mbulelo smpofu
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
GOGO Katharina Nkomo refers to her brother, James Khongo Nkomo, as that “little boy.”
Normally this would be taken as normal banter between siblings. After all, what is life if one cannot ridicule their sibling as a little boy or a girl?
However, when the words “little boy” come from Gogo Katharina, they seem a little bizarre.
The man she refers to as a little boy celebrated his 102nd birthday only a few months ago. For Gogo Katharina, who is 114 years old, this makes little difference. Khongo will always be a little brother, a kid who only took residence in her mother’s womb 12 years after she had exited it.
Now the siblings, who grew up under one roof are separated by distance, as Katharina lives in Malaba Village under Headman Mpamadzi Makawule of Chief Malaba in Matobo (Kezi) District, Matabeleland South Province while Khongo lives in Mstuli, a village also under Chief Malaba.
When Sunday Life visited Khongo, he remembered vividly how his elder sibling, Gogo Katharina was forcibly married off to Mkhaza Malaba of Dihwe to be the fourth wife by their father, Dlawana Sola Nkomo.
It is an event that dominated their lives, as Khongo believes that his sister was destined to become a Catholic nun. The customary marriage arrangement was aggressively criticised by Father Peter Ebner of the Congregation of Mariannhill Missionaries (CMM).
The last born in a family of three, Khongo recalls being one of the late nationalist Dr Joshua Nkomo’s bodyguards at one time when the war for Zimbabwe’s liberation was heating up.
“I was one of Joshua Nkomo’s guards. There were three of us initially but one left his service and a man called Mcetsha and I remained guarding him. We even waited for him while he served his sentence until his return from prison. I remember one time, a black policeman tried to confront me but I had to beat him up and that meant that I was now on the wanted list.
“Nkomo made sure I made it to Salisbury, now Harare, where I was hidden and that remained the case until the war ended. If he had not done that I probably would have been arrested,” he said.
While in hiding, Khongo said the ghost of what had happened to his sister haunted him, as strangers would come to see the terrible Dlawana’s son.
“Katharina could have been a sister but she had been given off for marriage to a man with three wives. It was quite a well-known issue because even while I was in hiding there were people who would tell me they were aware of the story.
“Father Peter had spread the message because he had been distraught about it. A lot of people were called to see me because they wanted to take a look at Dlawana’s son. Shona speakers had heard that I am called Dlabana so they thought my father ate children but it was just a corruption of his surname,” he said.
Even at the age of 102, Khongo is still a colourful character who only moves around with the aid of a stick. The secret to long life, he said, was a healthy dose of respect and the ability to give a beating to those who gave him disrespect in return.
“I am unable to tell you what has given me such a long life. Perhaps one can say that I have lived past 100 because of the respect that I have for life and for people. That is something that I have always carried with me and I believe it has given me this longevity. Of course, as someone who gives respect, I also expect respect back and that was something that defined me.
“If I had to beat up a person to discipline them then so be it. I was very well known for this in my younger days and even in construction sites where I worked in Johannesburg they knew that I would not tolerate disrespect from even the white managers,” he said.
While Khongo is a bundle of energy, age has begun to take its toll on Gogo Katharina, who is no longer as nimble on her feet as she used to be.
When Sunday Life paid her a visit, Gogo Katharina was in her bedroom, where she now spends most of her days. Despite her frail condition, at 114 years old, there are still glimpses of the girl who almost became a nun.
When she greets a Roman Catholic priest, she still kisses their ring in honour of age-old traditions.
As remarkable as the Nkomo siblings are, they are not the only people to have celebrated over 100 years of living in the area under Headman Mpamadzi Makawule.
Peter Khobongo Ndlovu (102), who lived through the turbulent early years of colonial rule, remembers when he and his family were tossed around Matabeleland, as white settlers displaced them while they searched for fertile land.
“I was born near the place along the road to Bulawayo near Njelele. We were moved from there and taken to Plumtree and that is where I partly grew up. From there, my uncle and Nyongolo moved to Gubule and they stayed close to each other for a while. We grew up in tough times.
“A man like me would be called ‘boy’ by the whites and it was painful because I don’t even call young people that I see in that manner. I don’t even call my own children ‘boy’ but they thought it was fine to order us around in that manner,” he said.
In his youth, Ndlovu remembers being a part of the cohort of young people who helped lay the first stones at the now iconic and historic St Joseph’s parish church.
“We were part of the team that built the church at St Joseph’s. I was what they call daka-boy because at that time I was very young. We were all under the tutelage of Father Peter. It fills me with great pride to witness that the structure that we all contributed towards building has stood the test of time.”
During a century of life, one is bound to go through a few dark episodes.
For Ndlovu, one such encounter occurred when he was arrested for his son’s exploits as a guerrilla fighter in Rhodesia.
“I was persecuted for some time when my son went to war. He was trained in Russia and he had acquired a reputation as a serious operator on the battlefield. It was one of those days that I found my place surrounded by soldiers and I was arrested.
“They accused me of being the one who had nurtured a killer of white people. I asked one magistrate if, as a father, he would give away his son to die in a war and he said no. I then asked why they thought I would do the same to my flesh and blood. They let me go not long after,” he said.
shloboe boe
