Portal:Zimbabwe/Featured biography/May 2008

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo (June 19, 1917 - July 1, 1999) was the leader and founder of the Zimbabwe African People's Union and a member of the Kalanga tribe.Hill, Geoff. He was affectionately known in Zimbabwe as Father Zimbabwe, Umdala Wethu, Umafukufuku or Chibwechitedza (the slippery rock).

Nkomo was born in Semokwe Reserve, Matabeleland in 1917 and was one of 8 children. His father (Thomas Nyongolo Letswansto Nkomo) worked as a preacher and a cattle rancher and worked for the London Missionary Society. After completing his primary education in Rhodesia he 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 before becoming a schoolteacher specialising in Carpentry at Manyame School in Kezi. In 1942, aged 25 and during his occupation as a teacher, he decided that he should go to South Africa to further his education and do carpentry and qualify to a higher level. He attended Adams College and the Jan Hofmeyer School of Social Work in South Africa. There he met Nelson Mandela and other regional nationalist leaders at the University of Fort Hare. However, he did not attend university at Fort Hare University. It was at the Jan Hofmeyr School that he was awarded a B.A. Degree in Social Science in 1952. Nkomo married his wife Johanna MaFuyana on 1 October 1949.