Diana Mary Mitchell (née Coates; 16 November 1932 – 8 January 2016) was a Zimbabwean political activist and writer, who was an outspoken critic of the governments of

Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1 ...

and

Robert Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the ...

Biography

Mitchell was born in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

, the capital of

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kno ...

. Her father, Elliott Coates, was a merchant navy officer and her mother, Mary Peck, was an actress. Her parents' marriage ended in 1932, and she lived with foster parents during World War II while her mother worked in a munitions factory. She was educated at Eveline Girls High School in

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council ...

, and later at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

in South Africa, where she studied history and the Shona language. She married hydraulic engineer Brian Mitchell in 1956, and they had three children. Mitchell's political activism began in 1966, when she campaigned to save a nursery school which was bulldozed by the government. The campaign later expanded to a broader one to improve education for black children. In 1968, she was involved with the Centre Party; although she ran as an independent candidate in the 1974 elections and for the National Unifying Force (NUF) in the 1977 elections. After Smith's 1970 declaration of Rhodesia as a republic, Mitchell was involved with arranging negotiations between Smith's Rhodesian Front and militant nationalists. Working with journalists Robert Cary and Willie Musarurwa, she compiled and published a definitive biographical compilation of leaders in the nationalist movement, '' African Nationalist Leaders in Rhodesia: Who's Who''. Although delighted at Zimbabwe's eventual independence under terms acceptable to the international community in 1980, Mitchell was critical of the Mugabe government's suppression of the media and political opposition. She and her husband moved to Britain in 2003. Brian died in 2010. In 2011, Mitchell's extensive collection of political clippings and papers were donated to the

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, an ...

, which opened them for public access, and to the

References

External links

Web version of Cary & Mitchell's ''African Nationalist Leaders in Rhodesia: Who's Who''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Diana 1932 births 2016 deaths Zimbabwean historians Zimbabwean democracy activists University of Zimbabwe faculty University of Cape Town alumni University of Zimbabwe alumni Zimbabwean people of British descent 20th-century Zimbabwean women politicians 20th-century Zimbabwean politicians Centre Party (Rhodesia) politicians 20th-century Zimbabwean writers 20th-century Zimbabwean women writers 21st-century Zimbabwean writers 21st-century Zimbabwean women writers Women historians