Allan Norman "Rusty" Markham (born 19 May 1960) is 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 farmer and politician. He is currently a member of the National Assembly of Zimbabwe for

Harare North {{italic title ''Harare North'' is a novel by the Zimbabwean author Brian Chikwava, winner of the Caine Prize in 2004. The novel was published by Jonathan Cape in 2009. A French translation was published by Editions Zoe in 2011. Explanation of t ...

since 2018. Previously, he served on the

Harare City Council The Harare City Council is the local governing body of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. It is composed of 46 councillors, each representing a different Ward (electoral subdivision), ward. It is headed by the mayor of Harare, who is assisted by a ...

from 2013 to 2018. He is a member of the

Movement for Democratic Change Movement for Democratic Change or MDC may refer to: * Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai (MDC–T), the former main opposition party in Zimbabwe ** Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai Congress 2006, the second MDC–T congress ...

Early life and education

Markham was born on 19 May 1960 in Choma,

Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in southern Africa, south central Africa, now the independent country of Zambia. It was formed in 1911 by Amalgamation (politics), amalgamating the two earlier protectorates of Barotziland-North-West ...

(now

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

). He is a third- or fourth-generation

white Zimbabwean White Zimbabweans are people in Zimbabwe who are of Europeans, European descent. In Natural language, linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, these Zimbabweans of European ethnic groups, European ethnic origin are mostly English-speaking w ...

. His great-grandfather was an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, 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.Tho ...

to the country in the 1890s. He attended John Cowie Primary School in Rusape, followed by Umtali Boys High School in Umtali (now Mutare) and Gwebi Agricultural College.

Career

Markham works in

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

and

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

, and has been director of a company since 2004. He is a trustee of the Harare Wetlands Trust, the Stratford Road Community Trust, and the Hatcliffe Development Trust. Markham joined the

in 2000. From 2013 to 2018, he was a member of the

representing Ward 18. He was elected to the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

in the 2018 general election as the

MDC Alliance The Movement for Democratic Change Alliance was an electoral coalition of seven political parties formed to contest Zimbabwe's 2018 general election. After the 2018 election, a dispute arose over the use of the name MDC Alliance leading the MDC ...

candidate for the

constituency, unseating the

ZANU–PF The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) is a political organisation which has been the ruling party of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The party was led for many years under Robert Mugabe, first as prime ministe ...

incumbent, Tongesayi Mudambo. He was sworn in to Parliament on 5 September 2018. Markham was arrested in January 2019 along with four other MDC parliamentarians. Later in 2019, he criticised the ruling government over what he claimed was corrupt interference with agriculture.

Personal life

He is married and lives in the

Borrowdale Borrowdale is a valley and civil parish in the English Lake District in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Cumberland. It is sometimes referred to as ''Cumberland Borrowdale'' t ...

suburb of

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Markham, Rusty 1960 births Living people 21st-century Zimbabwean politicians Members of the National Assembly of Zimbabwe Movement for Democratic Change – Tsvangirai politicians People from Choma District People from Harare People from Manicaland Province White Rhodesian people White Zimbabwean politicians Zambian emigrants to Zimbabwe Zimbabwean farmers Zimbabwean people of British descent