Statecraft & Independence
Landmark
Ndabaningi Sithole
1920 – 2000
Founded ZANU and wrote African Nationalism
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Zimbabwe Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A Methodist minister who founded ZANU in 1963 and led it through the first decade of the liberation struggle, and whose book African Nationalism was read across the continent. He was pushed out of the party he made and spent his last years in its bad books.
The Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole was a teacher and Methodist minister whose 1959 book African Nationalism argued the case for majority rule to an international readership and became one of the standard texts of the period.
He broke with Joshua Nkomo in 1963 to found the Zimbabwe African National Union and led it as its first president, spending ten years in Rhodesian detention from 1964. While he was imprisoned the leadership passed to Robert Mugabe, and Sithole was displaced from the movement he had founded. He returned to Zimbabwe after independence, led a small opposition party, and in 1997 was convicted of conspiring to assassinate Mugabe in a trial his supporters and outside observers regarded as political. He died in 2000, his part in founding the ruling party largely written out of its official history.
He broke with Joshua Nkomo in 1963 to found the Zimbabwe African National Union and led it as its first president, spending ten years in Rhodesian detention from 1964. While he was imprisoned the leadership passed to Robert Mugabe, and Sithole was displaced from the movement he had founded. He returned to Zimbabwe after independence, led a small opposition party, and in 1997 was convicted of conspiring to assassinate Mugabe in a trial his supporters and outside observers regarded as political. He died in 2000, his part in founding the ruling party largely written out of its official history.
- Britannica — Ndabaningi Sithole
- The Guardian — Obituary: Ndabaningi Sithole
- Wikipedia — Ndabaningi Sithole
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