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ZIMBABWE’S protracted liberation struggle narrative stands incomplete without the mentioning of the late Father Zimbabwe and Vice-President, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, whom we commemorate this July for a selfless life well spent in the fulfilment of a free Zimbabwe.
In a classic tale of defiance, rising from being a shy and timid ordinary herd-boy treading the rugged terrains of little known Khezi rural in Matebeleland South, to become a prolific national liberation war fighter, considered amongst Africa’s most revered and celebrated liberation icons, Father Zimbabwe, as he became affectionately known, left an abundant legacy for Zimbabwe’s progeny.
Led by the rage of growing up in an unjust and oppressive white administrated system, Dr Nkomo exuded a colossal and shrewd character against the domineering white minority rule, a trait that later proved crucial to his survival as an unwavering people’s leader who maintained his resolute charisma even at the darkest of moments along the agonising epoch of the protracted struggle.
It was during the years of the National Democratic Party in 1960, when then British Prime Minister, Harold MacMillan spoke of the “Winds of Change” blowing through Africa that Dr Nkomo and other comrades like President Robert Mugabe had taken the rise of nationalism to a higher level.
Despite the detention of most of the leaders following the ban of the NDP by the Rhodesian government, all hope was not lost.
“He was our beam of hope when we were at Gonakudzingwa Restriction Camp. When the Rhodesians tried to demoralise comrades at the camp, there we needed someone to be a leader amongst the detainees, one who would make sure our desire for independence remained focused despite the agony of detention. There he stepped up to be that leader”, Politburo member and Cde Nkomo’s jail mate at Gonakudzingwa , Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said, in an interview.
Dr Ndlovu spoke so passionately of the moments he shared with Dr Nkomo from the early days he knew him, being together at ZAPU and ZIPRA, the days in detention up to his last days at Hospital.
“Bra Josh, was so concerned with the plight of the people up to his last days, I remember at hospital lying on his deathbed, he said to me, Skhanyiso, this land we have taken back is ours to protect therefore we should make sure our people benefit from their heritage as rightful owners of this land”.
It was this concern for his people that when the Rhodesian government banned the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress and embarked on a prosecution spree against its leaders, Cde Nkomo escaped but remained resolute in waging the struggle for independence of his people but he constantly sneaked in and out of the country in mysterious ways to rebuild structures, eluding the ever marauding Rhodesian security agents and this shrewdness earned him the title, Chibwe Chitedza, meaning, the slippery rock.
Unlike most of today’s leaders who can go as far as dividing people along racial or ethnic lines for self political gains, Cde Nkomo was consistent with his principles regardless of the situation and for so many times proved his preparedness to be sacrificed for what he believed in at the expense of his personal reputation.
The signing of the December 22, 1987 Unity Accord with President Robert Mugabe is one such monumental decision he took for the progression of a divided nation they had founded and liberated.
Unity of purpose had always been what Dr Nkomo stood for regardless of one’s skin colour or ethnic origin as seen in his early days as a trade unionist, working at the Rhodesian railways where became the leader of the black workers and consequently at the helm of Railway Workers Union, organising strikes and collaborated with fellow comrades who had joined him from the Youth League operating in Salisbury up until the formation of ZAPU.
Today, the colossal statue of Cde Joshua Nkomo stands triumphantly in the skies of Bulawayo’s central business district in a befitting tribute to the great contribution by this great liberation fighter…Long Live Mdalawethu !
Online Reporter