Lawrence Vambe (1917–2019) was a

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

an writer and journalist.

Early life

Vambe was born in the village of

Chishawasha Chishawasha is the name of a Roman Catholic Jesuit Mission (station), mission located about 25 km east of Harare, Zimbabwe. The mission was founded by the Jesuit priest Father Francis Richartz in 1892 on a large farm. The mission has 3 schools ...

in what was then Southern Rhodesia. His father, Joseph, was a peasant farmer; his mother died when he was a baby due to the

influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...

epidemic. He was then raised by

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

Education

He attended

Kutama College Kutama College (officially St Francis Xavier College) is a private Catholic independent boarding high school near Norton, Zimbabwe in the Zvimba area, 80 kilometres southwest of Harare. Grown out of a Mission station founded in 1914 and run by t ...

, the same school as Robert Mugabe, before embarking on teacher training in South Africa at South African Native College, which became

University of Fort Hare The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was a key institution of higher education for Africans from 1916 to 1959 when it offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub ...

Journalism career

He quit teaching after five years, and decided to become a journalist. He joined African

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

s where he rose through the ranks to become editor-in-chief. Besides an illustrious journalism career, Vambe also developed a reputation as an important black intellectual who significantly contributed to the struggle against

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

. He published two books, ''An Ill-Fated People: Zimbabwe Before and After Rhodes'' (1972) and ''From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe'' (1976). This made him one of the pioneering Black writers from

. He was awarded the

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

in 1959. In the 1980s he was one of the founders of the Britain-Zimbabwe Society, an organisation which continues to this day.

Personal life

He was married to Cathleen Rolands with whom he had three daughters and one son. After they divorced, he remarried Kay Boyer and had two daughters, and that also ended in divorce. His daughter Elizabeth, from his first marriage, married Stephen Pollock, 3rd Viscount Hanworth.

References

{{Authority control 1917 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Zimbabwean writers Zimbabwean journalists Members of the Order of the British Empire Zimbabwean centenarians Men centenarians People from Harare Province