Overview

Private Catholic boarding high school

Motto Esse Quam Videri (To be, rather than to seem / Be what You Are!)

Established 1914; 110 years ago

Principal Francis Mukoyi

Grades Form 1 – Upper Six

Age 12 to 18

Enrollment 600-750 boys and girls.

Website www.kutamacollege.ac.zw

PROFILE (this should come before the history)

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”.

The school started to enrol girls for the first time in 2024.

NOTABLE ALUMNI

• 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

ADDRESS

Private Bag 909 Norton

Mashonaland West About 80km by road from Harare Main post office

Zimbabwe

Background

Founded prior to the Second World War by C.Ks, M 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 Catholic mission originally run by Jesuits but now run by the Marist Brothers, a Catholic order devoted to educational work. The other Marist Brothers schools in Zimbabwe are Marist Brothers Dete, and Nyanga High School. There was another multi-racial Marist School, Marist Brothers Que Que based in the then Que Que. The school’s first Headmaster was Father Jerome O’Hea, an Irish 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 and elder brother of Zimbabwean Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa. Mr. Francis Mukoyi is the present Principal of Kutama College.

There were other notable Headmasters in the 70s such as Mr Marume whose deputy was Cuthbert Musiiwa a well-known writer in pre-Zimbabwe era. This was the period when Kutama was producing very good results and the school staff included former politician Mr Tazvishaya; father of the late Charles Tazvishaya (a former school captain) and Thompson Tsodzo another notable Shona Novelist. Charles Tazvishaya was personal private secretary to Prime Minister Mugabe later after independence.