Opinion / Blogs
Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Squirming in His Grave
11 Jul 2011 at 12:45hrs | Views
"NKOMO goes to the grave a free person," so said President Robert Mugabe at the burial of the late Vice President, Joshua Nkomo, at the National Heroes Acre in 1999. Indeed, the late nationalist went to the grave a free man after fighting a good fight that ushered in the country's independence in 1980.
Even after independence, he continued to seek justice.
For example, while some in ZANU-PF fought against the granting of a cellular licence to Econet in the 1990's, the late nationalist fiercely opposed the onslaught against private enterprise.
In the end he triumphed, and Econet launched its network in July 1998.
In the intervening years, the company has grown to be the country's biggest mobile cellular operator and with that came the Joshua Nkomo Scholarship Fund which assists the disadvantaged but academically gifted high school and university students realise their dreams.
"I would have wanted to honour him even if he had not spoken out in support of us.
"This was a great man and we want future generations of leaders in Africa to remember his contribution," Econet founder, Strive Masiyiwa, said when the scholarship fund was launched.
Prominent Zimbabwean playwright, Conte Mhlanga, said it is important for today's politicians to draw some lessons from Nkomo's life.
Today's politicians, according to Mhlanga, look for personal riches such as vehicles, hefty allowances and other featherbeddings even before serving their constituencies.
While the current crop of politicians, including Members of Parliament venture into public life for personal gain, the late nationalist's view was different.
"Nkomo was one of the first graduates in this country, but he left his employment to serve this country. There is no greater sacrifice than to forego your salary and the security of your children and yourself and say, 'I do not know where the next meal for my children and myself will come from but I want to do this for the people," said Mhlanga.
Nkomo's writings reflect a leader who believed that finality should be given to the land question, unlike today's leaders who want to keep this emotive issue open forever so that they use it as a political weapon to win votes.
"They do not want to deal with the issue once and for all because they want to have something to talk about tomorrow, come election time," Mhlanga said.
Whereas most pronouncements by Zimbabwean politicians reflect their party positions, Nkomo looked at the national interest.
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 During the Matabeleland disturbances of the early 1980s, an era commonly referred to as Gukurahundi, Nkomo would have easily found refuge in a foreign country - away from the vagaries of a civil war in the full knowledge that he could direct operations from there - but he chose peace for the national good.
"He always considered the interest of the people. For him it was a matter of: we can't go into a civil war because it is the people who would suffer," added Mhlanga.
Historian, Pathisa Nyathi, also drew parallels bet-ween the man who became known as Father Zimbabwe and the current breed of national politicians.
The latter, he said, find time for regional politics and tend to think that exploitation by whites is unjust, but find no fault when a black man exploits another black man.
"He (Nkomo) was beyond ethnic consciousness and was very nationalistic not what we are seeing where some are concerned ab-out their regions and home-boys," said Nyathi.
The late nationalist was born on June 19, 1917 and died on July 1, 1999.
Nkomo held a degree in Social Science obtained in 1952 at South Africa's Jan H Hofmeyer School of Social Work and earlier in Zimbabwe he had done carpentry.
During Zimbabwe's first all race polls at independence in 1980 his party, ZAPU, managed 20 seats against President Mugabe's then ZANU, which garnered 57 seats in the then 100 seat Parliament.
The late vice president was appointed as the country's first Home Affairs minister and after two years, he was out of government after being 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 the city of kings and Zimbabwe through the Botswana border to Britain.
It was during this period that the Korean-trained Fifth Brigade was sent into Matabeleland and Midlands provinces to deal with what were known as dissidents. The army killed thousands of civilians as they claimed they were containing armed insurgents.
The killings ended in 1987 when ZAPU agreed to a Unity Accord with ZANU to close the chapter on Gukurahundi but leaving Zimbabwe effectively a one-party State.
Critics accused Nkomo of selling out by joining hands with President Mugabe's party instead of offering a viable opposition that would have unseated ZANU-PF.
Nyathi is however, from another school of thought.
"The Unity Accord stopped the killings and those who criticise him are in other words saying the killings should have continued.
"He signed not because he loved it but because he loved his people more. To him, it was supposed to be the unity of the people not just of the parties," said Nyathi.
Long after his death, the nation still debates how best to honour Nkomo's legacy.
Ahead of the commemoration of Heroes' Day on August 12, the government took the decision to re- erect statues in Harare and Bulawayo in honour of Nkomo.
The project was resuscitated after the fiasco of last year, which saw the authorities bowing to public pressure after failure to consult his family.
Government had gone ahead to erect Nkomo's statues in the two cities without input from his family but backed down after pressure from the public and some members of the late hero's family. But some have already dismissed the erection of the effigies as adding nothing to his legacy.
There have been questions, however, as to whether erecting a statue is worth the honour for Nkomo.
During a Lozikeyi lecture delivered at the Bulawayo National Gallery in 2003, Jackson Ndlovu, the director of the Edward Ndlovu Memorial Library in Gwanda, gave a glimpse of what the late national hero thought about that subject.
"The visionary Nkomo encouraged the collection and teaching of all African folklore, songs and dances. He called for the erection of monuments to great Africans. Through the Society for the Preservation of African Culture he encouraged pilgrimages to Mzilikazi's grave. He went there many times to pay his respects. At critical stages in the national struggle he took his lieutenants - Shona as well as Ndebele - to the Entumbane site where they took key national decisions, inspired by the tactical brilliance and shrewdness of Mzilikazi," said Ndlovu.
Even after independence, he continued to seek justice.
For example, while some in ZANU-PF fought against the granting of a cellular licence to Econet in the 1990's, the late nationalist fiercely opposed the onslaught against private enterprise.
In the end he triumphed, and Econet launched its network in July 1998.
In the intervening years, the company has grown to be the country's biggest mobile cellular operator and with that came the Joshua Nkomo Scholarship Fund which assists the disadvantaged but academically gifted high school and university students realise their dreams.
"I would have wanted to honour him even if he had not spoken out in support of us.
"This was a great man and we want future generations of leaders in Africa to remember his contribution," Econet founder, Strive Masiyiwa, said when the scholarship fund was launched.
Prominent Zimbabwean playwright, Conte Mhlanga, said it is important for today's politicians to draw some lessons from Nkomo's life.
Today's politicians, according to Mhlanga, look for personal riches such as vehicles, hefty allowances and other featherbeddings even before serving their constituencies.
While the current crop of politicians, including Members of Parliament venture into public life for personal gain, the late nationalist's view was different.
"Nkomo was one of the first graduates in this country, but he left his employment to serve this country. There is no greater sacrifice than to forego your salary and the security of your children and yourself and say, 'I do not know where the next meal for my children and myself will come from but I want to do this for the people," said Mhlanga.
Nkomo's writings reflect a leader who believed that finality should be given to the land question, unlike today's leaders who want to keep this emotive issue open forever so that they use it as a political weapon to win votes.
"They do not want to deal with the issue once and for all because they want to have something to talk about tomorrow, come election time," Mhlanga said.
Whereas most pronouncements by Zimbabwean politicians reflect their party positions, Nkomo looked at the national interest.
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 During the Matabeleland disturbances of the early 1980s, an era commonly referred to as Gukurahundi, Nkomo would have easily found refuge in a foreign country - away from the vagaries of a civil war in the full knowledge that he could direct operations from there - but he chose peace for the national good.
"He always considered the interest of the people. For him it was a matter of: we can't go into a civil war because it is the people who would suffer," added Mhlanga.
Historian, Pathisa Nyathi, also drew parallels bet-ween the man who became known as Father Zimbabwe and the current breed of national politicians.
The latter, he said, find time for regional politics and tend to think that exploitation by whites is unjust, but find no fault when a black man exploits another black man.
"He (Nkomo) was beyond ethnic consciousness and was very nationalistic not what we are seeing where some are concerned ab-out their regions and home-boys," said Nyathi.
Nkomo held a degree in Social Science obtained in 1952 at South Africa's Jan H Hofmeyer School of Social Work and earlier in Zimbabwe he had done carpentry.
During Zimbabwe's first all race polls at independence in 1980 his party, ZAPU, managed 20 seats against President Mugabe's then ZANU, which garnered 57 seats in the then 100 seat Parliament.
The late vice president was appointed as the country's first Home Affairs minister and after two years, he was out of government after being 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 the city of kings and Zimbabwe through the Botswana border to Britain.
It was during this period that the Korean-trained Fifth Brigade was sent into Matabeleland and Midlands provinces to deal with what were known as dissidents. The army killed thousands of civilians as they claimed they were containing armed insurgents.
The killings ended in 1987 when ZAPU agreed to a Unity Accord with ZANU to close the chapter on Gukurahundi but leaving Zimbabwe effectively a one-party State.
Critics accused Nkomo of selling out by joining hands with President Mugabe's party instead of offering a viable opposition that would have unseated ZANU-PF.
Nyathi is however, from another school of thought.
"The Unity Accord stopped the killings and those who criticise him are in other words saying the killings should have continued.
"He signed not because he loved it but because he loved his people more. To him, it was supposed to be the unity of the people not just of the parties," said Nyathi.
Long after his death, the nation still debates how best to honour Nkomo's legacy.
Ahead of the commemoration of Heroes' Day on August 12, the government took the decision to re- erect statues in Harare and Bulawayo in honour of Nkomo.
The project was resuscitated after the fiasco of last year, which saw the authorities bowing to public pressure after failure to consult his family.
Government had gone ahead to erect Nkomo's statues in the two cities without input from his family but backed down after pressure from the public and some members of the late hero's family. But some have already dismissed the erection of the effigies as adding nothing to his legacy.
There have been questions, however, as to whether erecting a statue is worth the honour for Nkomo.
During a Lozikeyi lecture delivered at the Bulawayo National Gallery in 2003, Jackson Ndlovu, the director of the Edward Ndlovu Memorial Library in Gwanda, gave a glimpse of what the late national hero thought about that subject.
"The visionary Nkomo encouraged the collection and teaching of all African folklore, songs and dances. He called for the erection of monuments to great Africans. Through the Society for the Preservation of African Culture he encouraged pilgrimages to Mzilikazi's grave. He went there many times to pay his respects. At critical stages in the national struggle he took his lieutenants - Shona as well as Ndebele - to the Entumbane site where they took key national decisions, inspired by the tactical brilliance and shrewdness of Mzilikazi," said Ndlovu.
Source - FinGaz
All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.
