Canaan Banana

Religious career

Between 1963 and 1966, he was involved with the Methodist church and worked as a Schools manager at Hwange and Plumtree. He was then elected chairman of the Bulawayo council of churches in 1969 up to 1971. He was also the chairman of the Southern Africa Content Group at the urban/industrial Mission of the All Africa Conference of Churches from 1970 to 1973 and was also a member of the Advisory Committee of the World Council of Churches. Reverend Banana became chaplain at the University in Washington DC Between the years 1973 and 1975.^[1]

Banana resigned as Methodist minister in Njube because he did not agree with a statement that the Methodist Church in Rhodesia had published.

Political career

Banana entered active politics in the colonial period when he became the vice president of the ANC but the organisation was outlawed by the Ian Smith regime and the ban was followed up by the arrests of several key members of the organisation. Banana fled to the United States of America where he was joined by his wife and children. Banana was however arrested upon his return to Rhodesia in 1975 only to be released after the Lancaster House Agreement. Canaan served as a ceremonial president at the assumption of majority rule in independent Zimbabwe. It is said the post was offered to Banana after Joshua Nkomo had turned down the offer on the grounds that the office did not have any real influence.^[2] He held the office up until 1987 when Robert Mugabe became the executive president. He nonetheless continued to be a an influential figure in the politics after he took an active role in the talks that culminated in the Unity Accord which brought together Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe together into a single political entity.^[2] Banana also served as the spokesperson for the Organisation of African Unity.

Controversy/Scandal

The most controversial part of Canaan Banana's life was his imprisonment following accusations that he had engaged in acts of homosexuality and sodomy.^[3] It was in 1999 that Banana was found guilty of 11 counts and sodomy and abusing his power to carry out unnatural acts with men, the bulk of whom were part of his presidential staff. Banana however insisted that he was not a homosexual and that the charges which culminated in his incarceration were part of a conspiracy to fix him. Banana was eventually released from prison after serving eight months of his two year sentence.

Death

Banana died from an undisclosed illness on November 10, 2003.^[4] He was not given a hero’s burial that senior governing party members normally received

Trivia

• Canaan Banana was actually the first president of an independent Zimbabwe

References