Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa (14 April 1925 – 8 April 2010) 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.
Muzorewa was the eldest of a lay preacher’s eight 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 as a Minister at Umtali in August 1953. Muzorewa became a pastor at Chiduku, near Rusape, between (1955-1958).
He obtained an M.A. from the Christian Education Scarritt College in Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States. Later he obtained an M.A. in Philosophy and Religion from the Central Methodist College in Fayette, Missouri.
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.
United African National Council
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 NIBMAR (no independence before majority rule).
The proposed referendum was withdrawn and Muzorewa found himself a national leader and an international personality.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.
Lancaster House Agreement
The British government asked all parties to come to London for negotiations to find a lasting solution to the Bush War. Nkomo and Mugabe attended the conference under the “Patriotic Front” (PF) banner. The conference was held from 10 September 1979, until 15 December 1979, under the chairmanship of Lord Carrington, the British Foreign Minister. Muzorewa was persuaded to accept fresh elections, to be held in early 1980.
The new elections took place at the end of February 1980, after a campaign filled with much intimidation by Mugabe’s ZANU. The British government briefly considered disqualifying ZANU from participating in the election for flagrant violation of the Lancaster House Agreement, but in the end did nothing. On 4 March 1980, these new elections resulted in a resounding majority for Mugabe and ZANU. The UANC only won 3 out of 80 seats reserved for Africans in the House of Assembly. Under Mugabe, “Zimbabwe Rhodesia” became the Republic of Zimbabwe, or more simply “Zimbabwe.”
Muzorewa stood against Mugabe in the presidential election of 1995. However, once again he was resoundingly defeated.
Muzorewa died aged 85 from cancer at his home in Harare on 8 April 2010. 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”.[6] Political commentator John Makumbe said Muzorewa’s legacy in Zimbabwe would be that of “a man of peace”.The BBC’s Peter Biles described him as “one of the most prominent political figures in the turbulent years before the independence of Zimbabwe”.
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