Ndabaningi Sithole Biography

Ndabaningi Sithole {pronunciation: nda-ba-nin-gee see-toe-le} (31 July 1920 – 12 December 2000) founded the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), a militant organisation that opposed the government of Rhodesia, in July 1963. A member of the Ndau ethnic group (more closely tied to the Mashona than the Ndebele who supported the ZAPU), he also worked as a Methodist minister. He spent 10 years in prison after the government banned ZANU. A rift along tribal lines split ZANU in 1975, and he lost the 1980 elections to Robert Mugabe.