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Ndabaningi Sithole

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The Reverend
Ndabaningi Sithole
Member of Parliament of Zimbabwe
for Chipinge South
In office
1995–2000
Preceded byGoodson Sithole
Succeeded byWilson Khumbula
Personal details
Born21 July 1920
Nyamandhlovu, Rhodesia
Died12 December 2000(2000-12-12) (aged 80)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Political partyZANU (1963–1975)
ZANU–Ndonga (after 1975)
SpouseVesta Zvamwaida Sithole
Children5
Alma materAndover Newton Theological School

Ndabaningi Sithole (21 July 1920 – 12 December 2000) founded the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), a militant organisation that opposed the government of Rhodesia, in July 1963.[1] Sithole was a progeny of a Ndau father and a Ndebele mother. He also worked as a United Church of Christ in Zimbabwe (UCCZ) minister.[2] He spent 10 years in prison after the government banned ZANU. A rift along tribal lines split ZANU in 1975, and he lost the 1980 elections to Robert Mugabe.

Early life

Sithole was born in Nyamandhlovu, Southern Rhodesia, on 21 July 1920. He studied teaching in the United States from 1955 to 1958, and was ordained a Methodist minister in 1958. The publication of his book African Nationalism and its immediate prohibition by the minority government motivated his entry into politics. During his studies in the United States he studied at the Andover Newton Theological School and attended the First Church in Newton, founded in 1665, both located in Newton, Massachusetts.

ZANU

He was one of the founders and chief architect of Zimbabwe African National Union party in August 1963 in conjunction with Herbert Chitepo, Robert Mugabe and Edgar Tekere in the Highfields House of Enos Nkala. After a split from ZAPU. In 1964 there was a party Congress at Gwelo, where Sithole was elected president and appointed Robert Mugabe to be his secretary general. ZANU was banned in 1964 by Ian Smith's government. He spent 10 years in prison after being arrested on 22 June 1964[3] alongside Mugabe, Tekere, Nyagumbo and Takawira for his political activities. While in prison he specifically authorised Chitepo to continue the struggle from abroad as a representative of ZANU. Sithole was convicted on a charge of plotting to assassinate Ian Smith and released from prison in 1974.

On 18 March 1975 Chitepo was assassinated in Lusaka, Zambia, with a car bomb. Mugabe, in Mozambique at the time, was unanimously chosen to be the first secretary of ZANU. Later that year there was a factional split, with many Ndebele following Joshua Nkomo into the equally militant ZAPU. Sithole eventually founded the moderate ZANU-Ndonga party, which renounced violent struggle, while the Shona-dominated ZANU (now called ZANU PF) followed Mugabe with a more militant agenda.[4]

Sithole joined Abel Muzorewa's transitional government under the Internal Settlement on 31 July 1979.[5] Later in September 1979 he attended the Lancaster House Agreement, chaired by Lord Carrington, which paved the way for fresh elections, but his ZANU-Ndonga Party's supporters and their villages were targeted by Mugabe's ZANLA troops and it failed to win any seats in the 1980 elections.

His exit from ZANU was claimed by Mugabe to have been caused by his neglecting the fighters in Zambia (where their camp was bombed resulting in many fatalities and casualties).

Exile and return

Declaring that his life was in danger from political enemies, Sithole went into self-imposed exile first in the United Kingdom in the early-1980s and then in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, around 1984, returning to Zimbabwe in January 1992.[6]

He was elected to parliament for his tribal stronghold of Chipinge in southeastern Zimbabwe in 1995, and was a candidate in the 1996 presidential election (though he withdrew shortly before the election after claiming that Mugabe's ZANU-PF was undermining his campaign).[7] In December 1997, a court tried and convicted him of conspiring with Chimwenje to assassinate Mugabe and the government disqualified him from attending parliament.[8] Sithole's small opposition group again won the Chipinge seat in the June 2000 elections.

He was granted the right to appeal, appeal was filed, but the case was never heard by the Supreme Court. He was allowed bail because of his deteriorating health. He died on 12 December 2000, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The author of three books on African politics, he is survived by his wife, Vesta, and five adult children.

His farm, "Porta Farm" situated 25 kilometres (16 mi) from Harare on Bulawayo Road, was legally purchased in 1992 under "willing buyer – willing seller" arrangements. It was later confiscated by Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government, on the grounds that it harboured the "undesirables" of Harare. These were people who had been left homeless after being summarily evicted from shanties in Harare before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1991. Sithole had felt compassion for them, and what he felt was the breach of their human rights; he therefore had invited some of them to stay on the farm. This incensed the government, which then carried out an eviction operation. This was co-ordinated by the Ministry of Local Government and National Housing as well as the City of Harare. Pre-dawn raids were carried out and, in the aftermath, Porta Farm was confiscated.[9][10]

Books

Sithole was the most prolific Black author in Rhodesia.[11] He published 12 books including The Polygamist, a novel published in 1972 by The Third Press/Joseph Okpaku Publishing Co., Inc., New York (ISBN 0893880361).

References

  1. ^ Veenhoven, Willem Adriaan, Ewing, and Winifred Crum. Case Studies on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: A World Survey, 1975. Page 326.
  2. ^ "The Rev Ndabaningi Sithole". TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  3. ^ "RHODESIA SEIZES A FOE OF REGIME - Sithole, Rival of Nkomo, to Face Charges Soon - Article - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. 23 June 1964. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  4. ^ Mhanda, R. W. Johnson Talks to Wilfred (22 February 2001). "R.W. Johnson · How Mugabe came to power: Wilfred Mhanda · LRB 22 February 2001". London Review of Books. pp. 26–27. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  5. ^ "Black Opposition Leader in Rhodesia Ends Boycott - Article - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. August 1979. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  6. ^ Michael Cowen and Liisa Laakso. Multi-party Elections in Africa, 2002. Page 339.
  7. ^ "Zimbabwe President's Last Rival Withdraws From Election - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. Zimbabwe. 16 March 1996. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  8. ^ "Ndabaningi Sithole Remanded In Prison". Hartford-hwp.com. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  9. ^ "Know Your City - SDI -". Archived from the original on 12 May 2009. Retrieved 7 October 2009.
  10. ^ "Latest International Human Rights News and Information | Amnesty International USA". Amnestyusa.org. 18 December 2015. Archived from the original on 25 June 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  11. ^ Mushakavanhu, Tinashe. "Ndabaningi Sithole: Zimbabwe's forgotten intellectual and leader". The Conversation. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
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