View source for Joshua Nkomo

{{Short description|Zimbabwean politician (1917–1999)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name             = Joshua Nkomo
| honorific-suffix =
| image            = Joshua_Nkomo_(1978).jpg
| imagesize        = 
| smallimage       =
| caption          = Nkomo in 1978
| order            =
| office           = 1st [[Vice-President of Zimbabwe|Second Vice-President of Zimbabwe]]
| term_start       = 6 August 1990
| term_end         = 1 July 1999
| deputy           =
| president        = [[Robert Mugabe]]
| predecessor      = ''Office established''
| successor        = [[Joseph Msika]]
| constituency     =
| majority         =
| birth_name       = Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1917|6|19}}
| birth_place      = Matopos, [[Company rule in Rhodesia|Southern Rhodesia]] (now [[Matobo District|Matobo]], Zimbabwe)
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1999|7|1|1917|6|19}}
| death_place      = [[Harare]], Zimbabwe
| resting_place    = [[National Heroes' Acre (Zimbabwe)|National Heroes' Acre]]
| nationality      = [[Zimbabwean]]
| party            = [[PF-ZAPU]]<br>[[ZAPU]]
| spouse           = {{marriage|[[Johanna Mafuyana|Johanna Fuyana]]|1949}}
| children         = 4
| residence        = Bulawayo
| alma_mater       = [[Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work]]<br>[[University of South Africa]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
| occupation       =
| profession       = Politician, guerrilla leader, trade unionist, businessman
| signature        =
| footnotes        =
| alongside        = [[Simon Muzenda]]
| office1          = 1st [[Ministry of Home Affairs (Zimbabwe)|Minister of Home Affairs of Zimbabwe]]
| president1       = [[Canaan Banana]]
| primeminister1   = [[Robert Mugabe]]
| termstart1       = 1980
| termend1         = February 1982
| successor1       = [[Herbert Ushewokunze]]
| predecessor1     = Herbert Zimuto<br><small>([[Zimbabwe Rhodesia]])</small>
}}

'''Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo''' (19 June 1917 – 1 July 1999) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and [[Georgism|Georgist]]<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Barron |first=Ian |date=1986 |title=Nkomo Debt to George in 'Banned' Talk: Zimbabwe Premier blocks trip to Vancouver |url=https://cooperative-individualism.org/barron-ian_zimbabwe-joshua-nkomo-prevented-from-travel-to-vancouver-1986-sep-oct.pdf |work=[[Land&Liberty]]}}</ref> politician who served as [[Vice-President of Zimbabwe]] from 1990 until his death in 1999. He founded and led the [[Zimbabwe African People's Union]] (ZAPU) from 1961 until, after an internal military crackdown (known as [[Gukurahundi]]) in western Zimbabwe, mostly targeting ethnic [[Ndebele (Zimbabwe)|Ndebele]] ZAPU supporters, ZAPU merged in 1987 with [[Robert Mugabe]]'s [[Zimbabwe African National Union]] (ZANU) to form [[ZANU–PF]].

He was a leading trade union leader, who progressed on to become president of the banned [[National Democratic Party (Rhodesia)|National Democratic Party]], and was jailed for ten years by [[Rhodesia]]'s white minority government. After his release in 1974, ZAPU contributed to the fall of that government, along with the splinter rival [[ZANU]], created in 1963.<ref name="Sibanda-2005-90">{{cite book |last=Sibanda |first=Eliakim M. |year=2005 |title=The Zimbabwe African People's Union 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia |location=Trenton, NJ |publisher=Africa World Press |pages=90–93 |isbn=978-1-59221-275-0}}</ref>

In 1983, fearing for his life in the early stages of the [[Gukurahundi]], Nkomo fled the country. Later in 1987, he controversially signed the [[Unity Accord]] allowing ZAPU to merge with ZANU to stop the genocide.<ref name="Nyarota-2018-p39">{{cite book |last=Nyarota |first=Geoffrey |year=2018 |chapter=Chapter 3: Silencing divergent voices |title=The Graceless Fall of Robert Mugabe: The End of a Dictator's Reign |location=Cape Town, South Africa |publisher=Penguin (Random House) |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mA9mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT39 39] |isbn=978-1-77609-346-5}}</ref>

Nkomo earned many nicknames, including ''Umafukufuku'' in [[Northern Ndebele language|Ndebele]], "Father Zimbabwe" in English, and ''Chibwechitedza'' ("the slippery rock") in [[Shona language|Shona]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Uic_AQAAIAAJ&q=%22Chibwechitedza%22 ''Obituary: Dr. Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo, 1917–1999''], Volume 25, Department of Information & Publicity ZANU (PF) Headquarters, 1999, p. 1</ref>

==Early life==
{{More citations needed|section|date=August 2023}}
Nkomo was born on 19 June 1917 in [[Matobo District|Matopos]], [[Matabeleland]], [[Southern Rhodesia]] (now [[Matobo District|Matobo, Zimbabwe]]) to a poor [[Northern Ndebele people|Ndebele]] family.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|last=Jessup|first=John E.|title=An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Conflict and Conflict Resolution, 1945–1996|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1998|page=533}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Metrowich |first=Frederick Redvers |year=1969|title=Rhodesia: Birth of a Nation |publisher=Africa Institute |pages=129|language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FshBAAAAYAAJ }}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Schaefer |editor-first=Richard T. |year=2008 |title=Zimbabwe |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society |publisher=Sage Publications |isbn=978-1-4129-2694-2 |page=1425 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMUola6pDnkC }}</ref> He was one of eight children. His father (Thomas Nyongolo Letswansto Nkomo) worked as a preacher and a cattle rancher and worked for the [[London Missionary Society]]. His mother was Mlingo Hadebe.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}

After completing his primary education in Southern Rhodesia, Nkomo took a carpentry course at the Tsholotsho Government Industrial School and studied there for a year before becoming a driver. He later tried [[animal husbandry]], then became a schoolteacher specialising in carpentry at Manyame School in [[Kezi, Zimbabwe|Kezi]]. In 1942, at the age of 25, during his career as a teacher, he decided that he should go to South Africa to further his education, do carpentry and qualify to a higher level. He attended Adams College and the [[Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work]] in South Africa,<ref name=":0" /> where he met [[Nelson Mandela]] and other future nationalist leaders at the [[University of Fort Hare]], although he did not attend that university. It was at the [[Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work|Jan Hofmeyr School of Social Work]] that he was awarded a diploma in social work in 1952. Nkomo married his wife [[Johanna Mafuyana|Johanna Fuyana]] on 1 October 1949.

==Politics 1947–1964==
After returning to [[Bulawayo]] in 1947, he became a trade unionist for black railway workers and rose to the leadership of the Railway Workers Union and then to leadership of the Southern Rhodesian chapter of the [[African National Congress]]. In 1953 he ran for Parliament in the first federal election, although he lost.<ref name="Encyc-World-Bio">{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of World Biography |year=2004 |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404704776.html }}</ref> The Southern Rhodesian ANC branch became the [[Southern Rhodesia African National Congress]] (SRANC), and in 1957 Nkomo was elected chairman.<ref name="Encyc-World-Bio" /> Nkomo was out of the country in 1959 when SRANC was banned, its property confiscated, and many of its leaders arrested.<ref>{{harvnb|Sibanda|2005|page=52}}</ref>

On 1 January 1960, the [[National Democratic Party (Rhodesia)|National Democratic Party]] (NDP) was founded by Nkomo and others from the SRANC leadership to succeed the banned SRANC, and adopted their goals and organizational structure, as well as subsuming their membership.<ref>{{harvnb|Sibanda|2005|page=53}}</ref> That year he became president of the NDP with the support of [[Robert Mugabe]]. The NDP was banned in December 1961 by the Rhodesian government.

Nkomo immediately formed the [[Zimbabwe African Peoples Union]] (ZAPU) together with [[Samuel Parirenyatwa]], [[Ndabaningi Sithole]], [[Robert Mugabe]], and others.<ref>{{harvnb|Sibanda|2005|pp=71–72}}</ref> That party was also banned by the Rhodesian white minority government nine months later in September 1962.<ref>{{harvnb|Sibanda|2005|page=89}}</ref>

ZAPU split in 1963 with Sithole and Mugabe taking their supporters and forming the [[Zimbabwe African National Union]] (ZANU).<ref name="Sibanda-2005-90" /> While some have claimed this split was due to ethnic tensions,<ref>{{harvnb|Sibanda|2005|page=2}}</ref> more accurately the split was motivated by the failure of Sithole, Mugabe, Takawira and Malianga to wrest control of ZAPU from Nkomo.<ref>{{harvnb|Sibanda|2005|page=140}}</ref> ZAPU would remain a multi-ethnic party right up until independence.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

== Armed struggle ==
{{More citations needed|section|date=August 2023}}
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. [[Paul Tangi Mhova Mkondo]] a student youth leader was also detained with them for some time. A large number of them were released due to pressure from [[South Africa during the apartheid era|South African]] Prime Minister [[John Vorster]]. Following Nkomo's release, he went to [[Zambia]] to continue opposing the Rhodesian government through the dual processes of armed resistance and negotiation.

Unlike ZANU's armed wing – the [[Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army]], ZAPU's armed wing – the [[Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army]] – was dedicated to both [[guerrilla warfare]] and conventional warfare.{{Clarify|reason=Did ZANLA believe in only one of the two, and if so, which one?|date=November 2017}} At the time of independence ZIPRA had a modern military, stationed in [[Zambia]] and [[Angola]], consisting of Soviet-made [[Mikoyan]] fighters, tanks and armoured personnel carriers, as well as well trained [[artillery]] units.
[[File:Ford A9587 NLGRF photo contact sheet (1976-04-26)(Gerald Ford Library) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Joshua Nkomo meeting with U.S. Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]] in Zambia in 1976|alt=]]
Nkomo was the target of two attempted assassinations. The first one, in Zambia, by the [[Selous Scouts]], was a [[false flag]] operation. The mission was ultimately aborted and attempted later, unsuccessfully, by the [[Rhodesian Special Air Service]] (SAS). In August 2011 it was reported by the [[BBC]] that Nkomo had been tipped off by the British government.<ref>{{cite news | title = Did UK warn Mugabe and Nkomo about assassination attempts? | publisher = [[BBC News Online]] | date = 1 July 2011 | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14311834 | access-date = 18 January 2013}}</ref>

ZAPU forces strategically weakened the Rhodesian government during the [[Rhodesian Bush War|Bush War]]. The most widely reported and possibly the most effective of these attacks were the downing of two [[Air Rhodesia]] [[Vickers Viscount]] civilian passenger planes with [[surface-to-air missile]]s, resulting in the deaths of 107 people in total. The [[Air Rhodesia Flight 825|first]], on 3 September 1978, killed 38 out of 56 in the crash with a further ten survivors (including women and children) shot dead by ZIPRA cadres sent to inspect the burnt wreckage.<ref>{{cite magazine
|title=Seeds of Political Destruction
|date=18 September 1978
|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,916377,00.html
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307203237/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,916377,00.html
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=7 March 2008
|location=New York
|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]
|access-date=22 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
|last=Lindsell-Stewart
|first=Gavin
|title=Three Describe a Night of Terror
|date=5 September 1978
|location=Salisbury
|journal=[[The Herald (Zimbabwe)|The Rhodesia Herald]]
|publisher=Argus Group
|page=1}}</ref>

Nkomo later dismissed the massacre as false allegations perpetrated by the Rhodesian media and expressed his regret at the downing of a civilian plane, but defended the act by stating the Rhodesian government was known to transport military personnel aboard civilian liners. The eight remaining survivors eluded the guerrillas by hiding overnight in the bush; some walked towards Karoi to seek help. Some of the passengers had serious injuries and they were picked up by local police and debriefed by the Rhodesian army.

The [[Air Rhodesia Flight 827|second shooting down]], on 12 February 1979, killed all 59 on board. The target of the second attack was reportedly General [[Peter Walls]], head of the COMOPS (Commander, Combined Operations), in charge of the [[Special Forces]], including the [[Special Air Service|SAS]] and the Selous Scouts. Due to the large number of tourists returning to Salisbury a second flight had been dispatched. General Walls received a boarding card for the second flight, which departed [[Kariba, Zimbabwe|Kariba]] 15 minutes after the doomed aircraft.

No one was ever brought to trial or charged with shooting down the aircraft due to amnesty laws passed by both Smith and Mugabe. In a television interview not long after the attack on the first aircraft, Nkomo joked about the incident while admitting ZAPU had indeed been responsible. In his memoir, ''Story of My Life'', published in 1984, Nkomo wrote, "during that interview, the interviewee had asked about what we used to down the planes and I said stones, jokingly in an attempt to avoid answering the question due to military intelligence which demanded secrecy regarding what type of weapons we had acquired from the Soviet Union. They remembered the laugh and not the regret for the shooting down of both aircraft."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nkomo |first=Joshua |title=Nkomo, the story of my life |date=1984 |publisher=Methuen |isbn=978-0-413-54500-8 |location=London |page=167}}</ref>

==Politics 1980–1999==
{{Template:Georgism|politicians}}
[[File:Aankomst leider Rhodesisch Patriottisch Front , Joshua Nkomo (kop), Bestanddeelnr 929-6776 (cropped).jpg|thumb|266x266px|Nkomo, 1978.]]Following the first majority-rule election in [[Zimbabwe-Rhodesia]] in which around 60% of the population voted, a government led by [[Abel Muzorewa]], was formed in 1979 between [[Ian Smith]] and [[Ndabaningi Sithole]]'s [[ZANU Mwenje]], which by now had also split from Mugabe's more militant ZANU faction. The civil war waged by Nkomo and Mugabe continued unabated and Britain and the USA did not lift sanctions on the country. Britain persuaded all parties to come to [[Lancaster House Agreement|Lancaster House]] in September 1979 to work out a constitution and the basis for fresh elections. Mugabe and Nkomo shared a delegation, called the [[Patriotic Front (Zimbabwe)|Patriotic Front]] (PF), at the negotiations chaired by [[Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington|Lord Carrington]].

Nkomo proposed to address Zimbabwe-Rhodesia's land question with [[Georgism|Georgist]] principles of collecting ground rent but leaving improvements to those who built them.<ref name=":1" />

{{blockquote|"We don't believe in trading land or selling land – no. And in any government that I lead, you can be certain those practices must go. That does not mean we will be taking people's land. It means that other people who haven't got money will have a chance to use land, which is the common property of everybody. "And if they have to pay some rates or rents, that will go to a general fund of the people. In this way citizens can use as much land as they want. Our system is this: once you use land, that land belongs to you. But you have not bought it. You cannot sell it to some one. The land belongs to the people, but everything on that land is yours."}}

Elections were held in 1980 and to the surprise of Nkomo but few others, the Common Roll vote split on predictable tribal lines, with the 20 seats in Matabeleland going to ZAPU (listed as "PF–ZAPU") and all but three of the sixty in predominantly Shona areas falling to Mugabe's [[ZANU–PF]]. Nkomo was offered the ceremonial post of [[President of Zimbabwe|President]], but declined, instead being appointed Minister of Home Affairs.<ref name="ChachageEricsson1993">{{cite book|last1=Chachage|first1=C. S. L.|last2=Ericsson|first2=Magnus|last3=Gibbon|first3=Peter|title=Mining and Structural Adjustment: Studies on Zimbabwe and Tanzania|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g0aSvNVGaTIC&pg=PA33|year=1993|publisher=Nordic Africa Institute|isbn=9789171063403|page=33}}</ref>

===Conflict with Mugabe===
Despite reaching their ultimate goal, ousting Smith's minority government, Nkomo could not reconcile his differences with Mugabe.

Ideological differences kept the two men apart as Mugabe's [[Marxism]] clashed with Nkomo's [[Georgism|Georgist]] reformism.  Nkomo's ethnic background was also grounds for distrust by Mugabe who constantly feared an uprising by the historically turbulent Ndebele population. 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 Nkomo. <!--- NO SOURCE AVAILABLE FOR THIS QUOTE: Allegedly, when Mugabe was offered a seat by [[Julius Nyerere]] in his office where he met Nkomo months before, he refused and instead told him ''"If you think I'm going to sit right where that fat bastard just sat, you'll have to think again"''.--->

Initially, Mugabe refused to give Nkomo the position of Minister of Defence which Nkomo had been hoping for. After the intervention of Sally Hayfron, Nkomo was appointed to the cabinet (as minister without portfolio), but in 1982 was accused of plotting a coup d'état after South African double agents in Zimbabwe's [[Central Intelligence Organization]], attempting to cause distrust between ZAPU and ZANU, planted arms on ZAPU owned farms and then tipped Mugabe off to their existence.

In a public statement Mugabe said, "ZAPU and its leader, Dr. Joshua Nkomo, are like a cobra in a house. The only way to deal effectively with a snake is to strike and destroy its head."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nkomo |first=Joshua |date=7 June 1983 |title=Informative Letter to Prime Minister Mugabe |url=http://www.swradioafrica.com/pages/Nkomo_letter.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070107095908/http://www.swradioafrica.com/pages/Nkomo_letter.htm |archive-date=2007-01-07 |access-date=2025-11-01 |website= |via=SW Radio Africa}}</ref> He unleashed the [[Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade|Fifth Brigade]] upon Nkomo's Matabeleland homeland in Operation [[Gukurahundi]], killing up to 20,000 Ndebele civilians in an attempt to destroy ZAPU and create a one-party state. Nkomo fled the country. Mugabe's government claimed that he had "illegally" left dressed as a woman:
{{blockquote|NKOMO FLEES: ZAPU leader, Joshua Nkomo, fled in self-imposed exile to London after illegally crossing the [[Botswana]] frontier disguised as a woman on 7 March. 1983, claiming that his life was in danger and that he was going to look for "solutions" to Zimbabwean problems abroad.|Government Printer, Harare 1984.<ref name = "josh">Joshua Nkomo, The Story of My Life, Methuen London 1984 or Sapes books Harare 2001, p.1-4 "clown Herbert Ushewokunze, minister of home affairs"</ref>}}

Nkomo ridiculed the suggestion that he escaped dressed as a woman. "I expected they would invent stupid stories about my flight.... People will believe anything if they believe that".<ref name = "josh"/> He added that "nothing in my life had prepared me for persecution at the hands of a government led by black Africans."<ref name = "josh"/>

After the Gukurahundi massacres, in 1987 Nkomo consented to the absorption of ZAPU into ZANU, resulting in a unified party called [[ZANU-PF]], leaving Zimbabwe as effectively a one-party state and leading some [[Ndebele people (Zimbabwe)|Ndebeles]] to accuse Nkomo of selling out. These Ndebele individuals were in such a minority that they did not constitute a meaningful power base within ZAPU. As part of the deal, Nkomo became vice-president when the constitution was amended to create a second vice-president in 1990.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hatchard|first=John|date=1991|title=The Constitution of Zimbabwe: Towards a Model for Africa?|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/745495|journal=Journal of African Law|volume=35|issue=1/2|pages=79–101|doi=10.1017/S0021855300008378|jstor=745495|s2cid=146223661 |issn=0021-8553|url-access=subscription}}</ref> He was sworn in as vice-president on 6 August 1990.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ofv2EYQpVcwC&pg=PA471|title=The World Factbook|date=1995|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|pages=471|language=en}}</ref> In practice, the post was almost powerless. With his health failing, his influence declined.

When asked late in his life why he allowed this to happen, he told historian Eliakim Sibanda that he did it to stop the murder of the Ndebele (who supported his party) and of the ZAPU politicians and organizers who had been targeted by Zimbabwe's security forces since 1982. "Mugabe and his Shona henchmen have always sought the extermination of the Ndebele," he said.<ref name="Nyarota-2018-p39" />

== Personal life ==

=== Family ===
Nkomo married his wife Johanna in 1949. They had four children: Thandiwe Nkomo, Ernest Thutani, Michael
Sibangilizwe, and Louise Sehlule

===Religion===
Nkomo had a [[Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa]] chaplain in his militia days,<ref name="Mushayavanhu"/> and was ordained a [[Methodism|Methodist]] [[lay preacher]].<ref name="Damasane" /><ref name="Rotberg2004"/> Described as "not an ardent churchgoer" in 1962,<ref name="Rotberg2004">{{cite book|last=Rotberg|first=Robert I.|title=Ending Autocracy, Enabling Democracy: The Tribulations of Southern Africa, 1960–2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IrXQYikN6iEC&pg=PA56|year=2004|publisher=Brookings Institution Press|isbn=9780815798910|page=56}}</ref> he returned to preaching in retirement.<ref name="Damasane">{{Cite news |url=http://www.sundaynews.co.zw/spirituality-in-the-struggle-for-independence/ |title=Spirituality in the struggle for independence |last=Bayethe Damasane |first=Paul |date=6 July 2014 |work=The Sunday News |access-date=21 November 2017 |location=Zimbabwe}}</ref> He proclaimed respect for [[traditional African religions]] and made use of their ceremonies and symbolism in his political campaigning.<ref name="Ndlovu-Gatsheni2010">{{cite journal |last1=Ndlovu-Gatsheni |first1=Sabelo |last2=Willems |first2=Wendy |year=2010 |title=Reinvoking the past in the present: changing identities and appropriations of Joshua Identities |url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/51151/1/__Libfile_repository_Content_Willems,%20W_Willems_Reinvoking_past_present_2010_Willems_Reinvoking%20_past_present_2010.pdf |journal=African Identities |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=191–208 |doi=10.1080/14725843.2010.491619 |issn=1472-5843 |s2cid=144615311}}</ref> In his last years he converted to [[Roman Catholicism]].<ref name="Mushayavanhu">{{cite thesis |title=A historical analysis of the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa's socio-political and economical influence on Zimbabwe (1890–1990) |last=Mushayavanhu |first=David  |type=PhD thesis |publisher=University of Pretoria |date=2017 |url=https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/63031/Mushayavanhu_Historical_2017.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y#page=203|page=188 |access-date=21 November 2017 }}
</ref>

===Death===
Nkomo died of [[prostate cancer]] on 1 July 1999 at the age of 82 in [[Parirenyatwa Hospital]] in Harare.<ref>{{cite news |title=World: Africa Farewell to Nkomo |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/386154.stm |publisher=[[BBC News]] |date=5 July 1999 |access-date=18 January 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Joshua Nkomo {{!}} Zimbabwean political leader |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joshua-Nkomo |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=27 March 2019}}</ref>

==Legacy and honours==
Letters to the prime minister, Robert Mugabe, allegedly written by Nkomo while in exile in the United Kingdom, began to resurface following Nkomo's death in 1999. In the letters he argues against his persecution and accused the government of cracking down on opposition.<ref>{{cite web |title=Politics: Joshua Nkomo's letter |date=7 June 1983 |publisher=Zimbabwe Metro |url=http://zimbabwemetro.com/2007/11/22/joshua-nkomos-letter/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228132244/http://zimbabwemetro.com/2007/11/22/joshua-nkomos-letter/ |archive-date=28 February 2008}}</ref>

In 1999, Nkomo was declared a National Hero and is buried in the [[National Heroes' Acre (Zimbabwe)|National Heroes' Acre]] in Harare.

On 27 June 2000, a set of four postage stamps were issued by the [[Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (Zimbabwe)|Post and Telecommunications Corporation]] of Zimbabwe featuring Joshua Nkomo. They had denominations of [[Zimbabwe dollar|ZW$]]2.00, $9.10, $12.00 and $16.00.

==Notes and references==
{{reflist}}

<ref>{{cite book |last=Ndlovu-Gatsheni |first=Sabelo J. |title=Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo of Zimbabwe:Politics, Power, and Memory |date=2017 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Cham, Switzerland |isbn=978-3-319-60555-5}}</ref>

==Further reading==
* Nkomo, Joshua; Harman, Nicholas (1984) ''Nkomo: The Story of My Life'' (autobiography); {{ISBN|978-0-413-54500-8}}.
* Sibanda, Eliakim M. (2005) The Zimbabwe African People's Union 1961–87: A Political History of Insurgency in Southern Rhodesia. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. {{ISBN|978-1-59221-275-0}}
* Ranger, Terence O. (2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/72535 "Nkomo, Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo (1917–1999)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press. (accessed 18 June 2006, subscription required)

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{Sister project links|commonscat=yes}}
* <!--
Links formerly displayed via the CongLinks template:
* [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n81-139702 Works by or about Joshua Nkomo] in libraries ([[WorldCat]] catalog)
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* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/382848.stm BBC Obituary]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/jul/02/guardianobituaries.andrewmeldrum Guardian Obituary]
{{Clear}}

{{Zimbabwean political parties|state=collapsed}}
{{Vice-Presidents of Zimbabwe}}{{Members of the 3rd Parliament of Zimbabwe}}{{Members of the 1st Parliament of Zimbabwe}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nkomo, Joshua}}
[[Category:1917 births]]
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[[Category:20th-century Roman Catholics]]
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