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. ==References==