Nyandoro, George Bodzo

▪ 1995

      Zimbabwean nationalist (b. July 8, 1926, Marandellas district, Southern Rhodesia—d. June 24, 1994, Harare, Zimbabwe), was a founding member of the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress (ANC) and one of the earliest leaders in the fight for independence and black majority rule in what was then a British crown colony. Nyandoro was a member of the Shona ethnic group and grandson of the leader of an unsuccessful revolt against the British in 1896-97. After training as a bookkeeper, he became involved in the trade union and independence movements. In the mid-1950s he was secretary-general of the British African National Voice Association, founding vice president of the African National Youth League, and cofounder of the ANC. He also toured rural areas, inciting local opposition to restrictive land laws. In 1959 Nyandoro was among hundreds of black nationalists arrested and detained without trial. Four years later he was released to seek medical treatment in Britain for tuberculosis of the spine. In 1964 he moved to Zambia, where he worked for the banned Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU). Nyandoro later quit ZAPU to form the breakaway Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (1971), but he returned home to take a ministerial post in Bishop Abel Muzorewa's transitional government (1979). When Nyandoro was not offered a role in Pres. Robert Mugabe's first postindependence administration, he left government and became a successful businessman.

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