Ruth Chinamano
Ruth Lottie Nomonde Chinamano (16 February 1925 – 2 January 2005) was a ZANU-PF politician and the wife of Josiah Mushore Chinamano. Born in Cape Town, she trained as a teacher at Maria Zell Teacher Training College in Matatiele, East Griqualand. In 1948 she began teaching at Lourdes, a school near the Cape-Natal border. In 1949 she met Josiah Chinamano in Port Elizabeth; they married in 1950 and moved to Rhodesia, where Ruth taught at Waddilove Institute near Marandellas, about 60 km east of Salisbury.
In 1964 the couple was detained at Gonakudzingwa Restriction Camp near the Mozambique border. They spent several years in and out of detention. They were later moved to Whawha Prison outside Gwelo, where they stayed until 1970, then were released but kept under an 8 km radius restriction. They were arrested again and finally released in 1974.
Ruth Chinamano was elected to Parliament in the 1980 elections that ended racial discrimination in Zimbabwe. She is buried at the National Heroes’ Acre near Harare, a national burial site for Zimbabwean heroes and heroines.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:49 (CET).