Joshua Nkomo
Encyclopedia
Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo (19 June 1917–1 July 1999) was the leader and founder of the Zimbabwe African People's Union
and a member of the Kalanga
tribe. He was affectionately known in Zimbabwe
as Father Zimbabwe, Umdala Wethu, Umafukufuku or Chibwechitedza (the slippery rock).
in 1917 and was one of eight children. His father (Thomas Nyongolo Letswansto Nkomo) worked as a preacher and a cattle rancher and worked for the London Missionary Society
. After completing his primary education in Rhodesia
he took a carpentry course at the Tsholotsho Government Industrial School and studied there for a year before becoming a driver. He later tried animal husbandry before becoming a schoolteacher specialising in carpentry at Manyame School in Kezi
. In 1942, at the age of 25, during his career as a teacher, he decided that he should go to South Africa to further his education, do carpentry, and qualify to a higher level. He attended Adams College and the Jan Hofmeyer School of Social Work in South Africa. There he met Nelson Mandela
and other regional nationalist leaders at the University of Fort Hare
, though he did not attend that university. It was at the Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work
that he was awarded a B.A. Degree
in Social Science in 1952. Nkomo married his wife Johanna MaFuyana on 1 October 1949.
After returning to Bulawayo
in 1947, he became a trade unionist for black railway workers and rose to the leadership of the Railway Workers Union and then to leadership of the African National Congress
in 1952. In 1960 he became president of the National Democratic Party
which was later banned by the Rhodesian government. He also became one of Rhodesia's wealthiest self-made entrepreneurs.
by Ian Smith
's government in 1964, with fellow revolutionaries Ndabaningi Sithole
, Edgar Tekere
, Maurice Nyagumbo
and Robert Mugabe
, until 1974 when they were released due to pressure from South African prime minister B.J. Vorster
. Following Nkomo's release, he went to Zambia
to continue the liberation struggle through the dual process of armed conflict and negotiation. Unlike ZANU's armed wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army
, ZAPU's armed wing, the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army, was dedicated to both guerrilla warfare
and conventional warfare. At the time of independence ZIPRA had a modern military stationed in Zambia
and Angola
, consisting of Soviet-made Mikoyan
fighters, tanks and armoured personnel carriers, as well as well trained artillery
units.
Joshua Nkomo was the target of two attempted assassinations. The first one, in Zambia, by the Selous Scouts
, a pseudo-team. But the mission was finally aborted, and attempted again, unsuccessfully, by the Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS). In August 2011 it was reported by the BBC
that Nkomo had been tipped off by the British government.
ZAPU forces committed many acts of violence during their war to overthrow the Rhodesian government. The most widely reported and possibly the most notorious were when his troops shot down two Air Rhodesia
Vickers Viscount
civilian passenger planes with surface-to-air missile
s. The first, on 3 September 1978, killed 38 out of 56 in the crash, with a further ten survivors (including children) shot dead by ZIPRA ground troops sent to inspect the burned-out wreckage. The eight remaining survivors managed to elude the guerrillas and walked 20km into Kariba
from where the flight had taken off (it was heading for Salisbury, Rhodesia's capital, now renamed Harare
). Some of the passengers had serious injuries, and they were picked up by local police and debriefed by the Rhodesian army. The second shooting down, on 12 February 1979, killed all 59 on board. The real target of the second attack was General Peter Walls
, head of the COMOPS (Commander, Combined Operations), in charge of the Special Forces
, including the SAS
and the Selous Scouts. Due to the large number of tourists returning to Salisbury a second flight had been dispatched. General Walls received a boarding card for the second flight which departed Kariba 15 minutes after the doomed aircraft. No-one has been brought to trial or charged with shooting down the aircraft due to amnesty laws passed by both Smith and Mugabe. In a television interview not long after the attack on the first aircraft, Nkomo laughed and joked about the incident while admitting ZAPU had indeed been responsible. In his memoirs, Story of My Life, published in 1985, Nkomo expressed regret for the shooting down of both aircraft.
Nkomo founded the National Democratic Party (NDP), and in 1960, the year British prime minister Harold Macmillan spoke of the "Wind of Change
" blowing through Africa, Robert Mugabe joined him. The NDP was banned by Smith's white minority government, and it was subsequently replaced by the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU), also founded by Nkomo and Mugabe, in 1962, itself immediately banned. ZAPU split in 1963 and while some have claimed this split was due to ethnic tensions, more accurately the split was motivated by the failure of Sithole, Mugabe, Takawira and Malianga to wrest control of ZAPU from Nkomo. ZAPU would remain a multi-ethnic party right up until independence.
Following the first majority rule election in Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in which around 60% of the population voted, a government led by Abel Muzorewa
, was formed in 1979 between Ian Smith
and Ndabaningi Sithole
's ZANU, which by now had also split from Mugabe's more militant ZANU faction. The civil war waged by Nkomo and Mugabe continued unabated, and Britain and the USA did not lift sanctions on the country. Britain persuaded all parties to come to Lancaster House
in September 1979 to work out a constitution and the basis for fresh elections. Mugabe and Nkomo shared a delegation, called the Patriotic Front (PF), at the negotiations chaired by Lord Carrington
. Elections were held in 1980, and to the surprise of Nkomo but few others, the Common Roll vote split on predictable tribal lines, with the 20 seats in Matabeleland going to ZAPU and all but three of the sixty in predominantly Shona areas falling to Mugabe's ZANU. Nkomo was offered the ceremonial post of President, but declined.
summoned the two to a meeting to improve relations between the two party leaders, they entered Nyerere's office separately, first Nkomo, then Mugabe. When Mugabe was offered a seat, he refused and instead went up close to Nyerere's face and told him "If you think I'm going to sit right where that fat bastard just sat, you'll have to think again". As a result of this strained relationship, fighting between ZANLA and ZIPRA soldiers increased and widened the gap between the two men.
Finally after much debate and refusals, Nkomo was appointed to the cabinet, but in 1982 was accused of plotting a coup d'état
after South African double agents in Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organization
, attempting to cause distrust between ZAPU and ZANU, planted arms on ZAPU owned farms, and then tipped Mugabe off to their existence.
In a public statement Mugabe said, "ZAPU and its leader, Dr. Joshua Nkomo, are like a cobra in a house. The only way to deal effectively with a snake is to strike and destroy its head." He unleashed the Fifth Brigade
upon Nkomo's Matabeleland homeland in Operation Gukurahundi
, killing ca. 3000 Ndebele civilians in an attempt to destroy ZAPU and create a one-party state. Nkomo fled the country. Mugabe's government claimed that he had "illegally" left dressed as a woman:
Nkomo ridiculed the suggestion that he escaped dressed as a woman. "I expected they would invent stupid stories about my flight..... People will believe anything if they believe that". He added that "...nothing in my life had prepared me for persecution at the hands of a government led by black Africans."
After the Gukurahundi massacres, in 1987 Nkomo consented to the absorption of ZAPU into ZANU, resulting in a unified party called ZANU-PF, leaving Zimbabwe as effectively a one-party state, and leading some Ndebeles
to accuse Nkomo of selling out. These Ndebele individuals were in such a minority that they did not constitute a meaningful power base within the cross-section of ZAPU. In a powerless post, and with his health failing, his influence declined.
When asked late in his life why he allowed this to happen, he told historian Eliakim Sibanda that he did it to stop the murder of the Ndebele (who supported his party) and of the ZAPU politicians and organizers who had been targeted by Zimbabwe's security forces since 1982. "Mugabe and his Shona henchmen have always sought the extermination of the Ndebele," he said.
Nkomo had been an inactive member of the Missionary Church for most of his life. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1999, shortly before he died of prostate cancer
on 1 July at the age of 82 in Parirenyatwa Hospital
in Harare.
in Harare.
On 27 June 2000, a set of four postage stamps were released by the Post and Telecommunications Corporation of Zimbabwe featuring Joshua Nkomo. They had denominations of ZW$2.00, $9.10, $12.00 and $16.00 and were designed by Cedric D. Herbert.
Zimbabwe African People's Union
The Zimbabwe African People's Union was a militant organization and political party that fought for the national liberation of Zimbabwe from its founding in 1961 until it merged with the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front in December 1987....
and a member of the Kalanga
Kalanga
Kalanga may refer to:* BaKalanga people* Kalanga language* Kalanga, Togo...
tribe. He was affectionately known in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
as Father Zimbabwe, Umdala Wethu, Umafukufuku or Chibwechitedza (the slippery rock).
Early life
Nkomo was born in Bukalanga or Bulilima now referred to as Semokwe Reserve, Matabeleland SouthMatabeleland South
Matabeleland South is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of 54,172 km² and a population of approximately 650,000 . Gwanda is the capital of the province.-Geography:...
in 1917 and was one of eight children. His father (Thomas Nyongolo Letswansto Nkomo) worked as a preacher and a cattle rancher and worked for the London Missionary Society
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...
. After completing his primary education in Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
he took a carpentry course at the Tsholotsho Government Industrial School and studied there for a year before becoming a driver. He later tried animal husbandry before becoming a schoolteacher specialising in carpentry at Manyame School in Kezi
Kezi
Kezi is a village in Matabeleland South province in Zimbabwe....
. In 1942, at the age of 25, during his career as a teacher, he decided that he should go to South Africa to further his education, do carpentry, and qualify to a higher level. He attended Adams College and the Jan Hofmeyer School of Social Work in South Africa. There he met Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
and other regional nationalist leaders at the University of Fort Hare
University of Fort Hare
The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was a key institution in higher education for black Africans from 1916 to 1959. It offered a Western-style, academically excellent education to students from across sub-Saharan Africa, creating a black...
, though he did not attend that university. It was at the Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work
Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work
The Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work was the first institution to train black social workers in South Africa.- History :The Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work started operating on January 15, 1941 in Eloff Street, Johannesburg, under directorship of Congregational minister Rev. Ray Phillips...
that he was awarded a B.A. Degree
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in Social Science in 1952. Nkomo married his wife Johanna MaFuyana on 1 October 1949.
After returning to Bulawayo
Bulawayo
Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...
in 1947, he became a trade unionist for black railway workers and rose to the leadership of the Railway Workers Union and then to leadership of the African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
in 1952. In 1960 he became president of the National Democratic Party
National Democratic Party
The National Democratic Party could refer to* Afar National Democratic Party* Kamerun National Democratic Party* National Democratic Party * National Democratic Party * National Democratic Party...
which was later banned by the Rhodesian government. He also became one of Rhodesia's wealthiest self-made entrepreneurs.
Armed struggle
Nkomo was detained at Gonakudzingwa Restriction CampGonakudzingwa Restriction Camp
Gonakudzingwa Restriction Camp in Southern Rhodesia near the Mozambique border, was set up by the Smith regime....
by Ian Smith
Ian Smith
Ian Douglas Smith GCLM ID was a politician active in the government of Southern Rhodesia, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe from 1948 to 1987, most notably serving as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 13 April 1964 to 1 June 1979...
's government in 1964, with fellow revolutionaries Ndabaningi Sithole
Ndabaningi Sithole
Ndabaningi Sithole founded the Zimbabwe African National Union, a militant organization that opposed the government of Rhodesia, in July 1963. A member of the Ndau ethnic group, he also worked as a Methodist minister. He spent 10 years in prison after the government banned ZANU...
, Edgar Tekere
Edgar Tekere
Edgar Zivanai Tekere was a Zimbabwean politician. He was a president of the Zimbabwe African National Union who organised the party during the Lancaster House talks and served in government before his popularity as a potential rival to Robert Mugabe caused their...
, Maurice Nyagumbo
Maurice Nyagumbo
Tapfumaneyi Maurice Nyagumbo was a Zimbabwean politician.Working in South Africa in the 1940s, he joined the South African Communist Party. He spent most of the years 1957 to 1979 in detention in Southern Rhodesia. During this time he wrote an autobiography, With the People...
and Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
, until 1974 when they were released due to pressure from South African prime minister B.J. Vorster
B.J. Vorster
Balthazar Johannes Vorster , better known as John Vorster, served as the Prime Minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978 and as the fourth State President of South Africa from 1978 to 1979...
. Following Nkomo's release, he went to Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
to continue the liberation struggle through the dual process of armed conflict and negotiation. Unlike ZANU's armed wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army
Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army
Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army was the military wing of the Zimbabwe African National Union, a militant African nationalist organization, and participated in the Rhodesian Bush War against Republican Rule in Rhodesia....
, ZAPU's armed wing, the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army, was dedicated to both guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
and conventional warfare. At the time of independence ZIPRA had a modern military stationed in Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
and Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, consisting of Soviet-made Mikoyan
Mikoyan
Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG , or RSK MiG, is a Russian joint stock company. Formerly Mikoyan-and-Gurevich Design Bureau , then simply Mikoyan, it is a military aircraft design bureau, primarily designing fighter aircraft...
fighters, tanks and armoured personnel carriers, as well as well trained artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
units.
Joshua Nkomo was the target of two attempted assassinations. The first one, in Zambia, by the Selous Scouts
Selous Scouts
The Selous Scouts was a special forces regiment of the Rhodesian Army, which operated from 1973 until the introduction of majority rule in 1980. It was named after British explorer Frederick Courteney Selous , and their motto was pamwe chete, which, in the Shona language, roughly means "all...
, a pseudo-team. But the mission was finally aborted, and attempted again, unsuccessfully, by the Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS). In August 2011 it was reported by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
that Nkomo had been tipped off by the British government.
ZAPU forces committed many acts of violence during their war to overthrow the Rhodesian government. The most widely reported and possibly the most notorious were when his troops shot down two Air Rhodesia
Air Rhodesia
Air Rhodesia was the national airline of Rhodesia. Its head office was located on the property of Salisbury Airport in Salisbury.It was originally formed as a subsidiary of Central African Airways in June 1964, but became an independent corporation on September 1, 1967. Air Rhodesia flew internal...
Vickers Viscount
Vickers Viscount
The Vickers Viscount was a British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs, making it the first such aircraft to enter service in the world...
civilian passenger planes with surface-to-air missile
Surface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile or ground-to-air missile is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles...
s. The first, on 3 September 1978, killed 38 out of 56 in the crash, with a further ten survivors (including children) shot dead by ZIPRA ground troops sent to inspect the burned-out wreckage. The eight remaining survivors managed to elude the guerrillas and walked 20km into Kariba
Kariba
Kariba is a town in Mashonaland West province, Zimbabwe, located close to the Kariba Dam at the northwestern end of Lake Kariba, near the Zambian border. According to the 1992 Population Census, the town had a population of 20,736....
from where the flight had taken off (it was heading for Salisbury, Rhodesia's capital, now renamed Harare
Harare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
). Some of the passengers had serious injuries, and they were picked up by local police and debriefed by the Rhodesian army. The second shooting down, on 12 February 1979, killed all 59 on board. The real target of the second attack was General Peter Walls
Peter Walls
Lieutenant General George Peter Walls MBE GLM served as the Commander of the Combined Operations Headquarters of the Military of Rhodesia, and later Zimbabwe, from 1977 until his retirement on 29 July 1980 during the Rhodesian Bush War...
, head of the COMOPS (Commander, Combined Operations), in charge of the Special Forces
Special forces
Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
, including the SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
and the Selous Scouts. Due to the large number of tourists returning to Salisbury a second flight had been dispatched. General Walls received a boarding card for the second flight which departed Kariba 15 minutes after the doomed aircraft. No-one has been brought to trial or charged with shooting down the aircraft due to amnesty laws passed by both Smith and Mugabe. In a television interview not long after the attack on the first aircraft, Nkomo laughed and joked about the incident while admitting ZAPU had indeed been responsible. In his memoirs, Story of My Life, published in 1985, Nkomo expressed regret for the shooting down of both aircraft.
Politics
Wind of Change
"Wind of Change" is a 1990 power ballad written by Klaus Meine, vocalist of the German heavy metal band Scorpions. It appeared on their 1990 album Crazy World, but did not become a worldwide hit single until 1991, when it topped the charts in Germany and across Europe, and hit #4 in the United...
" blowing through Africa, Robert Mugabe joined him. The NDP was banned by Smith's white minority government, and it was subsequently replaced by the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU), also founded by Nkomo and Mugabe, in 1962, itself immediately banned. ZAPU split in 1963 and while some have claimed this split was due to ethnic tensions, more accurately the split was motivated by the failure of Sithole, Mugabe, Takawira and Malianga to wrest control of ZAPU from Nkomo. ZAPU would remain a multi-ethnic party right up until independence.
Following the first majority rule election in Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in which around 60% of the population voted, a government led by Abel Muzorewa
Abel Muzorewa
Bishop Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Rhodesia from the Internal Settlement to the Lancaster House Agreement in 1979...
, was formed in 1979 between Ian Smith
Ian Smith
Ian Douglas Smith GCLM ID was a politician active in the government of Southern Rhodesia, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe from 1948 to 1987, most notably serving as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 13 April 1964 to 1 June 1979...
and Ndabaningi Sithole
Ndabaningi Sithole
Ndabaningi Sithole founded the Zimbabwe African National Union, a militant organization that opposed the government of Rhodesia, in July 1963. A member of the Ndau ethnic group, he also worked as a Methodist minister. He spent 10 years in prison after the government banned ZANU...
's ZANU, which by now had also split from Mugabe's more militant ZANU faction. The civil war waged by Nkomo and Mugabe continued unabated, and Britain and the USA did not lift sanctions on the country. Britain persuaded all parties to come to Lancaster House
Lancaster House Agreement
The negotiations which led to the Lancaster House Agreement brought independence to Rhodesia following Ian Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965. The Agreement covered the Independence Constitution, pre-independence arrangements, and a ceasefire...
in September 1979 to work out a constitution and the basis for fresh elections. Mugabe and Nkomo shared a delegation, called the Patriotic Front (PF), at the negotiations chaired by Lord Carrington
Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington
Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, is a British Conservative politician. He served as British Foreign Secretary between 1979 and 1982 and as the sixth Secretary General of NATO from 1984 to 1988. He is the last surviving member of the Cabinets of both Harold Macmillan and Sir...
. Elections were held in 1980, and to the surprise of Nkomo but few others, the Common Roll vote split on predictable tribal lines, with the 20 seats in Matabeleland going to ZAPU and all but three of the sixty in predominantly Shona areas falling to Mugabe's ZANU. Nkomo was offered the ceremonial post of President, but declined.
Coup d'état
Despite reaching their ultimate goal, overthrowing Ian Smith and the minority white Rhodesian Front party, Mugabe and Nkomo never did get along. Nkomo was always trying to improve relationships between the two parties but Mugabe never responded as he believed that ZAPU were more interested in overthrowing ZANU. Allegedly, When Julius NyerereJulius Nyerere
Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985....
summoned the two to a meeting to improve relations between the two party leaders, they entered Nyerere's office separately, first Nkomo, then Mugabe. When Mugabe was offered a seat, he refused and instead went up close to Nyerere's face and told him "If you think I'm going to sit right where that fat bastard just sat, you'll have to think again". As a result of this strained relationship, fighting between ZANLA and ZIPRA soldiers increased and widened the gap between the two men.
Finally after much debate and refusals, Nkomo was appointed to the cabinet, but in 1982 was accused of plotting a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
after South African double agents in Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organization
Central Intelligence Organization
The Central Intelligence Organisation is the national intelligence agency or "secret police" of Zimbabwe.-History:The CIO was formed in Rhodesia on the instructions of Prime Minister Winston Field in 1963 at the dissolution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and took over from the...
, attempting to cause distrust between ZAPU and ZANU, planted arms on ZAPU owned farms, and then tipped Mugabe off to their existence.
In a public statement Mugabe said, "ZAPU and its leader, Dr. Joshua Nkomo, are like a cobra in a house. The only way to deal effectively with a snake is to strike and destroy its head." He unleashed the Fifth Brigade
Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade
The Fifth Brigade was an elite unit of specially trained Zimbabwean soldiers. The Fifth Brigade was formed in 1981 and disbanded in 1988 after allegations of brutality and murder during the Brigade's occupation of Matabeleland...
upon Nkomo's Matabeleland homeland in Operation Gukurahundi
Gukurahundi
The Gukurahundi refers to the suppression by Zimbabwe's 5th Brigade in the predominantly Ndebele regions of Zimbabwe most of whom were supporters of Joshua Nkomo. A few hundred disgruntled former ZIPRA combatants waged armed banditry against the civilians in Matabeleland, and destroyed government...
, killing ca. 3000 Ndebele civilians in an attempt to destroy ZAPU and create a one-party state. Nkomo fled the country. Mugabe's government claimed that he had "illegally" left dressed as a woman:
Nkomo ridiculed the suggestion that he escaped dressed as a woman. "I expected they would invent stupid stories about my flight..... People will believe anything if they believe that". He added that "...nothing in my life had prepared me for persecution at the hands of a government led by black Africans."
After the Gukurahundi massacres, in 1987 Nkomo consented to the absorption of ZAPU into ZANU, resulting in a unified party called ZANU-PF, leaving Zimbabwe as effectively a one-party state, and leading some Ndebeles
Ndebele people (Zimbabwe)
The Ndebele are a branch of the Zulus who split from King Shaka in the early 1820s under the leadership of Mzilikazi, a former general in Shaka's army....
to accuse Nkomo of selling out. These Ndebele individuals were in such a minority that they did not constitute a meaningful power base within the cross-section of ZAPU. In a powerless post, and with his health failing, his influence declined.
When asked late in his life why he allowed this to happen, he told historian Eliakim Sibanda that he did it to stop the murder of the Ndebele (who supported his party) and of the ZAPU politicians and organizers who had been targeted by Zimbabwe's security forces since 1982. "Mugabe and his Shona henchmen have always sought the extermination of the Ndebele," he said.
Nkomo had been an inactive member of the Missionary Church for most of his life. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1999, shortly before he died of prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
on 1 July at the age of 82 in Parirenyatwa Hospital
Parirenyatwa Hospital
Parirenyatwa General Hospital is the largest medical centre in Zimbabwe. Located in Harare, the hospital was formerly known as the Andrew Fleming Hospital, and was named after the principal medical officer to the British South Africa Company....
in Harare.
Nkomo letters
Letters allegedly written by Nkomo to the prime minister Robert Mugabe while in exile in the United Kingdom began to resurface following his death in 1999. In the letters he argues against his persecution and accused the government of cracking down on opposition.National Hero status
In 1999 Nkomo was declared a National Hero and is buried in the National Heroes AcreNational Heroes Acre (Zimbabwe)
National Heroes Acre or simply Heroes Acre is a burial ground and national monument in Harare, Zimbabwe. The site is situated on a ridge seven kilometres from Harare along the main Harare-Bulawayo Road. The shrine is a national monument of Zimbabwe...
in Harare.
On 27 June 2000, a set of four postage stamps were released by the Post and Telecommunications Corporation of Zimbabwe featuring Joshua Nkomo. They had denominations of ZW$2.00, $9.10, $12.00 and $16.00 and were designed by Cedric D. Herbert.
External links
- We who fought against these things now practise them. Why? Why? A speech by Joshua Nkomo at the burial of Lookout Masuku
- BBC Obituary
- Joshua M Nkomo: A Bulawayo man who became "Father Zimbabwe"
- Nkomo's Letter,"Zimbabwe Metro"
- Nkomo's Letters Part 2
- Nkomo's Letters,The Conclusion
- A Foundation Dedicated to the Legacy of Joshua Nkomo