President Robert Mugabe, who came to power as the leader of Zimbabwe nearly 40 years ago, is in the custody of the country’s armed services in what looks to have been a military takeover.

The military has said that Mr. Mugabe, who at 93 is the world’s oldest head of state, is safe and that his security is guaranteed. But his future as one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders is now in doubt.

The Shaping of a Political Mind: 1924-1960

Mr. Mugabe was born in 1924 in Kutama, northwest of the capital of Harare in what was then Southern Rhodesia, a self-governing British colony. His father abandoned the family in poverty when he was 10.

He was educated by Catholic missionaries and later attended the same university in South Africa as Nelson Mandela.