Portal:Zimbabwe/Featured biography/2008
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[edit] Featured biographies in 2008
- January
Lobengula Kumalo (d. 1894) was the second and last king of the Ndebele people, now known as the Ndebele (or, linguistically more correctly, the nDebele). Both names, in the sinDebele language, mean "The people of the long shields," a reference to the Matabele warriors' use of the Zulu shield and spear.
Mzilikazi (a.k.a., Umsaingaas), the first king of the Matabele nation, died in 1869 and the throne was to go Nkulumani, son of the king and his royal wife. But the young chief was mysteriously missing and this led the izinduna, or chiefs, to give the crown to Lobengula, another of Mzilikazi's sons but from an inferior wife. Several impis (i.e., regiments) disputed Lobengula's assent and the question was ultimately decided by the arbitrament of the assegai, with Lobengula and his impis crushing the rebels. Lobengula's courage in this battle led to his unanimous selection as king.
- February
Frederick Courteney Selous (or Courtney) (31 December 1851 - 4 January 1917) was a British explorer, hunter, and conservationist famous for his exploits in Southern Africa. His real-life adventures inspired Sir H. Rider Haggard to create the fictional Allan Quatermain character. Selous was also a good friend of Theodore Roosevelt and Frederick Russell Burnham. He was the older brother of ornithologist and writer Edmund Selous.
Selous was born in London, and was educated at Rugby and in Germany. His love for natural history led to the resolve to study the ways of wild animals in their native haunts. Going to South Africa when he was nineteen, he travelled from the Cape of Good Hope to Matabeleland, reached early in 1872, and was granted permission by Lobengula to shoot game anywhere in his dominions.
- March
Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa (born on 14 April 1925) served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia from the Internal Settlement to the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979. A Methodist bishop and nationalist leader, he held office for only a few months.[1]
In 1971 the British government struck a deal with Ian Smith that provided for a transition to majority rule in exchange for an end to sanctions against the government. Muzorewa joined with an inexperienced cleric, the Reverend Canaan Banana, to form the United African National Council (UANC) to oppose the settlement under the acronym No Independence Before Majority African Rule (NIBMAR).
The proposed referendum was withdrawn and Muzorewa found himself a national leader and an international personality. The liberation movements -- the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) of Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) of Joshua Nkomo -- both placed themselves under the UANC umbrella even though they had some doubts when Muzorewa founded a national party.
After ZANU, led by Robert Mugabe after disagreements with Sithole, and ZAPU undertook guerrilla warfare, the United African National Council was the only legal Black party since it rejected violence.
- April
Clem Tholet was a Rhodesian folk singer who became popular in the 1970's for his Rhodesian patriotic songs. He reached the height of his fame during the Rhodesian Bush War.
Clem was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare in Zimbabwe) in 1948 and began writing songs while he was an art student in Durban, South Africa. One of his first songs, Vagabond Gun was a category winner in the South Africa Music Festival in 1966. Clem later moved back to Rhodesia to work in advertising. He started singing at Rhodesia’s first folk venue, The Troubadour in Salisbury’s Angwa Street. While performing there, he met Sue Eccles and Andy Dillon. The three formed a trio called The Kinfolk. The group moved to South Africa, and shortly after moving to Johannesburg, South Africa, Sue left the group.
- May
Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo (June 19, 1917 - July 1, 1999) was the leader and founder of the Zimbabwe African People's Union and a member of the Kalanga tribe.Hill, Geoff. He was affectionately known in Zimbabwe as Father Zimbabwe, Umdala Wethu, Umafukufuku or Chibwechitedza (the slippery rock).
Nkomo was born in Semokwe Reserve, Matabeleland in 1917 and was one of 8 children. His father (Thomas Nyongolo Letswansto Nkomo) worked as a preacher and a cattle rancher and worked for the London Missionary Society. After completing his primary education in Rhodesia he took a carpentry course at the Tsholotsho Government Industrial School and studied there for a year before becoming a driver. He later tried animal husbandry before becoming a schoolteacher specialising in Carpentry at Manyame School in Kezi. In 1942, aged 25 and during his occupation as a teacher, he decided that he should go to South Africa to further his education and do carpentry and qualify to a higher level. He attended Adams College and the Jan Hofmeyer School of Social Work in South Africa. There he met Nelson Mandela and other regional nationalist leaders at the University of Fort Hare. However, he did not attend university at Fort Hare University. It was at the Jan Hofmeyr School that he was awarded a B.A. Degree in Social Science in 1952. Nkomo married his wife Johanna MaFuyana on 1 October 1949.
- June
Cecil John Rhodes, PC (July 5, 1853 – March 26, 1902) was a British-born South African businessman, mining magnate, and politician. He was the founder of the diamond company De Beers, which today markets 60% of the world's rough diamonds and at one time marketed 90%. He was an ardent believer in colonialism and was the founder of the state of Rhodesia, which was named after him. Rhodesia, later Northern and Southern Rhodesia, eventually became Zambia and Zimbabwe respectively.
Rhodes famously declared: "To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far."
Rhodes was born in 1853 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. He was the fifth son of the Reverend Francis William Rhodes, a Church of England vicar who prided himself on never having preached a sermon longer than 10 minutes, and his wife Louisa Peacock Rhodes. He had many siblings, including Francis William Rhodes, an army officer.
