Obituary in Sechaba, April 1989
Born on January 3, 1910, in Hackney (the Africans call the place Hekeni) in the district of Queenstown, Northern Cape, Hector Sikhumbuzo Nkula grew up under the guidance of his grandparents, since his parents were working and living in Cape Town.
He had problems in attending school, which was over ten miles away, until he was "adopted" by a relative, Tony Makiwane, who was also the headmaster of the school. He was with the Makiwanes until he passed Standard Five. Since there was no Standard Six in the rural schools, he had to go to school in Queenstown for a year, where he joined Father Shaw of the Anglican faith and had to go through the whole church ritual: joining the church choir, practising on Saturdays, blowing bellows during services on Sundays. There was no time for sport.
Just before he died, Comrade Nkula wrote a short autobiography - presumably the beginnings of a magnum opus which unfortunately could not see the light of day. In it he remembers that during his stay in Queenstown the Bulhoek massacre took place, when 69 people were killed by the Smuts regime and their leader, Enoch Mgijima, was arrested, charged and sent to prison. This religious sect - the Israelites - had committed the crime of refusing to move from their ancestral lands to some place chosen by the Smuts government. Comrade Nkula says:
"Though I was a boy of 13, I could understand what was going on; prayers in church offered by Father Shaw helped me to understand most of the affairs."
After completing his Standard Six, he went to St. Matthew's near Kingwilliamstown, where he could not stay long because of climatic conditions - he was asthmatic - and had to go to Healdtown Institute near Fort Beaufort. There he spent three years, completing his teacher training course before proceeding to Lovedale Institute where he did his higher teachers' course. He played rugby and learned cricket; he visited the neighbouring towns and took an active part in all activities except politics, which was prohibited in these institutions. Whilst at Lovedale, he visited the library at Fort Hare, where for the first time he could read about politics. At Fort Hare the African students had frequent discussions with the white students from Rhodes University, Grahamstown. They discussed political issues.
There were other forces which influenced Comrade Nkula. His cousin, Hamilton Kraai, together with Comrade Hector's uncle, Joseph Nkula, were involved in workers' strikes in Johannesburg. Nearer home in Port Elizabeth, huge strikes involving thousands of workers were led by Samuel Masabalala. Now the young Hector could buy newspapers and could also explain to his father who could not read or write English.
Hector could not proceed to Fort Hare because of financial difficulties. But with the help of Father Shaw he went to a seminary in Zonnebloem in Woodstock, a suburb of Cape Town. He completed his studies but was not allowed to do a degree in Arts, as the college councillors preferred one in Divinity. During the 18 months he was in Cape Town, a lot of things happened, and this was an eye-opener to Hector. On Saturdays he went to the city centre and to African townships where political meetings were attended, not only by Africans and Coloureds but also by whites. Here he saw, for the first time, whites campaigning together with blacks against a white government for the cause of the blacks. He read newspapers he had not known before: Umsebenzi, Forward, Black Worker and the Cape Times.
Still pursing his desire to quench his thirst for knowledge, Hector proceeded to Kimberley. Besides attending school, he met the ANC leadership and rank and file in Kimberley. It was here in Kimberley that Comrade Hector Sikhumbuzo Nkula got his first ANC membership card, through Mweli-Skota, the former Secretary-General of the African National Congress. This was in 1932.
From Kimberley Hector Nkula went to Johannesburg where his real political activity flourished. He worked in the Johannesburg structures of the ANC. He also joined the Communist party; wrote articles for Nkululeko, a Party journal, in Xhosa; taught at the Party night school in Ferreirastown. Joining the ANC and the Party did not interfere with his professional work as a teacher.
For his membership of the ANC, Hector - though he had no regrets - had to pay dearly: he was sacked as a teacher. This was before World War II, and the ANC was still a legal organisation which was not involved in any "subversive" activity. He had to earn his living by getting himself a hawker's licence, buying and selling soft goods from wholesalers.
Hector Nkula remembers the formation of the ANC Youth League, and the "ebullient Nelson Mandela," but: "though I was 34 years old, I was told I am too old to be in the Youth League."
Nkula's activities in the ANC reflect the movement's history in all its ups and downs, its multi-pronged approach, its richness and diversity. Nkula was in the thick of it all. He knew personally all the leaders of the ANC - he was one of them; he was involved in all the movement's campaigns in the 1950s, including the question of the fight against the emergence of the PAC. In Johannesburg he usually chaired ANC meetings.
In the 1960s, when he was over 50, he joined Umkhonto We Sizwe. He trained, went to ANC camps, patiently and loyally awaiting instructions from the ANC leadership. His commanders were no older than his sons - hence they called him Tat'u Nkula (father Nkula). He worked in ANC structures in Lusaka, taking care of the welfare of our people. Very few will forget his contribution at the 1985 Kabwe Conference of the ANC, where he impressed everybody with his freshness of ideas and revolutionary enthusiasm - at the age of 75.
The funeral of Hector Sikhumbuzo Nkula in Lusaka in December 1988 was a rededication to the cause he had lived and died for; it was not a symbolic gesture, but a reaffirmation that the struggle continues.