Joshua Nkomo's legacy

Joshua Nkomo's legacy

THIS week I take some time to celebrate and derive inspiration from perhaps the most phenomenal Zimbabwean political leader ever. I take a cursory glance at the life of Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo.

Nkomo died some six years ago on the 1st July 1999 after a long and protracted battle with a prolific but deadly prostrate cancer. He was 82 years old at the time of his death since it is presumed that he was born on 7th June 1917.

Nkomo lived almost his entire life in the public spectrum. In total he spent almost sixty years in both national and international limelight. This was so because his illustrious political career spanned across some six different decades from the 1940s right to the doorstep of the new century and millennium in the late 1990s.

Throughout his long political career, Nkomo carved a special and unique name for himself as a selfless and humble politician. Many thought of him as a highly sociable, friendly and affable person. Others remember him as a natural populist. Some still rank him as the most popular figure ever in the modern history of Zimbabwe.

But more importantly to all of us Zimbabweans today, he was a great visionary and nation builder. He believed a lot in a new nation that would not only be democratic but also be free from any form of prejudice and discrimination. He hated racism and tribalism, the two major viruses that have corrupted and defined our nation’s political history for over one hundred years.

Born of Kalanga descent, a minority ethnic group based in Southern Zimbabwe among the Matebele people, Nkomo had to endure a lifelong exposure to the negative ramifications of the base politics of racism and tribalism.

"I reminisced on Nkomo’s lasting political legacy, I realized that he had bequeathed us with one critical thing, a spirit of nationalism and patriotism"

DANIEL MOLOKELA

He was regarded as inferior by virtue of being a black person in a white dominated Rhodesia. This was during the pre-independence era. He even had to spend almost 11 years in solitary confinement and banishment at Gonakudzingwa. But he soldiered on until he found the requisite political breakthrough when Zimbabwe became independent in April 1980.

Naturally Nkomo might have presumed that the independence era would have effectively ended his life as a second class citizen. But as fate and history would have it, the end of racist segregation only exposed him to tribal discrimination. Within two years of independence, he was totally back to political wilderness. This time under the barrage of a vicious tribal conspiracy led by his archrival, Robert Mugabe.

Throughout the early 1980s, instead of fully enjoying the fruits of independence he had so much fought to gain for most of his life, Nkomo was forced to eat the humble pie by Mugabe who had the ethnic support of the majority Shona population.

Matters came to a head when Nkomo had to flee Zimbabwe to Britain via Botswana. Had it not been for the continued loyalty towards him by some Zapu-Zipra cadres in the national intelligence services who tipped him, Nkomo could have lost his life in 1983.

The humiliation was fully complete for him, when the state media drummed up a false story that he had fled the country while dressed up as an old woman! Nkomo was deeply hurt by this experience. It was during this forced exile in London that Nkomo had some time to write his own autobiography. In his book, aptly entitled the “Story of My Life”, Nkomo explained why he felt betrayed by the upstart Mugabe and his Zanu cronies.

In spite of the continued threats on his life by Mugabe, Nkomo was forced to return home just in time for the 1985 Parliamentary elections. It was during that period that I recorded my first personal memories of the man himself.

This was when he came to address a big election campaign rally at the Wankie Colliery soccer stadium. I will never forget that day because it was such an unforgettable experience! Nkomo struck me as a populist of the highest order. The whole coal mining town was left in frenzy as the Zapu election juggernaut rolled all over Hwange.

My second chance to see Nkomo came in 1988 when he addressed a big Zapu-Zanu unity rally in Hwange. What made that day so special to me is that the organizers had to ferry my dad’s large sofa to the stadium for Nkomo to sit on. This was after it was discovered that he was too big for any chair that was at the venue! The whole sight of Nkomo sitting on my dad’s sofa was such an exhilarating experience for me!

Unfortunately, I never had another chance to see Nkomo in person again until his death.

Life is strange because I only had two clear chances to see Nkomo live when I would have wanted more of them. But not so for Mugabe! I first saw the man himself live at a rally in which I had been frog marched to by the Zanu youth in 1985. I later had several one-on-one encounters with Mugabe in 1996-7 during my days as a UZ student leader.

But I digress!

This week as I reminisced on Nkomo’s lasting political legacy, I realized that he had bequeathed us with one critical thing, a spirit of nationalism and patriotism. Known affectionately as the ‘Father of the Nation’, ‘Father Zimbabwe’ or ‘Umdala wethu’ among others of his many nicknames, Nkomo was truly our nation’s patriarch.

He had a choice to be vindictive after being victimized on both racist and tribal grounds, but he chose to be forgiving and reconciliatory. He could have gone back to war but decided to sign the 1987 Unity Accord.

He did all this because he loved his nation and its people. He loved Zimbabwe so much. He was such a big man but never considered his ego and ambitions to be bigger than the national agenda. He always put Zimbabwe first almost sacrificially.

As his late wife MaFuyana once put it succinctly, “he always put the people of Zimbabwe before his own family”.

Indeed as a young Zimbabwean today, I really believe that it is my national obligation and patriotic duty to continue with the struggle for a new and united democratic Zimbabwe that he lived his entire life. Our generation should carry on the dreams and hopes that Nkomo lived and aspired for. Failure to do will result in a terrible indictment against us on behalf of Nkomo and his generation. Not to mention the fact that our posterity and history will also judge us harshly for our national inertia. We need to pass to pass Nkomo’s button stick of pure nationalism and patriotism.

We need to take heed of the words of Ndabaningi Sithole to his younger brother Masipula in 1977; “you and your generation must begin to formulate and express your views on all and every issue. My generation is on its way out, whether we like it or not. We have done our part, at times not as well as we might have liked to”.
CONTACT DANIEL: danielmolokela@yahoo.com
Daniel Molokele is a human rights lawyer based in Johannesburg. He has been elected as the Interim Chairperson of the Zimbabwe CSO Forum (South African chapter) National Committee. His column appears here every Monday
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