Portal:Zimbabwe/Featured biography/2007
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[edit] Featured biographies in 2007
- September
Canaan Sodindo Banana (5 March 1936-10 November 2003) served as the first President of Zimbabwe from 18 April, 1980 until 31 December, 1987. A Methodist minister, he held the largely ceremonial office of the presidency while his eventual successor, Robert Mugabe, served as Prime Minister.
During his lifetime, Banana brought together two of the country's political parties (the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU)), became a diplomat for the Organisation of African Unity, and headed the religious department of the University of Zimbabwe. His later life is tainted by charges of sodomy, which he denied and for which he was later imprisoned.
- October
Pieter Kenyon Fleming-Voltelyn van der Byl (11 November 1923 – 15 November 1999) served as the Foreign Minister of Rhodesia from 1974 to 1979 as a member of the Rhodesian Front. He was a close associate of Prime Minister Ian Smith. Throughout most of his time in government he opposed attempts to compromise with the British authorities and domestic opposition on the issue of majority rule. However, in the late 1970s he supported the moves which led to majority rule and internationally recognised independence for Zimbabwe.
After a high-flying international education, van der Byl moved to the colony of Rhodesia to manage family farms. He went into politics in the early 1960s through his involvement with farming trade bodies, and became a government minister responsible for propaganda. One of the leading agitators for the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, van der Byl was afterwards responsible for introducing press censorship. He was unsuccessful in his attempt to persuade international opinion to recognise Rhodesia as a new nation, but was popular among the members of his own party.
- November
Morgan Tsvangirai IPA: ['mɔ(r)gən ˌtsvaŋgi'ra.i (the 's' and the 'v' being coärticulated)] born March 10, 1952) is the President of the mainstream wing of the Movement for Democratic Change, an opposition party in Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai was born in the Gutu area in then-Southern Rhodesia, the eldest of nine children and the son of a carpenter and bricklayer. After leaving school early, in 1974 he started working for the Trojan Nickel Mine in Mashonaland Central. He spent ten years at the mine, rising from plant operator to general foreman.
Tsvangirai is a product of important social movements in Zimbabwe, which include the labour and constitutional reform movements. He is the former Secretary General of the powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and is the founding chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly, a group that advocates for a new constitution for Zimbabwe.
- December
Ian Douglas Smith GCLM ID (April 8, 1919 - November 20, 2007) served as the Prime Minister of the British self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia from April 13, 1964 to November 11, 1965 and as the first Prime Minister of Rhodesia from November 11, 1965 to June 1, 1979 during white minority rule. Smith unilaterally declared independence (UDI) from the United Kingdom on November 11, 1965. The country failed to gain international recognition and United Nations economic sanctions were instituted.
His party, the Rhodesian Front, won all general elections (only the tiny white minority population was allowed to vote in these) until the end of white rule in 1979. The Smith administration fought against black nationalists in the 1971-1979 Rhodesian Bush War. He negotiated an Internal Settlement in 1979 after fourteen years of maintaining white rule in the face of war, economic sanctions, and international pressure. The agreement led to biracial rule and a coalition government led by Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa of the UANC. The Lancaster House Agreement and the election of Robert Mugabe as Prime Minister of the newly renamed Zimbabwe in 1980 marked the beginning of majority rule. Smith remained a member of the Zimbabwe Parliament until 1987. Subsequently, he enjoyed a long and comfortable retirement in Zimbabwe before relocating to Cape Town, South Africa.
