One of the founding fathers of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) of Azania, ubab’ Christopher Akananto Nkomo, an educationalist, a freedom fighter, a diplomat and policy specialist in his lifetime, has gone forever into the sunset of the afterlife. He was 93 years old.
The arrival of spring will forever bring sweet memories of his gentle smile to the heart, as many remember the calm, philosophical, kind-hearted and urbane gentleman whose life’s vocation was the nourishment of the mind and the liberation of humankind from bondage.
Birth and love
Born on 17 July 1927 to Dorcas and Jerry Nkomo in the east of Johannesburg, he attended St. Albans in Benoni location and upon completion of his high school education, enrolled for and completed a diploma at the Pietersburg Diocesan Teachers’ Training College.
Soon after graduation he became a teacher at St. Albans and later at Dumehlezi Primary School in Daveyton. It was when he taught at Gotchiling Primary School in Wattville that he met the love of his life Esther Nonceba née Magqu, a nurse at Benoni Clinic, with whom he exchanged the vows of holy matrimony in January 1954. They set up home in Mbovane Street in Daveyton, and their marriage was blessed with 4 children, Mlungisi, Mahlubandile, Zolile and their only daughter, Siphiwe.
The rise of a revolutionary
His vehement opposition to the inferior system of Bantu Education saw him cross swords on numerous occasions with apartheid officialdom, which is how he resolved to be an integral part of the process that would bring about radical change in the country of his forebears so that Africans could assume their rightful place at the forefront of society, Government, in sports and across the economic sphere. His dream was not too far off because his heart soon swelled with hope and pride when an unprecedented wave of political radicalism swept across the nation with the birth of the Pan Africanist Congress, a birth that he personally witnessed in Soweto on 06 April 1959.
Ubab’Nkomo had been instrumental in the founding of the PAC. Before and after the formation of the PAC, his responsibilities included mobilising membership, establishing new branches and carrying out the programmes of the liberation movement.
Along with Cde Zeph Mothopeng and Cde Elias Mfaxa, the PAC’s first Secretary for Education, ubab’Nkomo was tasked by the President of the party, Dr Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, to craft an alternative education blueprint for a liberated Azania, a task they undertook with fervour and aplomb, becoming the first to publicly agitate for the decolonisation of the education system, the teaching of African history, languages, commerce, mathematics, science and engineering as a precursor to what collectively they later called the “Azanian Industrial Revolution”.
When the PAC was banned by the racist regime on 08 April 1960 following the gallant and historic anti-pass campaign that was planned and led by the Africanists, ubab’Nkomo was identified among the second layer of leadership who would continue to mobilise the oppressed for sustained resistance until freedom dawned.
It was the task of those who were gainfully employed such as ubab’Nkomo as a teacher, to contribute resources for imperatives such as legal fees for Poqo and PAC combatants who were standing trial in the illegitimate courts of the regime, to care for the detained, the imprisoned and for the families of activists who had been executed by the regime. Among other priorities the provision of medical care, transportation and accommodation fell upon the shoulders of patriots such as ubab’Nkomo, obligations that he undertook with devotion and generosity.
Exile years
Formed on 11 September 1961, Poqo, which means pure, was the first liberation army to be formed after the racist bannings of 1960, and together with its successor, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA), remains the most feared, courageous and by far the most revolutionary liberation army to emerge out of the struggle for freedom in South Africa. Poqo combatants gallantly used axes, pangas and other home-made weapons to target the oppressor, and babuNkomo was among the many who soon agitated for the use of conventional arms of war to engage and defeat the enemy.
As the insidious net of the security police began to encircle him, babuNkomo was ordered to leave the country and to help strengthen the PAC’s quest of mobilising diplomatic and logistical support for the struggle against colonialism and to intensify the campaign for the isolation of the regime internationally. A doting husband and loving father, he arranged for his family to join him in exile.
Thus did it come to pass that in 1967 Cde Chris Nkomo left occupied Azania and took up residence in Swaziland due to being pursued by the racist regime. He enrolled for the BA degree in Education at the University of Swaziland, and later completed an Honours degree in Education through UNISA.
To legitimise his cover, he continued teaching in Swaziland, and worked at SAGM Ka-Boyce School, St Francis Secondary School, Mbabane Central Primary & High School, and later moved to Manzini Central High School and lastly taught at Siphocosini High School.
By the time the 16 June 1976 uprising erupted, also under the visionary leadership of the PAC, an influx of students went into exile, flooding the ranks PAC. As a teacher he was responsible for inducting recruits in the politics and ideology of the PAC, as well as the history of the Continent and of the liberation struggles of the African people. As a martial artist with a black belt in judo and karate, he trained combatants in self-defence and close-contact combat tactics, both in Swaziland and later in Tanzania.
Together with leaders such Cde Joe Mkhwanazi, Cde Joe Moabi, Cde Sfuba, Cde Gason Ndlovu, Cde Bidi, Cde Xamela Gqekwa, Cde Enoch Zulu, Professor Pitika Ntuli, Cde Rosetta Nziba, Cde Ndamase, Cde Simelane, Cde Hughes Hlatshwayo and various others, they secretly ran an underground military camp in Swaziland, renamed ‘the Kingdom of eSwatini’ in 2018).
The Swazi Government was not pleased when they discovered the clandestine APLA camp, and ordered it closed summarily.
When Zimbabwe triumphantly attained its liberation in 1980, comrade Nkomo was deployed to Harare to continue recruiting young people in South Africa for scholarships abroad, and for providing continued political education and ideological orientation.
Elevation to the Executive Committee of the PAC
As the struggle intensified, babuNkomo was appointed by the PAC executive to take up duty as head of the Education Department and as a member of the Central Committee, based in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam.
As head of Education for years in the PAC he contributed immensely to knowledge production, human development and the nourishment of seasoned professionals who today serve across the length and breadth of Azania with pride in many spheres of endeavour, in both the public and private sectors.
His tasks involved negotiating and securing educational sponsorship with organisations such as the United Nations Development Programme, World University Service, among a host of others. He was also instrumental in negotiating with many institutions of higher learning for admission of eligible Azanians because many exiles had left the country without their educational certificates, and had experienced challenges gaining acceptance to further their studies.
It is because of him, therefore, and many who worked under his wise and patriotic leadership, that many Azanians were sent for tertiary study across the world, in preparation for liberation and self-determination.
Diplomatic service across the globe
Over the years, Ntate Nkomo distinguished himself as a preeminent diplomat in representing the interests and aspirations of the oppressed at various international fora, including the United Nations and its various agencies, the Organisation of African Unity (renamed African Union in 2002), the Non-Aligned Movement, the Commonwealth, the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (transformed into the Southern African Development Community in 1992), among various others.
A leader to the end
When the CODESA negotiations began with the racist regime, babuNkomo was part of the PAC delegation responsible for strategic planning around social transformation and a postcolonial education system. One of the spirited policy exigencies him and the PAC delegation made at CODESA was for the provision of free and compulsory education from primary to tertiary levels because he saw education as the catalyst for sustained national growth and the triumph of the Azanian Industrial Revolution, driven by the beneficiation of commodities as well as the local manufacturing and exportation of industrial and consumer goods.
Working with other comrades and in conjunction with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and directly with various countries, he played a leading role in repatriating PAC exiles homewards, and assisted in integrating returnees into society.
Indefatigable and vibrant, he was active and instrumental in contributing to the process of drafting the Military Veterans Act, which was enacted in 2011 for the purpose of safeguarding the welfare and dignity of liberation war veterans in South Africa.
A man of dignity and honour
Never one to put his name ahead of others or climb above the heads of his peers to reach the front or the top, his exceptional merits were there for all to see and his ideas shone ever-bright to point the path.
In Ntate Nkomo’s memory a great library stands mighty and glorious, an example for future generations to draw their inspiration from as they set about to serve the nation. He remains one of the most sterling examples of what it truly means to devote one’s life to the nation, and indeed, to the love of family.
He embodied wisdom, dignity and integrity in the true mould of Sobukwe’s legacy. He stood as a peer among a generation of baobabs whose lifelong commitment was to defeat the myth of white supremacy.
He remained true to his lifelong PAC oath to Serve, Suffer and Sacrifice. Azania has much to be grateful for his exemplary leadership and selfless commitment to the quest for liberation. He will be remembered as a strict school master and a disciplinarian in the ranks of both APLA and the PAC, and will be sorely missed by all those who worked closely with him for decades, both in exile and inside Azania.
He leaves behind his wife of 67 years, three sons, one daughter, 9 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren
Lala ngo xolo Nkomo Mntungwa, Yengwayo, Ngubeni, Maphemebe Amahle aya eBulawayo, nibahle batwana benkhosi ngokufihla iNkhosi enxukuvaneni. Malinga, Mkhwatshwa, Maphik ekhanya KaLanga, Ngabandlebe zinhle zombili, Ngama Rawulantaba, abayenga umuntu ngendaba, Mahlabezulu, Mageza ngocako, Nkomo ebomvu Yengwayo.