The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi
IT is generally acknowledged that Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo, as a child, nationalist leader and leader of the various nationalist political movements in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress (SRANC) to the Patriotic Front Zapu (PF-Zapu) displayed passion for and leanings towards African culture to a point where he may be termed a cultural nationalist.
Sometimes we so label him without giving solid evidence to serve as evidence. This article, written to commemorate the day when the iconic man died on 1 July 1999, seeks to give some narrative that relates to the iconic man and demonstrate he was indeed cultural.
I will start with a quotation from my forthcoming concise biography of Dr Nkomo titled, The Life and Times of Joshua Nkomo. In my book I quote from Nkomo’s book, Joshua Nkomo: The Story of My Life.”
“‘I would steal away from home in secret, to the ceremonies of our non-Christian neighbours, joining in the dancing and the singing, and even partaking, despite my parents’ strict orders, of the food that had been specially prepared for the ceremony.’
“Interest in African traditional religion, in particular and African culture in general, came to influence his (Nkomo’s) brand of nationalism which sought to rediscover and nurture lost identity of the African people. He was, later in life, to become a celebrated cultural nationalist.”
This is Dr Nkomo himself admitting to his keen interest in matters cultural but essentially spiritual. He was born as we might know into a family that embraced Christian faith, courtesy of the London Missionary Society (LMS) which had some outstation at Tjimali prior to the evictions of people from the general area as from about 1912 to the Shashane Reserve (Zamanyoni, Donkwe Donkwe, Mbembeswana and others).
When Dr Nkomo got involved in nationalist politics he sought spiritual support from the war shrine at Dula under the care of Maswabi in the eNqameni (Wenlock area). He went there in the company of his friend Grey Mabhalane Bango and William Tjivako. If Dr Nkomo was not a cultural someone he would not have approached the shrine at Dula (KoHlok’elibomvu).
I may not know when precisely Dr Nkomo started embracing the wooden staff (induku/tsvimbo). The use of such artefacts is associated with spirituality, power and potency. The second article deals with the attendant beliefs that relate to the staff such as one that Dr Nkomo possessed and always carried around. For our purposes, in this article it suffices to say it was a manifestation of Dr Nkomo’s belief in cultural and spiritual matters.
Dr Nkomo was the first to lead a truly national black organisation, the SRANC which was established on 12 September 1957 at the Mai Musodzi Hall in Harare Township (now Mbare). The party was proscribed in February 1959 and was succeeded by the National Democratic Party (NDP) which was formed on 1 January 1960. Dr Nkomo was leader of the new political party which Michael Mawema led for the initial nine months.
The NDP was more steeped in African culture. It was the time when nationalist leaders wore fur hats that were associated with African culture in terms of spiritual connections. Dr Nkomo has a surviving photograph where he wore a fur hat that had the skin of an animal known in IsiNdebele as inthuhu. I have a book written by Professor Terence Ranger whose cover portrays the author, Joshua Nkomo, Maurice Nyagumbo and some partially obscured Zapu official. Robert Mugabe did not wear one-in that particular picture.
During NDP meetings water was brought in ceramic or clay pots. Gourd cups (inkezo/nkombe/mikombe) were used.
There was that desire to express Africanness and seek to rediscover lost cultural identity. These were the African vessels attending the meetings that Dr Nkomo conducted as President. It is known too that at one time Dr Nkomo chose to hold a meeting of his National Executive Committee (NEC) deep within the Matobo Hills. It is well known that the hills are associated with African Sprituality. The Njelele Fertility Shrine is within the Matobo Hills. It is a shrine associated with rain and human fecundity. In days gone by, pilgrimages arrived there from various parts of Zimbabwe and even beyond the border of Zimbabwe.
We know that on the eve of Zimbabwe’s Independence Dr Nkomo went to the Njelele Shrine to report his return from exile. Once again, this evidenced Dr Nkomo’s belief in African cultural matters with their attended spirituality.
Back to the NDP days when the name for the country was decided upon. The country at and after independence was going to be Zimbabwe. I still maintain that the Kalanga version is the most authentic rendition of the name of this country — Nzi we mabgwe. Great Zimbabwe was a village of stones (stone walls). Indeed, the political party that came after the NDP bore the name for the envisaged new independent State-the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu). When the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) broke away in August 1963, they retained the name Zimbabwe.
The 1960s witnessed upsurge in modern influences from South Africa. It was the time of the singing groups Izintombi Zesimanjemanje and the Mahotela Queens, inter alia. The lady singers had their faces lightened through the use of skin lightening creams, AMBI and Butone. Zapu activists came out strongly against the use of such creams.
It was time when Dr Nkomo and his political party were taking prided in being Africans. Black is beautiful, they argued.
When Ian Smith took over as Prime Minister of Rhodesia he quickly sought to curb the ever rising political sentiments as expressed by the likes of Dr Nkomo. He cleared the bush in Gonakudzingwa and Sikombela. At Gonakudzingwa where the Zapu leadership was detained from 1964, the inmates chose to wear ilala hats as opposed to other Eurocentric forms of hats. There was thus the enduring theme of seeking to project an African identity.
As already pointed out, Dr Nkomo led thousands of his followers to the Njelele Shrine on a day when the heavens simply opened up. Many cars were stuck in the bog. My friends and I were part of the seething crowd. Dr Nkomo’s leanings toward cultural matters did not end at independence. In 1993 we chose to commemorate the 1st centenary following the demise of the Ndebele State and Nation in 1893 in the hands of the occupation forces unleashed by arch imperialist Cecil John Rhodes. Nkomo was among the multitudes that went to Gadade in Ntabazinduna to commemorate the sad day.
Following the commemoration, I began serialising the creation and life of the Ndebele State from 1820. The articles under some distinctive banner were featured by the Chronicle on a weekly basis. Over time, the articles were taken over by the Sunday News. The weekly column has been in existence ever since, arguably making it the longest surviving heritage column in Zimbabwe. In the following year, 1994, Caleb Dube, an Ndebele lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) worked on the articles till they were ready for publication by Mambo Press.
It was Dr Nkomo the man who loved the literary arts who launched the book at Mckeurtan Primary School. Several people attended the function, ranging from politicians such as Sydney Malunga, the Bulawayo Mayor Joshua Teke Malinga to several writers: Mrs Barbara Nkala, Felix F. Moyo, Ndabezinhle Sigogo, Obadiah Mlilo, S J Nondo, Behithemba Sodindo Ncube, Isaac N Mpofu, and Pauline Mpande. Pro-Vice Chancellor at Nust, Professor Clever B Nyathi was also in attendance together with Chief Nyangazonke and my father, Menyezwa.
Dr Nkomo’s interest in the literary arts was confirmed when, while in exile after Gukurahundi sought to sweep him away from Mother Earth, he fled to exile in the UK where he penned his autobiography which renders an account of his life story. He was not just a politician but also a lover of the written word and went to consummate that love.
During the recent Presidential team’s visit to Bulawayo to inaugurate the Bulawayo Cultural Corridor, at one of the heritage sites there was a performance group that played and danced to woso (amabhiza) music. One spectator was overheard remarking that Dr Nkomo used to love that kind of music and dance. Television footage these days shows Dr Nkomo leading his supports in traditional music — Loba lingifihlela ngiyamaz’ ubaba and other tunes.
In fact, Dr Nkomo loved African traditional cuisines. Whenever Mrs Thandiwe Ibrahim Nkomo and others plan what food to prepare in commemoration of the man, it inevitably always ends as traditional dishes in recognition of the man who loved African culture and did indeed, caricature parents who spoke to their children in the foreign English language.
Names generate pride in one’s language. Dr Nkomo did find honour and pride in Ndebele names. Thandiwe was their first-born child. She was the pride of their family, the loved one. Thuthani was next. Now he was making political statements-but never failed to express his political sentiments in the Ndebele language. Sibangilizwe was probably the most explicit and telling. Nkomo and other nationalists were engaged in a war with white colonizers over the land, ilizwe.
Finally, came Sehlule, this time a name that was exuding hope that at the end, there was going to be victory. Of-course all these children attended mission schools where they were given English school names. Dr Nkomo had, where he had control, given them names that bore meaning, relevance and cultivated pride in being Ndebele and, indeed African.
This was Dr Nkomo the cultural man, the cultural leader and the cultural icon who was not ashamed of expressing and leading a life that embraced African culture. Last Thursday marked the 22nd anniversary of his death
