Voices of liberation: Edson Sithole: law, liberation and the cost of dissent

EDSON SITHOLE was a remarkable self-made individual in an oppressive settler society designed to thwart his ambitions. In the face of severe government harassment, he became, in 1963, the second black person to qualify as an advocate in colonial Zimbabwe (then known as Southern Rhodesia). A decade later, he was the first person in that territory (of any race) to obtain a Doctor of Law degree.1 Sithole had deep roots in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. He became politically active in the early 1950s as a teenager. Over more than two decades, while enduring numerous jailing's and detentions, Sithole was at the forefront of the effort to overhaul a repressive political system. He was poised to play a significant role in independent Zimbabwe. He dreamt of being the country’s first black minister of justice and joked that one of his first official acts would be to abolish parking meters.2 However, like Herbert Chitepo, the first black person to qualify as an advocate in Rhodesia, Sithole was violently removed from the political scene in 1975. Their elimination, seven months apart, came amid what was ostensibly a period of détente induced by the demise of Portugal’s control over Rhodesia’s eastern neighbor, Mozambique.3 For both Sithole and Chitepo, détente was deadly. Sithole and his secretary, Miriam Mhlanga, were seen on the streets of downtown Salisbury, the Rhodesian capital, on 15 October 1975, being summoned into a van by individuals believed to be agents of Rhodesia’s Special Branch.