 He became involved with Rhodesian anticolonial activists like James Chikerema and George Nyandoro, and in 1955, he was one of the founders of Southern Rhodesia African National Congress Youth League.Along with Nyandoro and Edson Sithole, he formed the City Youth League (CYL), whose first major accomplishment was the 1956 Salisbury bus boycott.He was deported from Southern Rhodesia in September 1956 to Nyasaland.