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Breaking News: Fr. Emmanuel Ribeiro Dies

Roman Catholic priest, Father Emmanuel Francis Ribeiro, has died. He died this morning at St Anne’s Hospital in Harare at the age of 86. Fr ...

Roman Catholic priest, Father Emmanuel Francis Ribeiro, has died.

He died this morning at St Anne’s Hospital in Harare at the age of 86. Fr Ribeiro was a composer and novelist. He composed over 17 Roman Catholic Church songs.

He also headed of the committee which penned Zimbabwe’s national anthem and was part of the committee that designed Zimbabwe’s national flag.

Fr Ribeiro was born in 1935 in Chivhu and attended Kutama Mission, Gokomere and Gweru Teachers’ College. He studied Theology at Chishawasha Mission before enrolling for a Master’s Degree at Bloomington College of Music in the USA.

Fr Ribeiro, who was trained at Chishawasha Mission from 1952 and was ordained on December 13, 1964.

Father Emmanuel Ribeiro’s History

Father Emmanuel Francis Ribeiro was a Zimbabwean Roman Catholic Church priest, composer and novelist. Ribeiro has composed over 17 Roman Catholic Church songs. 

He was the head of the committee which penned Zimbabwe’s national anthem and was part of the committee which designed Zimbabwe’s national flag.

Background

He was born in 1935 in Chivhu and attended Kutama Mission, Gokomere and Gweru Teachers’ College. He studied Theology at Chishawasha before enrolling for a Masters’ Degree at Bloomington College of Music in the USA. He was a correspondent for BBC.

Priesthood

Ribeiro, who was trained at Chishawasha Mission from 1952 and was ordained on December 13, 1964. He celebrated 50 years as a Catholic priest on December 13, 2014 at St Peter’s Kubatana in Harare’s Highfield suburb. 
Father Emmanuel Ribeiro 
After his ordination in 1964, Father Ribeiro worked in Mhondoro, Highfield in Harare and from 1968 to 1983, he was a Prison Chaplain for Harare Central Prison, then half the country and the whole country. It was during this period that Fr Ribeiro met the majority of Zimbabwe’s nationalists.

He was assistant chaplain-general of Prisons at the time when Emmerson Mnangagwa was in prison for bombing the Rhodesian locomotive at Fort Victoria railway station together with Mathew Malowa.

Mnangagwa and other members of the Crocodile Gang were arrested and sentenced to death. Ribeiro facilitated Mnangagwa’s removal from death row. Victor Mlambo and James Dhlamini who were also members of the Crodile Gang were hanged and buried at the prison.

Father Ribeiro has a music career spanning over 60 years and has composed over 17 Roman Catholic Church songs including Mambo Mwari Wa masimba and Tauya Nozvipo Zvo Mupiro. 

He introduced vernacular songs and African musical instruments into the Catholic Church in the 1960s, in the wake of Vatican Council II, which opened up catholic rituals to indigenous languages. 

He was at the forefront of the global movement to make the mass locally relevant and understandable to the ordinary person. At the time, all catholic mass services were conducted in Latin. He also masterminded Robert Mugabe and Edgar Tekere’s great escape to Mozambique. 

He sheltered Mugabe and Enos Nkala when they had been just released by Smith as outlaw Political prisoners after 12 years, at his rectory at Rhodesville Roman Catholic Church in 1975 and masterminded their escape. 

He dropped off Nkala at Mutanga Night Club whereby he was attended to by the Manager Paul Tangi Mhova Mkondo.

In 2019, he was part of a group of religious leaders under the banner of the National Elders Forum (NEF) that called for the removal of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe ahead of October 25 which was declared by SADC as a day to protest against the sanctions.

Writing career 

He was elected the first chairman of the Shona and Ndebele Writers’ Association in 1967. Father Ribeiro wrote Shona epilogues for the Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation’s African Service for two years. He is the author of three Shona novels Muchadura, Tonderai and Ndakaitei. 

Ribeiro’s first two Shona novels Muchadura and Tonderai won prizes in competitions arranged by the Rhodesia Literature Bureau. Fr Ribeiro’s first novel Muchadura earned him £35. More than 3 000 copies were sold. Muchadura has been used as a set book.

The first Roman Catholic Church song he composed, Gamuchirai Mambo mupiro uyu came in 1961 and continues to be sung today. His other popular compositions include Alleluia munyika dzose, Tauya nezvipo zvemupiro, Mambo Mwari wamasimba, Hwayana yaMwari, Mwari Ngaarumbidzwe amongst others.

His published novels included, Muchadura (1967), Tonderai (1969) and Ndakaitei.

He was Constantino Chiwenga’s spiritual mentor for three years my spiritual mentor while they were studying at Indiana University, Bloomington campus in the Unites States. 

Ribeiro was the head of the committee which penned the country’s national anthem and was part of the committee which designed Zimbabwe’s national flag. - The Herald 


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