Online Reporter
Sifelani Tsiko
Fact Check Editor
TWENTY-SIX years ago, Zimbabwe’s veteran nationalist — former Vice President Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo — who was affectionately known as Father Zimbabwe, passed away on July 1, 1999 in the capital. It is poignant to pay tribute to Nkomo, who had an enduring charisma and stage presence and was a major source of inspiration for the country’s struggle for Independence through some of his messages. His death anniversary is observed annually on July 1st and here are some of his quotable quotes:
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“Comrades you are through with your training, the enemy is across the river. It is you to liberate your country, it is you to liberate that country. The enemy is afraid of you, get home and fight the enemy.”
Joshua Nkomo when he was based in Lusaka and was supreme military commander, visiting his men to encourage them. This was usually the message that he passed to the men when they were through with their training.
“We are convinced that, united under the fighting forces of the Patriotic Front, the people of Zimbabwe will ultimately be victorious over Rhodesian fascism. The unity of the people of Zimbabwe under the Patriotic Front is the only viable programme because it is based upon the language that the Rhodesian regime understands.” — JM Nkomo in The Principles of Unity and Struggle in Zimbabwe (1978)
“Unity cannot be achieved like an event at which parties talk out their differences and then sign agreements of cooperation. Unity is a process which can only be achieved objectively through shared experiences in struggle. We in the Patriotic Front believe that we have found a more creative unity by working together through the process of armed struggle. We have no illusions about the problems that lie ahead, but are nevertheless determined to share the experiences of our struggle so that in the end we can fuse our organisations, when all traces of mutual distrust have been eradicated by the grinding mill of armed struggle. The kind of unity that the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) are forging within the Patriotic Front is the most progressive attempt at creating a dynamic revolutionary force against Rhodesian fascism.” — JM Nkomo 1978
“Rhodesians are not going to be charmed from their tree of power and privilege. They must be brought to earth by more active means. When they have been brought face to face with reality, then, but only then, will there be any point in providing by negotiation for the mechanisms, where necessary, for an “orderly hand-over of power.” — 1978
“The Patriotic Front will fight by all means at its disposal until Rhodesia is no more. We expect all those that oppose racism and fascism to act in an equally unequivocal manner against minority rule. We must give our blood not because we love war, but because we love freedom.”
“The challenge can in part be measured by reminding ourselves of the depths to which Rhodesians have sunk to keep their power and privilege and to deny the coming of majority rule to Zimbabwe. They have operated a police state for over twenty years; they have torn up their own constitution, thus risking world criticism and action; they have detained without trial thousands of Zimbabweans; they have perverted the rule of law, tried people in camera, hanged people in secret, legalised torture- all, they say, in the name of Western Christian civilisation and to contain communism; all, in fact, to maintain privilege by power.”— JM Nkomo on the defiant Rhodesian regime.
“There is a talk by some people that ‘majority rule’ means rule by Africans only, that Africanisation will deprive Europeans of their jobs and that there will be a general lowering of standards. To us, majority rule means the extension of political rights to all people so that they are able to elect a Government of their own choice, irrespective of race, colour or creed of the individual forming such a government. All that matters is that a Government must consist of the majority party elected by a majority of the country’s voters.” — (Ndlovu-Gatsheni 2008) on Nkomo outlining the ethos of ZAPU
Nkomo was a fiery apostle of the revolution and right from the beginning of the nationalistic struggle, he said that return of the land to the majority was central to their cause: “What will be the future of the people’s land?” he asked the British at the Lancaster House talks.
“Farmers must change too and realise that they cannot keep vast areas of unproductive or underutilised land. It is right for the commercial farmer to start thinking of the type of farming you get in Europe.
“We cannot continue with vast areas of land on which no other development is done than drilling a borehole and piping water, where no effort at intensified ranching is made. But behind these actions was the situation created by many years of land hunger and the belief of tribal people that they were unjustly treated but now there is a majority government, we must get our land back. What would you do if you were a man with six acres and cattle starving and on the other side of the fence you saw the farmer’s cattle? They snared because no native is allowed a gun. How else could they get meat.”
Signing of the Unity Accord on December 22, 1987
“The accord is the beginning of unity, for unity is just not the signing of documents, unity is what follows.”
Stance against tribalism
“We are one people. You have got to accept that principle. We are one nation. There is no question of {one tribe} swallowing another.”
