Zimbabwe Power Brokers: Key Figures in Battle to Succeed Mugabe

The military takeover of Zimbabwe on Wednesday marked the climax of a week of confrontation between the military and President Robert Mugabe, the nonagenarian leader who’s led the southern African nation for almost four decades. Four key figures within Zimbabwe’s ruling party will determine how the battle to succeed him plays out:

Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, has been a close ally of Mugabe’s since 1974, when the two were leading members of the political wing of the Zimbabwe African National Union liberation movement. A veteran of the country’s war of independence from 1964 to 1979, when Zimbabwe was known as Rhodesia, Mnangagwa is known by his nomme de guerre Ngwena, or crocodile in the Shona language. Mnangagwa narrowly escaped being hanged after being convicted by a Rhodesian court under the country’s terrorism act. The court gave him an 11th-hour reprieve after determining he was under 18.