Ndabaningi Sithole
Ndabaningi Sithole was a Zimbabwean politician and religious leader.
He was born in Nyamandhlovu in Matatebeland North Province in Zimbabwe on the 21st of July 1920.
Education:
- Wesleyan School, Shabani (1930-1933)
- Dadaya Mission (1935-39) (At the same time studying for his Matriculation Certificate)
- Waddilove Institute (1939-41)
- University of South Africa (B.A Corespondence degree) (1953)
- Newton Theological College at Andover, Massachusetts, USA (1955) (Studied theology)
Career:
Ndabaningi trained to become a teacher and taught at Dadaya mission while at the same time studying for his Matriculation Certificate through correspondence. He also worked as
- Assistant Methodist Master at Tekwani Training Institution (1948)
- In 1953, he was appointed to be part of the teaching staff at Mount (Mt) Selinda
- On his return from bible school he was also appointed the Head of Chikore Central Primary School.
Religious Career:
Besides training to become a qualified teacher, Sithole was also trained to become an accredited preacher.
While at Tekwani he engrossed himself in bible study with a quest of becoming an accredited preacher for the British Methodist Church. In 1950, he left Tekwani to join the United Methodist Church.
Between 1955-1958, Sithole was enrolled at the Andevor Newton Theological School, Massachusetts, where he studied theology. Upon his return to Rhodesia in 1958, he was ordained at Mt Selinda Congregationalist Church.
Political Career:
African Nationalism is the name of the book Sithole wrote and was published in 1959. His publication drew a lot of a public attention and practically launched his nationalist political career.
- President of the African Teachers Association 1959
- Joined and became Party Treasurer, NDP ,1960
- When the NDP was banned and ZAPU was formed he joined he joined and became Treasurer and National Chairman, ZAPU (1961)
He founded and was chief architect of Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) party in August 1963 in conjunction with Herbert Chitepo, Robert Mugabe, and Edgar Tekere in the Highfields House of Enos Nkala.
In 1964 a party Congress was held in Gweru, 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 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, unilaterally assumed control 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.
Sithole joined a transitional government of whites and blacks on 31 July 1979. Later in September 1979 he attended the Lancaster House Agreement chaired by Lord Carrington which paved the way for fresh elections in Zimbabwe. His ZANU-Ndonga Party failed to win any seats in the 1980 elections.
