Sifelani Tsiko-Fact Check Editor
Cde Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo, affectionately known as Father Zimbabwe, is remembered as the man who was so instrumental in bringing independence to Zimbabwe.
He was a key figure in the long struggle to achieve majority rule in the country in 1980. A renowned Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician, he served as Vice-President of Zimbabwe until his death in 1999.
Cde Nkomo was affectionately called ‘Umafukufuku”, “Father Zimbabwe” or Chibwechitedza.
This report captures a timeline of key events in his life and political career:
19 June 1917: Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo is born in Semokwe Reserve (now Matobo, Kezi District), Matabeleland South. He was one of his father (Thomas Nyongolo Letswansto Nkomo)’s eight children. His father was a preacher and cattle rancher for the London Missionary Society.
1920s – 1930s: Early years spent shepherding the family’s cattle. His father put a high value on education and young Joshua proved to be an outstanding student. He completed Standard Six and later took up a carpentry course at the Tsholotsho Government Industrial School. He studied there for a year and became a driver. Nkomo tried animal husbandry and then became a school teacher specialising in carpentry at Manyame School in Kezi.
1942: At the age of 25, Nkomo moves to South Africa to further his education. He enrolls at Adams College and the Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work in South Africa. While there, he meets young political firebrands such as Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and many others who later became African nationalist leaders at the University of Fort Hare.
1949: Nkomo marries his wife Johanna MaFuyana on 1 October of that year. The couple has four children – Thandiwe Nkomo, Ernest Thutani, Michael Sibangilizwe, and Louise Sehlule.
1952: Nkomo graduates with a BA Degree in Social Science at the Jan Hofmeyr School of Social Work.
1947: He returns to Bulawayo and becomes a trade unionist for black railway workers. He rises through the ranks to become the leader of the Railway Workers Union.
1952: Nkomo assumes leadership of the Southern Rhodesian chapter of the African National Congress.
1953: Loses in the first federal election, running for Parliament.
1957: Becomes chairman of the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress (SRANC).
Feb 26, 1959: Rhodesian government declares a state of emergency and bans the ANC (African National Congress). The Unlawful Organisations Act is passed.
Jan 1, 1960: Nkomo becomes president of the National Democratic Party, which was later banned by the Rhodesian regime. The National Democratic Party is founded as a successor to the ANC.
Jul 19, 1960: Nkomo and other NDP leaders are arrested. The arrests led to bloody rioting.
Oct 1960: The Law and Order Maintenance Act is introduced, targeting Nkomo and other black political activists.
1961: NDP is banned by the Rhodesian government.
1961: The Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) is formed with Nkomo as leader.
Sep 20, 1962: ZAPU, the party he led, is banned.
1963: The British government establishes “five principles” guaranteeing African civil rights and unimpeded progress toward majority rule as a precondition for independence. Northern Rhodesia is seceded and the Federation is formally dissolved in December. The Zimbabwe African National Union is formed by ZAPU political breakaway leaders led by Ndabaningi Sithole. The People’s Caretaker Council (PCC) is formed as a ZAPU front.
1964: Nkomo is detained at Gonakudzingwa Restriction Camp by Ian Smith’s government, together with Ndabaningi Sithole, Edgar Tekere, Maurice Nyagumbo, Robert Mugabe and others until 1974.
Apr 1966: ZANU launches its first guerrilla attack from Zambia. Also in 1966, the United Nations Security Council votes for mandatory sanctions on selected Rhodesian exports and imports.
Aug 1967: ZAPU and South Africa’s ANC launches a guerrilla campaign in the Northwest.
1960s-1970s: Nkomo is involved in the armed struggle against the white minority government, leading ZAPU.
1974: After his release, Nkomo goes to Zambia, continuing to oppose the Rhodesian government through the dual processes of armed resistance and negotiation. He leads ZAPU’s armed wing – the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army, using both guerrilla warfare and conventional warfare.
1970s: Joshua Nkomo survives two attempted assassinations by Rhodesian Selous Scouts and another by the Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS).
1970s: Nkomo’s ZIPRA forces shakes the Rhodesian government to the core during the protracte armed guerrilla war. The most widely reported and possibly the most effective of these attacks, which had an impact in the Rhodesian’s social life, was the downing of two Air Rhodesia Vickers Viscount civilian passenger planes with surface-to-air missiles. The first, on 3 September 1978, killed 38 out of 56 in the crash, with a further 10 survivors shot dead by ZIPRA cadres that had been sent to inspect the burnt wreckage. The second shooting on 12 February 1979 killed all 59 on board.
Feb 1975: Smith meets with Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Sithole to set up a formal constitutional congress.
Mar 19, 1976: Smith – Nkomo talks break down.
Oct 1976: Nkomo and the late former President Robert Mugabe announces the formation of the Patriotic Front.
1979: Nkomo and ZAPU, alongside Robert Mugabe and ZANU as the Patriotic Front, negotiates the Lancaster House Agreement with the British government, leading to new elections.
December 1979: Lancaster House Agreement paves the way for the holding of elections in early 1980.
1980: Zanu PF wins independent Zimbabwe’s first election with 57 seats. Mugabe takes office as Prime Minister on April 18. ZANU-PF wins 57 of the 80 African seats in the house, receiving 63 percent of the votes. ZAPU wins 20 seats, while UANC gets three seats.
Mugabe invites ZAPU into the new government. Joshua Nkomo becomes Minister of Home Affairs in the first post-independence Government.
1982: Political differences emerge between Dr Nkomo and Cde Mugabe.
March 1983: Joshua Nkomo goes into a self-imposed exile in London.
1987: Nkomo and Mugabe sign the historic Unity Accord on December 22, 1987. The agreement paves the way for the merging of ZAPU and ZANU PF. It is ratified by ZAPU and ZANU-PF in April 1988. Political disturbances stop in Zimbabwe. Nkomo becomes one of Zimbabwe’s two Vice-Presidents, while Mugabe becomes President.
July 1, 1999: Nkomo dies of prostate cancer at the age of 82 at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare. He is declared a national hero.
July 5, 1999: Tens of thousands of mourners, including foreign dignitaries, throng the National Heroes’ Acre to witness the burial of nationalist and liberation fighter Dr Joshua Nkomo, the man called Father Zimbabwe or Chibwechitedza, a revered towering political figure in Zimbabwean history.
2000: The Bulawayo airport is renamed Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport in his honour. Several roads and institutions are also named in his memory. A statue is erected in Bulawayo to honour Dr Nkomo’s contribution to the country’s liberation.