Kutama College (officially St Francis Xavier College) is a private Catholic independent boarding high school near Norton, Zimbabwe in the Zvimba area, 80 kilometres southwest of Harare. Grown out of a Mission station founded in 1914 and run by the Marist Brothers, Kutama has a student population of about 700 pupils.
Kutama College is one of the largest top schools in Zimbabwe. Kutama College was ranked 26th out of the top 100 best high schools in Africa by Africa Almanac in 2017, based on quality of education, student engagement, strength and activities of alumni, school profile, internet and news visibility.[1]
The school moto "Esse Quam Videri" is Latin meaning "to be, rather than to seem".
History
Founded prior to the Second World War by English Jesuit Priests at the request of Bishop Aston Chichester, Kutama was one of the first institutions to offer high school education to students of African descent in colonial Rhodesia. Its Jesuit origins are reflected in its official name, St Francis Xavier College. The school is part of Kutama Mission, a Catholicmission originally run by Jesuits but now run by the Marist Brothers, a Catholic order devoted to educational work.
James A. Chinamasa, Kutama College Headmaster in the 1990s, with his wife.
The school's first headmaster was Father Jerome O'Hea, an Irish-born priest after whom the local mission hospital is named. Its most famous headmaster was James Anthony (affectionately known as "Jachi") Chinamasa, a Kutama College Old Boy(KOBA) and elder brother of Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa. The current headmaster is Mr Francis Mukoyi who took over from Br Jacob Mutingwende.
Houses
Like most high schools in Zimbabwe, which follow the traditional British school system, students at Kutama are divided into four houses each having its own colour:
This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations.(January 2023)
Bernard Chidzero – Zimbabwean economist, politician, writer (1927–2002) – Zimbabwe's second finance minister (1982–1995)
James Chikerema – President of the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (1925–2006)
Elliot Manyika – Zimbabwean politician (1955–2008) – former Minister without portfolio
Douglas Mombeshora – Zimbabwean politician, Lands Minister from 2013 to 2018
Robert Mugabe – President of Zimbabwe from 1987 to 2017
^"top20highschools". Africa Almanac. Africa Almanac. 1 October 2003. Archived from the original on 14 January 2007. Retrieved 19 June 2016. The research leading up to the publication of the 100 Best High Schools in Africa began with the launching of the website in December 2000.
