Joshua Nkomo a cultural icon

21 Dec, 2014 - 00:12 0 Views

The Sunday News

Cultural Heritage Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu

ZIMBABWE is celebrating the 22 December 1987 Unity Agreement between the Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) and the Patriotic Front – Zimbabwe African People’s Union.

The independent nation of Zimbabwe was born on 18 April 1980 when the British flag (the Union Jack) was brought down and that of Zimbabwe was hoisted amid pomp, colour and pageantry in Harare which was awash with cultural activities.

There was dancing and singing, wining and dining to mark the historic occasion which was attended by the Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe, and the PF-Zapu president, Joshua Nkomo, among other dignitaries such as chiefs, headmen and spirit mediums.

The songs and dances were mostly of Zimbabwean culture, many of which had featured prominently during the country’s long liberation struggle.

Culture is a part of every nation’s life, and may feature in its religion or religions, its food production, its entertainment, its funerals, its matrimonial occasions, its attire and its child upbringing.

When Joshua Nkomo decided to become a full-time freedom-fighter in the late 1940’s he first consulted a number of elderly people many of whom were chiefs.

Some of them strongly believed in Mwali, the traditional deity of Zimbabwe. They advised people to be firm about the promotion of African culture, particularly the traditional mode of worship.

It was because of that strong belief in his cultural background that he visited the Dula Mwali Shrine (in the Esigodini region) in 1950. He was accompanied by about five other people, and the Shrine told them that the country would be free after 30 years, and that actually happened.

Nkomo was a great believer in various aspects of African culture, and urged his party organisers to promote it through songs and dances, attire and poetry, visual art, tales and folklore.

He was very much interested in folklore and would narrate some old stories to illustrate a particularly important opinion or development.

Nkomo ate the same kind of food that the average Zimbabwean eats: isitshwala and stewed meat or any other relish, including sour milk (amasi). He was so much unlike some West African leaders who were African only in colour but utterly European (French) in culture.

As a highly qualified social worker, he deeply appreciated the role culture played in nation-building, and acknowledged that Zimbabwe was multi-cultural.

He liked to say that God created many cultures and languages because there is beauty in diversity. He did not despise any language or cultural community.

He frequently emphasised that Zimbabwe was what it is because of its various cultures, and that it could not be complete if one of the cultures were suppressed.

One of his senior lieutenants who usually accompanied him as he campaigned against colonialism was the highly respected traditional leader, Chief Munhuwepayi Mangwende who was deposed by the Sir Edgar Whitehead administration because of his public support of the African cause.

The white regime installed its own puppet, Enock Magwende, as chief in Munhuwepayi’s place. Munhuwepayi lived to see a free Zimbabwe.

Zanu-PF has always promoted Zimbabwean culture, right from the period of the armed struggle when spirit mediums were part and parcel of the fighting forces up to the present time when culture is an important department of the Ministry of Sports, Arts and Culture.

Joshua Nkomo showed his deep respect for Zimbabwe’s traditional deity by organising a national pilgrimage to the Njelele Shrine on his return from exile in 1980, shortly before the country was officially declared independent.

Hundreds of thousands of people went on that historic pilgrimage to the culturally revered shrine.

Nkomo’s respect for the people’s traditions and culture was appropriately expressed in his well known observation that a people’s culture is determined by its climate, ecological and social environment.

“The San’s cultural beliefs, practices and norms are based on their geographical, climatic, ecological and social factors, and enable them to exist in their particular environment,” he would say.

It is a gross violation of people’s rights to impose one’s customs and traditions on them just as it is to deny them the use of their language.

Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a retired Bulawayo-based journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734328136 or through email [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds