James Chikerema dies in United States

James Chikerema dies in United States

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By Staff Reporter

PROMINENT Zimbabwean nationalist James Robert Dambaza Chikerema has died, state radio reported in Harare on Thursday.

Chikerema, 81, died Wednesday in the US state of Indiana, where he had gone to seek medical treatment, the report said.

He played an important role in Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, but latterly became critical of the government of President Robert Mugabe, to whom he was related.

Like Mugabe, Chikerema was born at Kutama Mission in Zvimba, near what is now the Zimbabwean capital Harare. He went to college in neighbouring South Africa, where he first became involved in the nationalist struggle.

He helped organise a bus boycott in the former white-ruled Rhodesia in 1956.
He was acting chairman of the Zimbabwe African Peoples’ Union (Zapu) - a rival to Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African Nationalist Union (Zanu) - from 1964 to 1971.

He retired from active politics at independence in 1980. - Sapa-dpa.
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