1. Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Vice-President of Zimbabwe from 1990 until his death in 1999.
22 Facts About Joshua Nkomo
1. 2.
Joshua Nkomo was a leading trade union leader, who progressed on to become president of the banned National Democratic Party, and was jailed for ten years by Rhodesia's white minority government.
3.
In 1983, fearing for his life in the early stages of the Gukurahundi, Nkomo fled the country.
4.
Joshua Nkomo earned many nicknames, including Umafukufuku in Ndebele, "Father Zimbabwe" in English, and Chibwechitedza in Shona.
5.
Joshua Nkomo was born on 19 June 1917 in Matopos, Matabeleland, Southern Rhodesia to a poor Ndebele family.
6.
Joshua Nkomo's father worked as a preacher and a cattle rancher and worked for the London Missionary Society.
7.
Joshua Nkomo later tried animal husbandry, then became a schoolteacher specialising in carpentry at Manyame School in Kezi.
8.
Joshua Nkomo married his wife Johanna Fuyana on 1 October 1949.
9.
The Southern Rhodesian ANC branch became the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress, and in 1957 Joshua Nkomo was elected chairman.
10.
Joshua Nkomo was out of the country in 1959 when SRANC was banned, its property confiscated, and many of its leaders arrested.
11.
Joshua Nkomo immediately formed the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union together with Samuel Parirenyatwa, Ndabaningi Sithole, Robert Mugabe, and others.
12.
Joshua Nkomo was detained at Gonakudzingwa Restriction Camp by Ian Smith's government in 1964, with fellow outlaw rebels Ndabaningi Sithole, Edgar Tekere, Enos Nkala, Maurice Nyagumbo, and Mugabe, until 1974.
13.
Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo shared a delegation, called the Patriotic Front, at the negotiations chaired by Lord Carrington.
14.
Joshua Nkomo proposed to address Zimbabwe-Rhodesia's land question with Georgist principles of collecting ground rent but leaving improvements to those who built them.
15.
Joshua Nkomo was offered the ceremonial post of President, but declined, instead being appointed Minister of Home Affairs.
16.
Joshua Nkomo would make concessions and attempts to improve relationships but met with varying results, the most successful being the ones where Sally Hayfron would intervene, as she was the only person within Mugabe's party who was supportive of Joshua Nkomo.
17.
Joshua Nkomo ridiculed the suggestion that he escaped dressed as a woman.
18.
Joshua Nkomo was sworn in as vice-president on 6 August 1990.
19.
Joshua Nkomo had a Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa chaplain in his militia days, and was ordained a Methodist lay preacher.
20.
Joshua Nkomo proclaimed respect for traditional African religions and made use of their ceremonies and symbolism in his political campaigning.
21.
Joshua Nkomo died of prostate cancer on 1 July 1999 at the age of 82 in Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare.
22.
In 1999, Joshua Nkomo was declared a National Hero and is buried in the National Heroes' Acre in Harare.