Tichaona Jokonya
|
Doctor Tichaona Jokonya |
|
|---|---|
| Minister of Information and Publicity of Zimbabwe | |
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In office April 2005 – 24 June 2006 |
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| President | Robert Mugabe |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
27 December 1938 Rhodesia and Nyasaland |
| Died | 24 June 2006 (aged 67) |
| Political party | Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front |
Dr Tichaona Joseph Benjamin Jokonya (27 December 1938 – 24 June 2006) was a Zimbabwean politician, civil servant and diplomat.
Jokonya was born in the Charter District, since renamed Chikomba and attended Lourdes Mission and Kutama College before training as a primary schoolteacher. After six years he was promoted to be Headmaster of Badza Primary School. While at work he continued to study for qualifications by post, passing GCE O and A levels, and then went to the University of Rhodesia.
In 1965 Jokonya became more involved in politics and was appointed as Secretary for Political Affairs by the National Union of Zimbabwe Students. The NUZS supported majority rule and after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence Jokonya left the country, fearing that he would be detained. After travelling through Botswana, and Zambia he settled in Nairobi, Kenya where he enrolled at the University for a History degree.
Jokonya was a good student and was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship for a postgraduate degree at the University of Sussex School of African Studies in 1968, at which he wrote a dissertation on military intervention in politics in Africa. He followed this with a thesis on colonial land policy in Malawi, and went on to the University of London's Institute of Education where he was awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1971. He taught in Birmingham for six years in the 1970s. In January 2002, he received an MA in Government and Politics, and a Certification in International Law and Diplomacy at St. John's University in New York.
With the advent of majority rule, Dr Jokonya returned and was employed as a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, specialising in modern British and European history. However, he was swiftly recruited to be part of the new ZANU PF government as deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Recreation in 1980. In 1983 Dr Jokonya was appointed as Zimbabwean ambassador to Ethiopia. As such he was also permanent representative to the Organisation of African Unity.
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