The Sunday Mail
Cde Thomas Nkomo
Dr Joshua Nkomo would have turned 98-years-old on Friday, having been born on June 19, 1917. Though he breathed his last on July 1, 1999, his presence remains with us. We see him in his wise teachings, fight for freedom, justice and peace and his distinct desire for unity. The Sunday Mail last week travelled to Dr Nkomo’s rural home in Kezi to retrace this iconic and towering figure’s early days. Our reporter Edwin Mwase caught up with his 75-year-old nephew, Cde Thomas Nkomo, in Bidi Village. We publish Cde Nkomo in his own words.
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Dr Joshua Nkomo spent part of his early life in Bidi Village in Kezi, Matopo District.
He then went to Britain and was, upon his return, arrested and banished to this same village in terms of a restriction order whose radius was three miles. Earlier than that, the Nkomo clan stayed at a place called Mabunga in Bulawayo South. That is where Dr Nkomo grew up.
Ukhulu wethu Unyongolo (Dr Nkomo’s father) then left for Chief Bango’s area and then moved to Chief Malaba’s realm. The Nyongolos lived in a cottage at Malaba Primary School, though some of us had not yet been born at the time. But before long, they moved to Chief Bidi’s area here in Kezi and lived near a dip tank.
It appears the Nyongolos were nomadic, as they shifted again, this time settling where Dr Nkomo’s forefathers’ graves are situated, which is a few metres from the debris of his six-roomed house.
In 1957, they moved to Bulawayo until the time Dr Nkomo’s restriction in Kezi. As a boy, Dr Nkomo enjoyed herding cattle and interacting and remained the same when he was much older. He was well-loved.
That is why the community embraced him as their hero when he came back to Kezi to serve his first restriction order.
He quickly adjusted and lived in a six-roomed house, which was a town house by rural standards.
However, we could not preserve the house for historical purposes, as we razed it to the ground following a series of attacks by Rhodesian forces.
They harassed us with accusations of harbouring a “dangerous terrorist” even though Dr Nkomo had long relocated elsewhere after his restriction expired in late 1963. We, his relatives and the community at large, became targets of Rhodesian arsenal.
On one occasion, Rhodesian soldiers with blackened faces besieged the village at midday.
They lined us up in front of our livestock and started firing at the animals indiscriminately. It was terrible; bullets flew over our heads. It seemed as though the world was coming to an end.
Most villagers lost goats, cattle and sheep. We lost all our cattle.
The Rhodesians then turned on the house, but my wife, Madeline, gave them the keys so that they could continue searching for the “terrorist” – Dr Nkomo – without further damage.
Suddenly, they started assaulting her and she sustained injuries and lost most of her teeth. It all happened so fast; I do not remember her screaming or kicking. Afterwards, they went on to blow up the house anyway. But Dr Nkomo was not there. Fighting colonialists and leading were in-born traits.
He detested the colonial regime’s repression and oppression and went about to dismantle the status quo, even resorting to arms.
He united different folks and embodied peaceful co-existence.
He united the Nkomo clan, which will forever stay that way, just the way he wanted.
It is sad the Almighty called him. We we wish he were still around.
