Search Results - Nkomo, Joshua, 1917-

Joshua Nkomo

Joshua Mqabuko Nyongolo Nkomo (19 June 1917 – 1 July 1999) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and Socialist 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 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, 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.

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.

Nkomo earned many nicknames, including ''Umafukufuku'' in Ndebele, "Father Zimbabwe" in English, and ''Chibwechitedza'' ("the slippery rock") in Shona. Provided by Wikipedia