Bernard Mizeki College

Bernard Mizeki College
Bernard Mizeki College Badge
Location
Marondera Zimbabwe Bernard Mizeki College (Zimbabwe)
Coordinates	18°06′09″S 31°38′45″E / 18.10246°S 31.64579°E / -18.10246; 31.64579Coordinates: 18°06′09″S 31°38′45″E / 18.10246°S 31.64579°E / -18.10246; 31.64579
Information
Type	Independent, boarding school
Motto	Liberavi Animum Meum (Latin: I have liberated my mind)
Established	1961
Founder	Peter Holmes Canham
Locale	Rural
Oversight	Bernard Mizeki Schools Trust
Headmaster	Peter Nheweyembwa
Staff	40
Grades	Form 1 - 6 (grades 8–12)
Number of students	450 boys
Campus	Rural Area / peri urban, 45 ha (111.20 acres)
Houses	Kamungu Molele Kapuya Masemola
School colour(s)
Mascot	Warthog
Nickname	B.M.C
Newspaper	The Tidings
Website	www.bernardmizeki.co.zw

Marondera
Zimbabwe

Bernard Mizeki College is a independent boarding school for boys situated in Marondera, Zimbabwe approximately 87 km east of the capital Harare and or 13.5 km north east of Marondera town. It was founded in memory of Bernard Mizeki, an African martyr who died in the Marondera area. The school was established by leading private individuals of the Anglican Church in the then Rhodesia through a deed of trust registered in 1958 at Harare for predominantly African boys.

The school was founded by a group of prominent individuals of both European and African races and both sexes to be a leading high school for African boys though it had been set up with the view of it becoming a multiracial international school., and it was so in the early days. However Bernard Mizeki College did not achieve inter-racial enrollment because the demand for high school places amongst Africans was quite huge while the number of schools which could take them up was extremely low hence the school tended to concentrate on enrolling Africans only. The school is affiliated to the Anglican Church but is an independent school, not diocesan.

The founders had seen the winds of change sweeping across Africa and felt they had to provide high quality education, equivalent to what Europeans were receiving, for the future leaders of an independent Rhodesia. The whole idea behind the school was to bring up well-rounded African leaders in areas of industry, business, education, medicine, law, military and politics. Rt. Reverend Cecil Alderson, like his predecessor Bishop Edward Paget, realised the need for a senior college for Africans had become increasingly urgent, and within a few weeks of his translation from the Bloemfontein Diocese, Bishop Alderson began to investigate ways of meeting it. At the same time Canon Robert Grinham had been working to see the existence of schools for Africans whose facilities equaled or approximated to those of Ruzawi, Springvale and Peterhouse. To this end he devoted his energies after his retirement from Springvale. A steering committee of interested persons was then found under the chairmanship of the Bishop of Mashonaland. With the consent of the trustees of the Diocese of Mashonaland, the land belonging to and adjacent to St Bernard's Mission was taken over.