Janet Banana

Janet Banana ( Mbuyazwe; 1938 – 29 July 2021) was a Zimbabwean teacher who became First Lady of Zimbabwe. She was married to the country's first President, Canaan Banana, from 1961 until his death in 2003, and she served as the first First Lady of Zimbabwe from 1980 until 1987. In 2000, she sought asylum in the United Kingdom, where she became a citizen and remained until returning to Zimbabwe in 2019.

Biography Early life Janet Mbuyazwe was born in 1938 into a family of farmers in the southern Matabeleland region of Zimbabwe during the years that it was a part of the Crown colony of Southern Rhodesia. Her husband later left teaching to attend a theological college in order to become a minister in the Methodist church and the family moved several times to different churches for Canaan to provide religious service.

Time as First Lady Canaan Banana became President of Zimbabwe in 1980 and Janet became First Lady of Zimbabwe.

Later life After seven years, Canaan Banana retired from the office of President following a constitutional amendment converting it from a ceremonial to an executive post, to be held by Robert Mugabe, hitherto Prime Minister. After Mugabe resigned in 2017, Banana made a statement hoping that his successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, would have a "Damascene conversion, like St Paul" and turn away from the evils of Mugabe's government and the ethnic cleansing of the Gukurahundi. Despite her term as First Lady, Janet Banana did not receive a pension from either Mugabe or Mnangagwa. She later received her spousal pension after her return to Zimbabwe after 18 years in the United Kingdom. She returned to live in Bulawayo in 2019.

Janet Banana died on 29 July 2021 at Bulawayo's Mater Dei Hospital.