Abel Muzorewa
Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa (14 April 1925[1] – 8 April 2010), also commonly referred to as Bishop Muzorewa,[2] was a Zimbabwean bishop and politician who served as the first and only Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia from the Internal Settlement to the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979. A United Methodist Church bishop and nationalist leader, he held office for less than a year.[3][4]
Abel Muzorewa
Early life[edit]
Muzorewa was the eldest of a lay preacher's five children and was educated at the United Methodist School, Old Umtali, near Mutare. He was a school teacher at Mrewa between 1943 and 1947 before becoming a full-time lay preacher at Mtoko between 1947 and 1949. He then studied theology at Old Umtali Biblical College (1949–1952) and was ordained a Minister at Umtali in August 1953. He was a pastor at Chiduku, near Rusape, from 1955 to 1958.
Muzorewa attended Central College in Fayette, Missouri, later Central Methodist University. By then he had a wife and three sons, who lived with him in prefabricated student housing, while his sons attended a segregated school. His youngest son Wesley and playmate Mark Elrod (son of the college librarian J. McRee Elrod) attempted to integrate the ice cream counter of the local drug store, but were turned away.
When Elrod took Muzorewa to visit Scarritt College for Christian Workers in Nashville, Tennessee, they were turned away from an eating facility, an incident he mentions in his autobiography. However, he later graduated as a Master of Arts from Scarritt (now a conference center).
In July 1963, Muzorewa became pastor of Old Umtali. A year later he was appointed National Director of the Christian Youth Movement and was seconded to the Christian Council. In 1966, he became Secretary of the Student Christian Movement. In 1968, at Masera in Botswana, he was consecrated as the United Methodist Church's Bishop of Rhodesia.
Political career[edit]
United African National Council[edit]
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 an inexperienced cleric, the Reverend Canaan Banana, to form the United African National Council (UANC) to oppose the settlement, under the acronym NIBMAR (no independence before majority rule).
The proposed referendum was withdrawn and Muzorewa found himself a national leader and an international personality. The government opposition 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 UANC was the only legal black party, since it rejected violence.
Death and burial[edit]
Muzorewa died aged 84 from cancer at his home in Harare on 8 April 2010.[7] The Director of Christian Care, Reverend Forbes Matonga, described Muzorewa's legacy as including "his role in the country's transition to independence, the Methodist Church and the founding of Africa University in the eastern Zimbabwean city of Mutare".[7] Political commentator John Makumbe said Muzorewa's legacy in Zimbabwe would be that of "a man of peace".[7]
Bishop Muzorewa and his wife are buried at the Old Mutare Mission Station, Mutare, Manicaland Province.