Aeneas Chigwedere
Encyclopedia
Aeneas Chigwedere is a Zimbabwe
an politician, historian, educationist, and traditional leader. He served as the Minister of Education, Sports, & Culture since August 2001, and was appointed as the Resident Minister and Governor of Mashonaland East Province in August 2008. He was installed as Headman Svosve Mubayiwa the 10th in March 2008.
, College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, in 1962 as one of the 25 African students accepted then from Zimbabwe
, Zambia
and Malawi
. As the first black student to be admitted to study for the History Honors program, from which he graduated in 1964, he strongly felt that he had a duty to work in producing an authentic history of Zimbabwe. He embarked on studying Chimurenga, the 1896-97 anticolonial war, in 1966 towards an MPhil degree. His main theme, contrary to colonial historians who had presented the war as a disjointed response to the 1890 colonization, was that the war was a coordinated national traditional war: it was inspired by Murenga (the spirit at the Matopos) assisted by Mkwati, Kaguvi, Nehanda and Mbonga, all national Shona spirits; the fighting was led by chiefs with the Rozvis, the last national rulers, taking the command; the aim was to restore Shona sovereignty and Mudzinganyama had been selected to be installed as the national Rozvi chief in 1897; and the Shona targeted all foreign elements. Accordingly, Chigwedere argued that without painstakingly studying the organization of traditional Shona society and unravelling who Murenga and Nehanda were, or what the Rozvi kingdom was, no meaningful exposition of the war could be made. His main contribution has been to unravelling both the substance and methods of studying precolonial Zimbabwean and African History.
His book From Mutapa to Rhodes (Macmillan 1980) gives the chronology of the precolonial history of Zimbabwe showing how the numerous clans and dynasties in Zimbabwe have a common ancestry, hence common national religious guardians. In addition to archival documents (on early oral tradition), the book reconstructs the history from extensive oral traditions, totemic history and praise poetry, traditional religion and its hierarchies, and traditional praise and war songs. Birth of Bantu Africa (Books for Africa 1982) pushes the thread back and demonstrates that most of the tribes in Southern Africa have common and traceable origins in North-East Africa. The Karanga Empire (Books for Africa 1985) analyses in detail the origins, migrations, growth and segmentation of the Tongas and Kalangas, and The Roots of the Bantu (Mutapa Publishing House 1998) generalizes the argument for common origins of all black Africa– reaching the same conclusions as the work of Cheik anta Diop on black civilization in Ancient Egypt
. Roots of the Bantu uses sources ranging from ancient written documents, to cultural anthropology, archaeology, Egyptology, linguistics and even genetics. It represents an unparalleled effort in defining common themes spanning all precolonial Africa.
Chigwedere’s other books are Lobola: Pros and Cons (Books For Africa 1982); The Forgotten Heroes of Chimurenga I (Mercury Press 1991); The Abandoned Adolescents (Mutapa 1996); and British Betrayal of the Africans: Land, Cattle and Human Rights (Mutapa 2002). He has authored a series of four textbooks, Dynamics of History I – IV (College Press), in use by Zimbabwe’s high schools. He has written and presented numerous papers, conducted several history programs on national radio and television, and the most recent is being broadcast on Zimbabwe television weekly.
, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi
, Witness Mangwende
, July Moyo, Simon Khaya Moyo, and other notables such as author Thompson Tsodzo, clerk of parliament Austin Zvoma, opposition leader Tendai Biti
, cardiologist Jonathan Matenga, journalist Geoffrey Nyarota
, and pioneer lawyers Chirunda and Chihambakwe.
Chigwedere was one of the founding members of the National Association of Secondary School Headmasters, served as the first Regional Chair for all Mashonaland and then National Chair up to 1986, and was elected a life member. He also served for a long time on the board of the National Museums and Monuments, chaired the board from 1984 to 1988, and in recognition of his service and studies, was awarded a special service certificate and honorary life membership. From 1987 to 1995, Chigwedere served as Deputy and then Regional Director of Education in the Ministry of Education, and retired early to pursue politics.
In 1996, he was appointed to chair the ZANU PF commission on education reform, and in 1999 became the Secretary for Administration in Mashonaland East. He was appointed as Deputy Minister of Education in July 2000, and in August 2001, Chigwedere became the Minister of Education, Sport and Culture, Zimbabwe's largest ministry both in budget allocation and manpower. His mandate has been to redirect education curricula to suit Zimbabwe's current needs, to integrate culture and mainstream education, and restructure sporting organizations into sustainable accountable professional associations. With large-scale population movements that came with land redistribution, a big part of the Ministry’s work has been establishing and reorganizing schools in the new farming communities.
Following the March 2008 parliamentary election
, Chigwedere was appointed as Resident Minister and Governor of Mashonaland East Province by President Robert Mugabe
on August 25, 2008; in this capacity, he also serves as a Senator. He has also been retained as acting Minister of Education, Sport and Culture.
Recently, Chigwedere upheld a primary school headmaster's decision to expel a 7-year old Rastafarian boy because he felt that the boy's dreadlocks did not conform to the school dress code. The decision was overturned by the Supreme Court.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
an politician, historian, educationist, and traditional leader. He served as the Minister of Education, Sports, & Culture since August 2001, and was appointed as the Resident Minister and Governor of Mashonaland East Province in August 2008. He was installed as Headman Svosve Mubayiwa the 10th in March 2008.
Early life
Aeneas Soko Chigwedere was born in Hwedza district, Zimbabwe. His father was a teacher and had worked as a foreman at a commercial farm, and his mother was a communal farmer. His grandfather was the Chief of the area representing one of the senior houses of the Svosve dynasty. He was schooled at Chigwedere School, Chemhanza Mission, and Waddilove Institute before going to Goromonzi High School.Zimbabwean and African History
Chigwedere enrolled at the University of LondonUniversity of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, in 1962 as one of the 25 African students accepted then from Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
and Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
. As the first black student to be admitted to study for the History Honors program, from which he graduated in 1964, he strongly felt that he had a duty to work in producing an authentic history of Zimbabwe. He embarked on studying Chimurenga, the 1896-97 anticolonial war, in 1966 towards an MPhil degree. His main theme, contrary to colonial historians who had presented the war as a disjointed response to the 1890 colonization, was that the war was a coordinated national traditional war: it was inspired by Murenga (the spirit at the Matopos) assisted by Mkwati, Kaguvi, Nehanda and Mbonga, all national Shona spirits; the fighting was led by chiefs with the Rozvis, the last national rulers, taking the command; the aim was to restore Shona sovereignty and Mudzinganyama had been selected to be installed as the national Rozvi chief in 1897; and the Shona targeted all foreign elements. Accordingly, Chigwedere argued that without painstakingly studying the organization of traditional Shona society and unravelling who Murenga and Nehanda were, or what the Rozvi kingdom was, no meaningful exposition of the war could be made. His main contribution has been to unravelling both the substance and methods of studying precolonial Zimbabwean and African History.
His book From Mutapa to Rhodes (Macmillan 1980) gives the chronology of the precolonial history of Zimbabwe showing how the numerous clans and dynasties in Zimbabwe have a common ancestry, hence common national religious guardians. In addition to archival documents (on early oral tradition), the book reconstructs the history from extensive oral traditions, totemic history and praise poetry, traditional religion and its hierarchies, and traditional praise and war songs. Birth of Bantu Africa (Books for Africa 1982) pushes the thread back and demonstrates that most of the tribes in Southern Africa have common and traceable origins in North-East Africa. The Karanga Empire (Books for Africa 1985) analyses in detail the origins, migrations, growth and segmentation of the Tongas and Kalangas, and The Roots of the Bantu (Mutapa Publishing House 1998) generalizes the argument for common origins of all black Africa– reaching the same conclusions as the work of Cheik anta Diop on black civilization in Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
. Roots of the Bantu uses sources ranging from ancient written documents, to cultural anthropology, archaeology, Egyptology, linguistics and even genetics. It represents an unparalleled effort in defining common themes spanning all precolonial Africa.
Chigwedere’s other books are Lobola: Pros and Cons (Books For Africa 1982); The Forgotten Heroes of Chimurenga I (Mercury Press 1991); The Abandoned Adolescents (Mutapa 1996); and British Betrayal of the Africans: Land, Cattle and Human Rights (Mutapa 2002). He has authored a series of four textbooks, Dynamics of History I – IV (College Press), in use by Zimbabwe’s high schools. He has written and presented numerous papers, conducted several history programs on national radio and television, and the most recent is being broadcast on Zimbabwe television weekly.
Education
Chigwedere joined the Ministry of Education as a high school teacher in 1965 and completed his graduate certificate in education in 1975. He taught briefly at Fletcher and Highfield, but spent most of his teaching career at Goromonzi High School where he rose to become the first black headmaster and principal from 1977 to 1986. Because Goromonzi was the oldest government school, and earlier on, the only school offering advanced level to blacks, Chigwedere’s service at the school enabled him to teach and groom many of the persons who later became ministers, parliamentarians, business leaders in Zimbabwe. A short list of his students include his cabinet colleagues Charles Utete, Patrick ChinamasaPatrick Chinamasa
Patrick Antony Chinamasa is a Zimbabwean politician, currently serving as the Minister of Justice.-Career:A leading member of the ruling ZANU-PF party, Chinamasa became first deputy Agriculture Minister, and then Attorney General of Zimbabwe; he also holds the role of Leader of the Zimbabwean...
, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi
Simbarashe Mumbengegwi
Simbarashe Simbaneduku Mumbengegwi is a Zimbabwean politician and diplomat, currently serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs whose right to entry is currently prohibited by Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand and the United States. Mumbengegwi was born in Chivi, Zimbabwe...
, Witness Mangwende
Witness Mangwende
Witness Pasichigare Magunda Mangwende was a Zimbabwean politician who served as head of several government ministries in the Mugabe administration, and as provincial governor for Harare....
, July Moyo, Simon Khaya Moyo, and other notables such as author Thompson Tsodzo, clerk of parliament Austin Zvoma, opposition leader Tendai Biti
Tendai Biti
Tendai Laxton Biti is a Zimbabwean politician. He is the Secretary-General of the Movement for Democratic Change political party and a member of Parliament for Harare East; currently he is the Minister of Finance of Zimbabwe.-Early life:Biti was born in Dzivarasekwa, Harare...
, cardiologist Jonathan Matenga, journalist Geoffrey Nyarota
Geoffrey Nyarota
Geoffrey Nyarota is an award-winning Zimbabwean journalist and author. He is the managing editor of , an online newspaper. His first book, Against the Grain, Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman, was published by Zebra Press of South Africa in 2006....
, and pioneer lawyers Chirunda and Chihambakwe.
Chigwedere was one of the founding members of the National Association of Secondary School Headmasters, served as the first Regional Chair for all Mashonaland and then National Chair up to 1986, and was elected a life member. He also served for a long time on the board of the National Museums and Monuments, chaired the board from 1984 to 1988, and in recognition of his service and studies, was awarded a special service certificate and honorary life membership. From 1987 to 1995, Chigwedere served as Deputy and then Regional Director of Education in the Ministry of Education, and retired early to pursue politics.
Politics
Chigwedere first joined ZANU in 1964 while at university. In 1985, he became Education Secretary for ZANU’s Chaminuka District in Goromonzi. In 1993, he rose through the ZANU Marondera (and Wedza) structures from ward level to Secretary of Education for Mashonaland East Province. He contested and won the Wedza parliamentary seat in 1995 with the fourth largest vote count nationally. Among those he had beaten in the primaries was Chenjerai Hunzvi, leader of the war veterans association. He was reelected to parliament in 2000 and 2005, and in 2008 became a non-constituency senator.In 1996, he was appointed to chair the ZANU PF commission on education reform, and in 1999 became the Secretary for Administration in Mashonaland East. He was appointed as Deputy Minister of Education in July 2000, and in August 2001, Chigwedere became the Minister of Education, Sport and Culture, Zimbabwe's largest ministry both in budget allocation and manpower. His mandate has been to redirect education curricula to suit Zimbabwe's current needs, to integrate culture and mainstream education, and restructure sporting organizations into sustainable accountable professional associations. With large-scale population movements that came with land redistribution, a big part of the Ministry’s work has been establishing and reorganizing schools in the new farming communities.
Following the March 2008 parliamentary election
Zimbabwean parliamentary election, 2008
A parliamentary election was held in Zimbabwe on March 29, 2008 to elect members to both the House of Assembly and the Senate of the Zimbabwean parliament...
, Chigwedere was appointed as Resident Minister and Governor of Mashonaland East Province by President Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
on August 25, 2008; in this capacity, he also serves as a Senator. He has also been retained as acting Minister of Education, Sport and Culture.
Traditional Chief
Chigwedere descends from one of the senior houses of the Svosve Chieftainship, which has retained its direct connection to the Mutapas that were the national rulers. The Svosve Chieftainship covers the territory traditionally defined by all tributaries that flow into Ruzawi River, down to the Save River - this covers all Marondera and Wedza with Rusike, Mangwende and Makoni to the East, Seke, Chihota and Nenguwo to the North and West, and Nyashanu and the Njanja chiefs to the South. The House of Mubayiwa, which Chigwedere represents, was entrusted with ruling and safekeeping of all the territory encompassing the Wedza mountain and what was referred to as 'kumatirikoti'. Today that territory includes the five wards stretching from the Save river to the south, through Wedza mountain to Marondera along the Watershed road, including repossessed commercial farmland. After being anointed as the successor in 1973 when the last chief was installed, Chigwedere officially took over the reins in March 2008 at a grand ceremony where he received the royal traditional regalia and sacred items entrusted to the chief. He has appointed a council to rule for the duration that he still has political office.Controversy
Chigwedere has attracted controversy and criticism as minister for once suggesting that all students should wear one uniform, for attempting to rename schools that still bear colonial names, and for pushing an act that empowers him to regulate the fees charged by government and private schools. He claims some of his suggestions have been attempts to dampen the effects of hyperinflation on the education system.Recently, Chigwedere upheld a primary school headmaster's decision to expel a 7-year old Rastafarian boy because he felt that the boy's dreadlocks did not conform to the school dress code. The decision was overturned by the Supreme Court.