Leadership Quote by Joshua Nkomo

Death is doing the recruiting here, and Joshua Nkomo answers with a grin sharpened into a political weapon. “All I’m trying to do” sounds modest, almost domestic, the language of a man dodging fuss. Then he pivots: “not join my ancestral spirits just yet.” It’s a joke with a blade. Nkomo frames survival as his only remaining ambition, which is both self-deprecation and indictment: in his line of work, simply staying alive counts as a program.

The phrase “ancestral spirits” does heavy lifting. It roots him in a cosmology older than the colonial state and sturdier than any party platform. Instead of pleading for mercy in the vocabulary of modern politics, he speaks in terms that carry communal sanction and metaphysical continuity. He’s not just trying to avoid death; he’s postponing a transition into an honored collective, implying that his life has already been lived at the edge where martyrdom becomes plausible.

Context matters: Nkomo operated in the violent churn of liberation struggle and post-independence power, when opponents could be recast overnight as “dissidents,” and political disagreement had a way of acquiring a death sentence. The line reads like gallows humor, but the subtext is strategic. By treating threats as almost routine, he projects steadiness and refuses to grant his adversaries the spectacle of fear. It’s a survival statement that doubles as a subtle accusation: if my goal is merely to remain among the living, you’ve already revealed what kind of politics we’re in.