ABSTRACT
This chapter is an examination of the appropriation of cultural mores, traditional and Christian, in the discourses of national politics in Zimbabwe during the reign of Robert Mugabe, former president of Zimbabwe, 1980-2017. While appreciating the place of Mugabe's moral rhetoric in Zimbabwean politics during his tenure as president of Zimbabwe, The chapter asserts that, as was the case in Augustan Rome, ruler-cultism in Zimbabwe had little spiritual power in comparison with the political power it accrued. It is instructive to give a description of the ancient Roman family and how it functioned in order to lay out a reading of how the Roman family model can serve as an analogue of the African family and vice versa. Robert Mugabe's leadership style manifested this transition, as he appropriated traditional mores for state politics.
