Name: Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa
Title: 1st Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia 1 June – 11 December 1979
Bishop (Methodist)
Birth: 4 April 1925
Region: Zimbabwe
Religion / Political: Methodist. Political party United African National Council
Main interests: Full time lay preacher at Mtoko between 1947 and 1949. Studied theology at Old Umtali Biblical College (1949-1952) Ordained as a Minister at Umtali in August 1953. Became a pastor at Chiduku, near Rusape, between (1955-1958). Obtained an M.A. from the Christian Education Scarritt College in Nashville, Tennessee. Later he obtained an M.A. in Philosophy and Religion from the Central Methodist College in Fayette, Missouri in the United States. In July 1963, he became Pastor of Old Umtali, and 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, Muzorewa was consecrated as
Bishop of Rhodesia in the United Methodist Church at Masera in Botswana.
Notable ideas: Muzorewa stood against Mugabe in the presidential election of 1995. However, he was resoundingly defeated.
Muzorewa visited Israel on 21 October 1983. He urged Mugabe to establish diplomatic relations, saying his political policies hurt Zimbabwe’s agriculture and technology industries. The Zimbabwean government arrested Muzorewa on charges of conspiring against Mugabe for the South African government on 1 November. Two days later Mugabe warned Ndabaningi Sithole and Joshua Nkomo against ‘conspiring’. He went on a hunger strike from 3 November to 11 November.
Works: 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 The proposed referendum was withdrawn and Muzorewa found himself a national leader and an international personality.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.
