Tapfumaneyi Maurice Nyagumbo (12 December 1924 – 20 April 1989) 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 politician, who spent almost two decades in prison as a consequence of his political activities.

Life and career

Nyagumbo was born in 1924, in Makoni, near

Rusape Rusape is a town in Zimbabwe. Location It is located in Makoni District in Manicaland Province, in northeastern Zimbabwe. It lies approximately , by road, southeast of Harare, the capital and the largest city in Zimbabwe. Rusape is situated on ...

, Zimbabwe, into a family of four boys and three girls, and had his primary education at St Faith Anglican Mission and St Augustine's Penhalonga. In the 1940s he travelled in search of employment to South Africa, where he was introduced to the

South African Communist Party The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing Na ...

, and was a member until its banning in 1948. His political associates at various times included

James Chikerema James Robert Dambaza Chikerema (2 April 1925 – 22 March 2006) served as the President of the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe.Nyangoni, Wellington Winter. ''Africa in the United Nations System.'' Page 141. He changed his views on militant s ...

and

Joshua Nkomo Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo (19 June 1917 – 1 July 1999) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and Matabeleland politician who served as Vice-President of Zimbabwe from 1990 until his death in 1999. He founded and led the Zimbabwe African People's ...

.In 1955 Nyagumbo became a founding member of the Zimbabwe Youth League. In 1959 he joined the Zimbabwe African National Congress and later that year he was detained. He spent most of the subsequent two decades in prison in

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 ...

, until his release on 12 December 1979. During his time in detention he wrote a book, ''With the People: An Autobiography From the Zimbabwe Struggle'', which was published soon after independence (

Allison & Busby Allison & Busby (A & B) is a publishing house based in London established by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher. Background Launching as a publishing company in Ma ...

, 1979). Nyagumbo was elected to the House of Assembly in 1980. He was a

ZANU The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) was a militant organisation that fought against white minority rule in Rhodesia, formed as a split from the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU). ZANU split in 1975 into wings loyal to Robert Mugab ...

(the Zimbabwe African National Union) representative in the 1985 talks to merge ZANU and Nkomo's

ZAPU The Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) is a Zimbabwean political party. It is a militant organization and political party that campaigned for majority rule in Rhodesia, from its founding in 1961 until 1980. In 1987, it merged with the Zimba ...

. Nyagumbo was later was appointed Minister of Mines, and then was Minister of Political Affairs until 1988, when he became Senior Minister of State for Political Affairs. He resigned from his ministerial post and his post as administrative secretary of the governing party on 13 April 1989, in the wake of a report investigating corruption involving the sale of vehicles on the black market by Willowvale Motor Industries. Nyagumbo was implicated in a 1989 scandal involving illegal car sales by government officials and members of parliament, dubbed

Willowgate Willowgate was a 1988–89 political scandal in Zimbabwe involving the illegal resale of automobile purchases by various government officials, uncovered by '' The Bulawayo Chronicle''. The ensuing investigation resulted in the resignations of five ...

(referencing the Willowvale car assembly plant), and in April 1989, aged 64, he committed suicide by drinking rat poison, ashamed that he had betrayed the trust of the people he had fought so hard to liberate.Thomas Turino, ''Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe'', 352.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nyagumbo, Maurice 1924 births 1989 deaths Zimbabwean politicians Members of the South African Communist Party Prisoners and detainees of Rhodesia Suicides in Zimbabwe Suicides by poison Zimbabwean memoirists 20th-century memoirists