Through its fellowship program, which is creating a worldwide network of decision-makers in various fields ? including economics, aid, business, politics and law ? Yale has recognized Brian Kagoro (37) as one of only 106 ?visionary? leaders.
But the lawyer isn?t as much concerned with his personal success as he is about Zimbabwe. Kagoro says not a day goes by that he isn?t saddened by what he calls the economic and social meltdown in his homeland.
And he remains an outspoken opponent of President Robert Mugabe?s ZANU-PF government. Kagoro says his combative nature has been shaped by his past.
?For most of my growing up period, the country was at war. It was a war between the African majority and the white settler minority?. I grew up largely in a family of people who were engaged in the liberation struggle,? he explains.
Kagoro was born in a farming district near Harare to parents who he says were ?graduates and professionals? but were ?neither rich, nor poor.? His parents were politically active and engaged in the struggle to overthrow Rhodesian leader Ian Smith?s minority regime. For this reason, Kagoro describes his childhood as ?transient,? with the family regularly moving between the townships of Harare and Bulawayo.
?I was acquainted in my growing up with poverty, deprivation and the conditions that characterized black existence under colonial rule,? he reflects.
?I went through several schools, so in a sense that exposed me to Zimbabwe?s own internal cultural differences (between the Shona and Ndebele ethnic groups).?
After Zimbabwe received independence in 1980, Kagoro was enrolled at a racially integrated school.
?I also played sport as the country was struggling with integration. It affected my notion of what justice and injustice mean, of what inclusion and exclusion mean, and of what citizenship means.?
Simply sharing school benches with white children was an education in itself, says Kagoro.
?For most of the white children I went to school with, the only black people they had been accustomed to seeing were those who were janitors, nannies, or as we call them, house helps, or people who worked in their gardens. So they?d never adjusted themselves to the notion of a black as an equal. And so the struggle was always to try and establish yourself as a full human being in the eyes of your peers ? whether in sport or in class.?
As he grew older ? and was inspired by President Mugabe?s and the ZANU party?s fight for democracy in Zimbabwe ? Kagoro began to dream of being a lawyer. As a high school student he watched in admiration as the government embarked on a ?rapid? program of social development: ensuring people?s access to education and health, and constructing infrastructure in dilapidated rural areas and townships.
?So at first there was positive growth in the social sector. To that extent (President Mugabe) was cushioned from scrutiny on some of the things that we later found to be excesses,? Kagoro says.
After schooling, he enrolled in university in Harare. It was at this time, Kagoro says, that Zimbabwe ?really began to change.?
?Students started demonstrating regarding the issue of corruption. Commissions were set up and many of us discovered how corrupt the (ZANU) regime was. The government?s response to the student activism was to pass pernicious legislation to curtail academic freedom and student activism,? Kagoro states.
He says his entry into legal and political opposition to the authorities ? and going against a man and a party he?d previously regarded as heroes ? was through Zimbabwe?s student movement, ?contesting repressive legislation, which was a legacy of the colonial era designed to create a monopoly on the part of the state to tell lies and to destroy any opposition.?
Following his tertiary education in Harare, Kagoro pursued a law degree at England?s Warwick University, and graduated in the mid-1990s. He returned to Zimbabwe, convinced he could make a difference and help ensure justice for his countrymen and women.
?(I realized that) the constitution that we had embedded (and) protected gave undue power to the presidency, the executive, and in fact created an imperial presidency?. I got involved in trying to use constitutional activism, because there was some modicum of human rights within the constitution, to use that to try to reform what we saw as constitutional excesses.?
Kagoro?s life as a young lawyer, fighting constant legal battles against the state, was characterized by ?stress and turmoil?.? And disenchantment.