Ruth Lotti
Nomonde
Chinamano (16 February 1925 in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

– 2 January 2005) was a ZANU-PF politicianMercy Pote
Ruth Chinamano
ZBC News, 11 August 2007 and wife of Josiah Mushore Chinamano. Born in Cape Town, she studied at the Maria Zell Teacher Training College in

Matatiele Matatiele is a town located in the northern part of the Eastern Cape, Eastern Cape Province of Provinces of South Africa, South Africa. According to the South African National Census of 2011, its 12,466 residents (1,113.44 per km²) and 4,107 h ...

in what was then as

East Griqualand Griqualand East (Afrikaans: ''Griekwaland-Oos''), officially known as New Griqualand (Dutch: ''Nieuw Griqualand''), was one of four short-lived Griqua states in Southern Africa from the early 1860s until the late 1870s and was located between ...

. In 1948 she started teaching at Lourdes, a school located at the border between the Cape and Natal. In 1949, while on holiday at

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

, she met the Zimbabwean nationalist Josiah Chinamano. The two married in 1950 and shortly afterwards they went to Rhodesia, where she taught at Waddilove Institute, near Marandellas, 60 km east of Salisbury. In 1964 she was detained in

Gonakudzingwa Restriction Camp Gonakudzingwa ("where the banished ones sleep") restriction camp in Southern Rhodesia, near the Mozambique border, was set up by Ian Smith's government. Inmates African nationalists detained there included student youth leader Paul Tangi Mhova Mko ...

, near the

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

border, with her husband and spent the next decade in and out of detention.

Paul Tangi Mhova Mkondo Paul Tangi Mhova Mkondo (23 December 1945 – 9 May 2013) was a Zimbabwean nationalist, he was part of the first group of Gonakudzingwa restriction camp political prisoners, he is also a Pioneer Insurance Executive, Business magnate, Academic, ...

was also detained there for sometime as a student youth leader. She and her husband were transferred from Gonakudzingwa to Wha wha prison, outside

Gwelo Gweru, originally known as Gwelo, is a city in central Zimbabwe. It is on the centre of Midlands Province. Originally an area known to the Ndebele as "The Steep Place" because of the Gweru River's high banks, in 1894 it became the site of a m ...

, where they remained until 1970, when they were released but confined to an 8 km radius restriction before being arrested again, being released again in 1974. She was elected to parliament when Zimbabwe held non-racial elections in 1980. She is buried in the National Heroes' Acre, a burial ground for Zimbabwean heroes and heroines which is located about 5 km from

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

and which was designed and built by North Koreans.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinamano, Ruth 1925 births 2005 deaths Politicians from Cape Town Xhosa people Zimbabwean politicians Prisoners and detainees of Rhodesia Xhosa women