New book shines light on a vital Zimbabwean freedom fighter

Edson Sithole's mysterious disappearance has overshadowed his valuable contributions. By Brooks Marmon

- Brooks Marmon

Edson Sithole was born in what was then Southern Rhodesia in 1935. He was the first black person in southern Africa to obtain a Doctor of Laws degree. He was the second black person in the country (which became Zimbabwe in 1980) to qualify as a lawyer, and co-founded Rhodesia's African Bar Association in 1973.

Sithole was an anticolonial nationalist. He was “disappeared” alongside his secretary, Miriam Mhlanga, in downtown Salisbury (present-day Harare) 50 years ago. Brooks Marmon, a historian of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, has compiled and edited a forthcoming collection of Sithole's writings, speeches and interviews.

Who was Edson Sithole? Why does he matter in Zimbabwe's history?

He was one of the most prominent pan-African nationalists who had not gone into exile, and a major legal and intellectual force behind multiple Zimbabwean liberation movements.

Despite his important intellectual and organisational contributions to Zimbabwe's independence struggle, he is best remembered today for the sensational nature of his elimination from the political scene. He left the Rhodesian press club at a downtown hotel in Salisbury on 15 October 1975 and was never seen again.

The 50th anniversary of Sithole's elimination is an apt time to recover his political voice. He was a prolific writer, but much of his work appeared in periodicals that were banned and silenced by settler authorities.

What's new in this collection?

The contributions in the book, Edson Sithole: Law, Liberation and the Cost of Dissent, highlight four themes: Sithole's views on pan-Africanism; his experience as a political prisoner; his views on intra-nationalist factionalism; and his search for a settlement with white Rhodesians.

Sithole's voice is supplemented by my own biographical account of his political life.