Lawrence Vambe
{{Short description|Zimbabwean writer and journalist (1917–2019)}}
Lawrence Vambe {{postnominal|MBE}} (1917–2019) was a Zimbabwean writer and journalist.{{Cite web|last=Pollock|first=Stephen|date=2019-10-25|title=Lawrence Vambe obituary|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/25/lawrence-vambe-obituary|access-date=2021-09-13|website=the Guardian|language=en}}
Early life
Vambe was born in the village of Chishawasha in what was then Southern Rhodesia. His father, Joseph, was a peasant farmer; his mother died when he was a baby due to the influenza epidemic. He was then raised by Jesuit missionaries.
Education
He attended Kutama College, the same school as Robert Mugabe,{{Cite web|date=2019-10-08|title=Lawrence Vambe : Mugabe Schoolmate, Journalist and Editor Who Championed Black Rights Dies Aged 102 at London Care Home|url=https://www.thezimbabwenewslive.com/lawrence-vambe-mugabe-schoolmate-journalist-and-editor-who-championed-black-rights-dies-aged-102-at-london-care-home/|access-date=2021-09-13|website=theZimbabweNewsLive|language=en-GB}} before embarking on teacher training in South Africa at South African Native College, which became University of Fort Hare.
Journalism career
He quit teaching after five years, and decided to become a journalist. He joined African newspapers where he rose through the ranks to become editor-in-chief.{{Cite web|title=The Chartered Institute of Journalists – He died in a London nursing home at the grand age of 102 but journalist Lawrence Vambe had been at the cutting edge of championing black rights in his native Zimbabwe|url=https://cioj.org/he-died-in-a-london-nursing-home-at-the-grand-age-of-102-but-journalist-lawrence-vambe-had-been-at-the-cutting-edge-of-championing-black-rights-in-his-native-zimbabwe/|access-date=2021-09-13|language=en-GB}} Besides an illustrious journalism career, Vambe also developed a reputation as an important black intellectual who significantly contributed to the struggle against colonialism in Rhodesia.{{Cite web|title=Journalist and editor who championed black rights|url=http://camdennewjournal.com/article/journalist-and-editor-who-championed-black-rights|access-date=2021-09-13|website=Camden New Journal|language=en-gb}}{{Citation|last=Vambe|first=Lawrence C.|title=[Letter from Lawrence C Vambe to Federal Prime Minister]|date=1963-01-15|language=English|jstor=al.sff.document.ranger00057 }} He published two books, An Ill-Fated People: Zimbabwe Before and After Rhodes (1972){{Cite journal|last=Afejuku|first=Tony E.|date=1988|title=Autobiography or History? Lawrence Vambe's "An Ill-Fated People"|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3819800|journal=Research in African Literatures|volume=19|issue=4|pages=508–519|jstor=3819800|issn=0034-5210}}{{Cite book|last=Vambe|first=Lawrence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NV4vAQAAIAAJ|title=An Ill-fated People: Zimbabwe Before and After Rhodes|date=1972|publisher=Heinemann|isbn=978-0-434-82540-0|language=en}} and From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe (1976).{{Cite book|last=Vambe|first=Lawrence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QS91AAAAMAAJ|title=From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe|date=1976|publisher=Heinemann|isbn=978-0-434-82541-7|language=en}} This made him one of the pioneering Black writers from Zimbabwe.{{Cite web|title=Pioneering Zimbabwean author dies – Commonwealth Journalists Association (UK Branch)|url=https://www.cja-uk.org/2019/09/pioneering-zimbabwean-author-dies/|access-date=2021-09-13|language=en-US}} He was awarded the MBE in 1959. In the 1980s he was one of the founders of the Britain-Zimbabwe Society, an organisation which continues to this day.{{Cite web|date=2017-03-12|title=At 100, Vambe's spirit remains young|url=https://www.thestandard.co.zw/2017/03/12/100-vambes-spirit-remains-young/|access-date=2021-09-13|website=The Standard|language=en-US}}
Personal life
He was married to Cathleen Rolands with whom he had three daughters and one son. After they divorced, he remarried Kay Boyer and had two daughters, and that also ended in divorce. His daughter Elizabeth, from his first marriage, married Stephen Pollock, 3rd Viscount Hanworth.Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 2, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 1770{{Cite news|title=Lawrence Vambe obituary|newspaper=The Times|language=en|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/lawrence-vambe-obituary-5h8q6jg0r|access-date=2021-09-13|issn=0140-0460}}
References
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Category:20th-century Zimbabwean writers
Category:Zimbabwean journalists
Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire