Josiah Gondo

Josiah Moses Gondo (died 27 October 1972) was a Rhodesian politician, and a member of parliament (MP) from 1962 to his death. In May 1965, as leader of the United People's Party, he became the first black politician to serve as the Rhodesian House of Assembly's Leader of the Opposition.

Political career Initially a member of the multiracial United Federal Party, Gondo first entered the Rhodesian House of Assembly as a member of parliament (MP) in 1962,

During 1965, the British and Rhodesian governments quarrelled over the terms for the latter's full independence from Britain. Gondo opposed the sympathy widely held in the Rhodesian Front that a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) might be necessary to preserve Rhodesian interests, predicting that a nationwide spate of lawlessness and violence would result. Speaking in early October that year, he suggested that he might withdraw his party from parliament in the event of UDI. "To lead the people of Rhodesia to think UDI would create a paradise is ludicrous," he said. Later that month, when British Prime Minister Harold Wilson was in the Rhodesian capital Salisbury for talks with Smith, Gondo urged Wilson to call a new constitutional conference.

After Salisbury declared independence unilaterally on the morning of 11 November 1965, Gondo continued as leader of the opposition, keeping his party in the House of Assembly. A week after UDI, Smith invited Gondo to talk, but Gondo refused. Gondo then led a walk-out of opposition MPs: eight other "B"-roll members followed him out.