unsustainable in a country where blacks outnumbered whites 22:1. Under pressure from Vorster, Smith accepted in principle that white minority rule could not be maintained forever. He oversaw the 1979 general election which resulted in Abel Muzorewa, a politically moderate black bishop, being elected Prime Minister of the reconstituted Zimbabwe Rhodesia. Both ZANU and ZAPU had boycotted the election, which did not receive international recognition. At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1979, held in Lusaka, the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher surprised delegates by announcing that the UK would officially recognise the country's independence if it transitioned to democratic majority rule.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: The negotiations took place at Lancaster House in London and were led by the Conservative Party politician Peter Carington. Mugabe refused to attend these London peace talks, opposing the idea of a negotiated rather than military solution to the Rhodesian War. Machel insisted that he must, threatening to end Mozambican support for the ZANU-PF if he did not. Mugabe arrived in London in September 1979. There, he and Nkomo presented themselves as part of the "Patriotic Front" but established separate headquarters in the city. At the conference the pair were divided in their attitude; Nkomo wanted to present himself as a moderate while Mugabe played up to his image as a Marxist revolutionary, with Carington exploiting this division. Throughout the negotiations, Mugabe did not trust the British and believed that they were manipulating events to their own advantage.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: The ensuing Lancaster House Agreement called for all participants in the Rhodesian Bush War to agree to a ceasefire, with a British governor, Christopher Soames, arriving in Rhodesia to oversee an election in which the various factions could compete as political parties. It outlined a plan for a transition to formal independence as a sovereign republic under black-majority rule, also maintaining that Rhodesia would be renamed Zimbabwe, a name adopted from the Iron Age archaeological site of Great Zimbabwe. The agreement also ensured that the country's white minority retained many of its economic and political privileges, with 20 seats to be reserved for whites in the new Parliament. By insisting on the need for a democratic black majority government, Carington was able to convince Mugabe to compromise on the other main issue of the conference, that of land ownership. Mugabe agreed to the protection of the white community's privately owned property on the condition that the UK and U.S governments provide financial assistance allowing the Zimbabwean government to purchase much land for redistribution among blacks. Mugabe was opposed to the idea of a ceasefire, but under pressure from Machel he agreed to it. Mugabe signed the agreement, but felt cheated, remaining disappointed that he had never achieved a military victory over the Rhodesian forces.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Returning to Salisbury in January 1980, Mugabe was greeted by a supportive crowd. He settled into a house in Mount Pleasant, a wealthy white-dominated suburb. Machel had cautioned Mugabe not to alienate Rhodesia's white minority, warning him that any white flight after the election would cause economic damage as it had in Mozambique. Accordingly, during his electoral campaign, Mugabe avoided the use of Marxist and revolutionary rhetoric. Mugabe insisted that in the election, ZANU would stand as a separate party to ZAPU, and refused Nkomo's request for a meeting. He formed ZANU into a political party, known as Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF). Predictions were made that ZANU–PF would win the election on the basis of the country's ethnic divisions; Mugabe was Shona, a community that made up around 70% of the country's population, while Nkomo was Ndebele, a tribal group who made up only around 20%. For many in the white community and in the British government, this outcome was a terrifying prospect due to Mugabe's avowed Marxist beliefs and the inflammatory comments that he had made about whites during the guerrilla war.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: During the campaign, Mugabe survived two assassination attempts. In the first, which took place on 6 February, a grenade was thrown at his Mount Pleasant home, where it exploded against a garden wall. In the second, on 10 February, a roadside bomb exploded near his motorcade as he left a Fort Victoria rally. Mugabe himself was unharmed. Mugabe accused the Rhodesian security forces of being responsible for these attacks. In an attempt to quell the possibility that Rhodesia's security forces would launch a coup to prevent the election, Mugabe met with Peter Walls, the commander of Rhodesia's armed forces, and asked him to remain in his position in the event of a ZANU–PF victory. At the time Walls refused.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: The electoral campaign was marred by widespread voter intimidation, perpetrated by Nkomo's ZAPU, Abel Muzorewa's United African National Council (UANC), and Mugabe's ZANU–PF. Commenting on ZANU–PF's activities in eastern Rhodesia, Nkomo complained that "the word "intimidation" is mild. People are being terrorised. It is "terror"." Reacting to ZANU–PF's acts of voter intimidation, Mugabe was called before Soames at Government House. Mugabe regarded the meeting as a British attempt to thwart his electoral campaign. Under the terms of the negotiation, Soames had the power to disqualify any political party guilty of voter intimidation. Rhodesia's security services, Nkomo, Muzorewa, and some of his own advisers all called on Soames to disqualify ZANU–PF. After deliberation, Soames disagreed, believing that ZANU–PF were sure to win the election and that disqualifying them would wreck any chance of an orderly transition of power.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: In the February election, ZANU–PF secured 63% of the national vote, gaining 57 of the 80 parliamentary seats allocated for black parties and providing them with an absolute majority. ZAPU had gained 20 seats, and UANC had three. Mugabe was elected MP for the Salisbury constituency of Highfield. Attempting to calm panic and prevent white flight, Mugabe appeared on television and called for national unity, stability, and law and order, insisting that the pensions of white civil servants would be guaranteed and that private property would be protected.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Southern Rhodesia gained internationally recognised independence on 18 April 1980. Mugabe took the oath of office as the newly minted country's first Prime Minister shortly after midnight. He gave a speech at Salisbury's Rufaro Stadium announcing that Rhodesia would be renamed "Zimbabwe" and pledged racial reconciliation. Soames aided Mugabe in bringing about an orderly transition of power; for this Mugabe remained grateful, describing Soames as a good friend. Mugabe unsuccessfully urged Soames to remain in Zimbabwe for several more years, and also failed to convince the UK to assume a two-year "guiding role" for his government because most ZANU–PF members lacked experience in governing. ZANU–PF's absolute parliamentary majority allowed them to rule alone, but Mugabe created a government of national unity by inviting members of rival parties to join his cabinet. Mugabe moved into the Premier's residence in Salisbury, which he left furnished in the same style as Smith had left it.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Across the country, statues of Cecil Rhodes were removed and squares and roads named after prominent colonial figures were renamed after black nationalists. In 1982 Salisbury was renamed Harare. Mugabe employed North Korean architects to design Heroes' Acre, a monument and complex in western Harare to commemorate the struggle against minority rule. Zimbabwe also received much aid from Western countries, whose governments hoped that a stable and prosperous Zimbabwe would aid the transition of South Africa away from apartheid and minority rule. The United States provided Zimbabwe with a $25 million three-year aid package. The UK financed a land reform program, and provided military advisers to aid the integration of the guerrilla armies and old Rhodesian security forces into a new Zimbabwean military. Members of both ZANLA and ZIPRA were integrated into the army; though, there remained a strong rivalry between the two groups. As Prime Minister, Mugabe retained Walls as the head of the armed forces.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Mugabe's government continued to make regular pronouncements about converting Zimbabwe into a socialist society, but did not take concrete steps in that direction. In contrast to Mugabe's talk of socialism, his government's budgetary policies were conservative, operating within a capitalist framework and emphasising the need for foreign investment. In office, Mugabe sought a gradual transformation away from capitalism and tried to build upon existing state institutions. From 1980 to 1990, the country's economy grew by an average of 2.7% a year, but this was outstripped by population growth and real income declined. The unemployment rate rose, reaching 26% in 1990. The government ran a budget deficit year-on-year that averaged at 10% of the country's gross domestic product. Under Mugabe's leadership, there was a massive expansion in education and health spending. In 1980, Zimbabwe had just 177 secondary schools, by 2000 this number had risen to 1,548. During that period, the adult literacy rate rose from 62% to 82%, one of the highest levels in Africa. Levels of child immunisation were raised from 25% of the population to 92%.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: A new leadership elite were formed, who often expressed their newfound status through purchasing large houses and expensive cars, sending their children to private schools, and obtaining farms and businesses. To contain their excesses, in 1984 Mugabe drew up a "leadership code" which prohibited any senior figures from obtaining more than one salary or owning over 50-acres of agricultural land. There were exceptions, with Mugabe giving permission to General Solomon Mujuru to expand his business empire, resulting in his becoming one of the Zimbabwe's wealthiest people. Growing corruption among the socio-economic elite generated resentment among the wider population, much of which was living in poverty.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: ZANU–PF also began establishing its own business empire, founding the M&S Syndicate in 1980 and the Zidoo Holdings in 1981. By 1992, the party had fixed assets and businesses worth an estimated Z$500 million (US$75 million). In 1980, ZANU–PF used Nigerian funds to set up the Mass Media Trust, through which they bought out a South African company that owned most of Zimbabwe's newspapers. The white editors of these newspapers were sacked and replaced by government appointees. These media outlets subsequently became a source of the party's propaganda.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: At independence, 39% of Zimbabwe's land was under the ownership of around 6000 white large-scale commercial farmers, while 4% was owned by black small-scale commercial farmers, and 41% was 'communal land' where 4 million people lived, often in overcrowded conditions. The Lancaster House agreement ensured that until 1990, the sale of land could only take place on a "willing seller-willing buyer" basis. The only permitted exceptions were if the land was "underutilised" or needed for a public purpose, in which case the government could compulsorily purchase it while fully compensating the owner. This meant that Mugabe's government was largely restricted to purchasing land which was of poor quality. Its target was to resettle 18,000 black families on 2.5 million acres of white-owned land over three years. This would cost £30 million (US$60 million), half of which was to be provided by the UK government as per the Lancaster House Agreement.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: In 1986, Mugabe became chair of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a position that he retained until 1989. As the leader of one of the Front Line States, the countries bordering apartheid South Africa, he gained credibility within the anti-apartheid movement.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Mugabe initially emphasised racial reconciliation and he was keen to build a good relationship with white Zimbabweans. He hoped to avoid a white exodus and tried to allay fears that he would nationalise white-owned property. He appointed two white ministers—David Smith and Denis Norman—to his government, met with white leaders in agriculture, industry, mining, and commerce, and impressed senior figures in the outgoing administration like Smith and Ken Flower with his apparent sincerity. With the end of the war, petrol rationing, and economic sanctions, life for white Zimbabweans improved during the early years of Mugabe's rule. In the economic boom that followed, the white minority—which controlled considerable property and dominated commerce, industry, and banking—were the country's main beneficiaries.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Nevertheless, many white Zimbabweans complained that they were the victims of racial discrimination. Many whites remained uneasy about living under the government of a black Marxist and they also feared that their children would be unable to secure jobs. There was a growing exodus to South Africa, and in 1980, 17,000 whites—approximately a tenth of the white Zimbabwean population—emigrated. Mugabe's government had pledged support for the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid forces within South Africa, but did not allow them to use Zimbabwe as a base for their military operations. To protest apartheid and white minority rule in South Africa, Mugabe's government banned Zimbabwe from engaging South Africa in any sporting competitions. In turn, South Africa tried to destabilise Zimbabwe by blocking trade routes into the country and supporting anti-Mugabe militants among the country's white minority.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: In December 1981, a bomb struck ZANU–PF headquarters, killing seven and injuring 124. Mugabe blamed South African-backed white militants. He criticised "reactionary and counter-revolutionary elements" in the white community, stating that despite the fact that they had faced no punishment for their past actions, they rejected racial reconciliation and "are acting in collusion with South Africa to harm our racial relations, to destroy our unity, to sabotage our economy, and to overthrow the popularly elected government I lead". Increasingly he criticised not only the militants but the entire white community for holding a monopoly on "Zimbabwe's economic power". This was a view echoed by many government ministers and the government-controlled media. One of these ministers, Tekere, was involved in an incident in which he and seven armed men stormed a white-owned farmhouse, killing an elderly farmer; they alleged that in doing so they were foiling a coup attempt. Tekere was acquitted of murder; however, Mugabe dropped him from his cabinet.


title: Robert Mugabe

text: Racial mistrust and suspicion continued to grow. In December 1981, the elderly white MP Wally Stuttaford was accused of being a South African agent, arrested, and tortured, generating anger among whites. In July 1982, South African-backed white militants destroyed 13 aircraft at Thornhill. A number of white military officers were accused of complicity, arrested, and tortured. They were put on trial but cleared by judges, after which they were immediately re-arrested. Their case generated an international outcry, which Mugabe criticised, stating that the case only gained such attention because the accused were white. His defence of torture and contempt for legal procedures damaged his international standing. White flight continued to grow, and within three years of Mugabe's premiership half of all white Zimbabweans had emigrated. In the 1985 election, Smith's Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe won 15 of the 20 seats allocated for white Zimbabweans. Mugabe was outraged by this result, lambasting white Zimbabweans for not repenting "in any way" by continuing to support Smith and other white politicians who had committed "horrors against the people of Zimbabwe".