My Story
Kennedy & Rahab Manyika 1954
My first school, Vungu Council School
Midlands Province, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
Rhodesian President Clifford Dupont visits Vungu Council School 1970
The Full Story?
Grandpa Dick Manyika 1969
While the full story is still being lived and written, here’s a glimpse of mine so far:
I was born in February 1962 in Selukwe, Rhodesia, on the same day the United States successfully launched its first reconnaissance satellite under the KH-7 GAMBIT program. The town’s name had been anglicized from Shurugwi by colonial authorities—not just for easier pronunciation, but as a statement of ownership. Selukwe, they could claim. Shurugwi, they could not.
This seemingly obscure town was tied to global events in ways few recognized. February 1962 was a pivotal moment in the Cold War, the space race, and shifting geopolitical dynamics. The U.S. satellite launched that day was part of a classified initiative to gather high-resolution intelligence on Soviet military activities. Meanwhile, the parents of the children my parents, Kennedy and Rahab Manyika, taught in the mine’s elementary schools were likely unaware of how crucial their hard labor was to the broader geopolitical landscape.
Chrome was essential for stainless steel and high-strength alloys used in military hardware - aircraft, tanks, and weapons. During the Cold War, the U.S., with limited domestic chromium reserves, relied on imports from Rhodesia, a leading global supplier alongside the Soviet Union and South Africa. As the U.S. underwent rapid industrial expansion in the early 1960s - fueling its automobile, construction, and aerospace industries - Rhodesian chrome became even more critical. So vital were these supplies that when the U.S. imposed sanctions on Rhodesia after its 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), the Nixon administration later reversed the ban through the 1971 Byrd Amendment, allowing imports to resume due to rising demand.
And so, my life began in an African hospital in a town few know today but which played a crucial role in the U.S. defense, manufacturing, and aerospace supply chain. Perhaps because my umbilical cord is buried in that soil - now reclaimed under its original name, Shurugwi - I have always been drawn to global affairs, geopolitics, and the unseen connections that shape our world.