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Dr Joshua M
Nkomo: "Father Zimbabwe"
(Former nationalist leader and Vice-President of
Zimbabwe) |
Born on June 17, 1918 to black missionary teachers in
the arid Semokwe reserve of south west Matebeleland, he
was educated in South Africa. It was when he was
studying in South Africa that he met some of the
influential leaders of the African National Congress
(ANC) whose ideas influenced and sharpened his future
political career. It was during this time that he met
Nelson Mandela and other regional nationalist leaders. |
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After returning to Bulawayo in 1948, he was employed as a
social worker with the Rhodesia Railways. He was the first
African to be appointed to such a prestigious post during
that time. While working for the railways, he enrolled for
a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology with
UNISA., he became a trade unionist for black railway
workers. |
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Because of his anti-tribalist
approach to the liberation of his country, Nkomo earned
the respect of all his countrymen, earning himself
respectable names like Chibwechitedza, Father Zimbabwe,
Umdala Wethu and others. These are revered titles in Zimbabwean history.
He founded a number of small organisations, all banned
by the British colonial authorities, before founding
ZAPU in 1962. It was immediately banned. Nkomo,
frustrated with the lack of progress in negotiations
with authorities, subtle indifference from the
international community and the constant banning of
liberation movements, decided to form a government
in-exile as a way of stepping up international pressure
on the colonial regime and effect political change in
Southern Rhodesia. His ideas came under heavy criticism
from Robert Mugabe his Secretary General, Julius Nyerere,
then president of Tanzania, and his once trusted friend,
Ndabaningi Sithole, who it seems were now becoming
alarmed by Nkomo’s popularity at home and abroad. ZAPU
split along ethnic grounds a year after its formation,
with Robert Mugabe breaking away with the Shona majority
(85 % of the total population of Rhodesia), forming Zanu-PF,
leaving ZAPU as a mostly Ndebele organisation (15% of
the total population of Rhodesia). |
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On the 16th of April 1964, Nkomo was arrested, detained
and spent the next ten and half years in prison at
Gonakudzingwa. On his release in 1974, Nkomo quickly moved
back to the centre stage of the Zimbabwe liberation
struggle, chanting his ‘song’, one-man one-vote. Nkomo
upon release, fled to Zambia to fight for Zimbabwean
independence.
Elections were held in 1980, and to most observers
surprise Nkomo's ZAPU lost to Mugabe's ZANU. During the
1980 elections ZANU PF largely played the tribal card to
make sure Joshua Nkomo did not win the election despite
his popularity. Nkomo was offered the ceremonial post of
President, but declined. He was appointed to the cabinet,
but in 1982 was accused of plotting a coup. His passport
was seized and he was restricted to his Bulawayo home.
Nkomo, with the help of his supporters in his home area,
soon sneaked out of his restriction in Bulawayo and Zimbabwe through the Botswana border to Britain. |
Mugabe unleashed the notorious Fifth Brigade upon
Nkomo's Matebeleland homeland. The Korean-trained Fifth
Brigade popularly known as Gukurahundi, was sent
into Matebeleland to deal with what were known as
dissidents. The army killed thousands of civilians in
Matebeleland as they claimed they were containing armed
insurgents. The killings ended in 1987 when ZAPU agreed
to a Unity Accord with ZANU.
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In 1987 Nkomo was reconciled
with Mugabe and two parties merged, leaving Zimbabwe as
effectively a one-party state, and leading some Ndebeles to accuse Nkomo of selling out.
Throughout his political career he preached the
simple gospel of non-tribalism, racial mix, equal
opportunities and equal distribution of land among
the whites and dispossessed blacks. |
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| He was convinced that when the land imbalance was
corrected, every one in Zimbabwe would be uplifted
socially and economically. He was the Vice-President of
Zimbabwe until his death on the 4th of July 1999. |
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