Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation

A humble carpenter with the amazing ability to join together all sorts of groups into one coherent body, a veteran freedom fighter, a father figurehead and a cultural icon - the Soul of the Nation, Dr Simon Vengai Muzenda.

Born on 28 October 1922 in  Gutu District of what was then the Victoria Province of Southern Rhodesia, firmly under British colonial rule, Cde Mzenda attended Nyamande Primary School before proceeding to Gokomere Mission and later to Domboshava were he trained as a teacher.

In 1945, Cde Mzee demonstrated a high degree of political consciousnesss when he turned down a farming scholarship to train as an agricultural administrator, arguing that the job would require him to supervise the killing of cattle belonging to fellow Africans under the colonial government’s destockng programme.

Cde Muzenda then went to teach at Empandeni Mission where he met Cde Robert Mugabe and the two became friends.