Introduction
Zenzo Christopher Nkobi (birth date unknown) was a South African who went into exile during the 1960s and who worked as a professional photographer in the 1970s and 1980s in Southern Africa. He was the eldest son of Thomas Titus Nkobi, the longtime treasurer of the African National Congress (ANC) who fled South Africa in 1963, and belonged to the first group of ANC students in exile who studied in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the 1960s. He received a Masters Degree in photography at the Academy of Graphics and Book Art in Leipzig. Before coming back to Africa in 1977, he worked as a press photographer at the Berlin Publishing House, mainly for the Berliner Zeitung while still travelling to events in African countries to take photographs for the ANC and ZAPU. It was not possible for him to return to South Africa so he lived with his father and the family in Lusaka and later on Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Here he ran his own photo studio and taught photography at the Technical College. For some years in exile in Zambia he was the personal photographer to the late Joshua Nkomo, leader of ZAPU and accompanied him to many conferences in preparation for the independence of Zimbabwe.
Zenzo Nkobi documented the struggle of Liberation Movements of Southern Africa, such as the ANC, ZAPU and ZANU, Frelimo, SWAPO and MPLA. He photographed the refugee camps and the military camps and many liberation leaders of Southern Africa in discussions, at conferences and elsewhere. He photographed the raids on camps in Zambia by apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia. He covered funerals of victims of raids and bombing attacks, the victorious return to Zimbabwe, the first elections there after liberation in Zimbabwe and later on also events of ZAPU and the situation in Matabeleland under the Fifth Brigade.
Zenzo Nkobi also photographed liberation movement leaders at major regional and international conferences, as well as people’s daily lives in exile, in Lusaka and Maputo. In 1980, he recorded the return of exiles and elections in the newly liberated Zimbabwe, including rare images of the Gukhurahundi (Mugabe’s repression of the population around Bulawayo in the early 1980s).
While the African National Congress (ANC) had a photography unit in the 1980s (of which Zenzo was a member), its stored images were destroyed (by water damage) in Zambia in the late 1980s. Moreover, to ensure security, photographers were generally not permitted in residences and camps unless fully vetted by the movement. Zenzo Nkobi, as the son of ANC Treasurer General, Thomas Nkobi, had complete access thus making these images both extremely rare and valuable.
When he died in 1993 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, he left his entire collection of approximately 10000 mainly black and white 35 mm negatives to his wife Edelgard Nkobi, born Schulreich, whom he met and married in Germany.
This collection comprises 5,106 images, scanned from negatives and slides created by Zenzo Nkobi, portraying the activities of Southern African liberation movements in exile from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. These images cover African National Congress (ANC) and Zimbabwean refugee and military camps in Zambia and Botswana in the 1970s. His photographs show ZIPRA military training camps, and rare images of the Freedom Camp massacre and other destabilization raids on Zambian soil by Rhodesian and South African troops.
IDENTIFIED INDIVIDUALS IN IMAGES
Chinamano, Josiah - ZAPU activist
Kaunda, Kenneth - First president of Zambia (1964 to 1991)
Machel, Samora - First president of Mozambique (1975 to 1986)
Maduna, Godwayo - ZAPU activist
Mangena, Nikita - ZIPRA Army commander
Moyo, Jason Ziyapapa - ZAPU official
Msika, Joseph - ZAPU official
Mugabe, Robert - President of Zimbabwe (1987 to date)
Munodawafa, Samuel - ZANU official
Ndhlovu, Bhopa Jane - ZANU activist
Ndhlovu, Edward - ZANU official
Ndhlovu, Skhanyiso - ZANU official
Ngwenya, Jane - ZAPU activist
Nkala, Enos - ZANU minister
Nkobi, Thomas - ANC Treasurer – General (1973 - 1994)
Nkobi, Zenzo - Photographer
Nkomo, Johanna Mama Mafuyana - Wife of Joshua Nkomo and Zapu activist
Nkomo, Joshua (Mdala wethu) - Leader and founder of ZAPU.
Nyerere, Julius (Mwalimu) - First president of Tanzania (1964 to 1985)
Nzo, Alfred - ANC official
Sibanda, Joepe - ZAPU activist
Tambo, Oliver - President of ANC (1967 - 1991)
Tekere, Edgar - ZANU official
IDENTIFIED LOCATIONS IN IMAGES
Arcadia- A coloured dominated suburb in Harare
Barbourfields - High density suburb in Bulawayo
Francistown - Town in Botswana
Harare - Capital city of Zimbabwe
Bulawayo - City in Zimbabwe
Highfields - High density suburb in Harare
Kafue - Town in Zambia
Lusaka - Capital city of Zambia
Maputo - Capital city of Mozambique
Mulungushi - Town in Zambia
Mwembeshi - Town in Zambia
Ntabazinduna - Camp in Bulawayo
Salisbury - Colonial name for Harare
Victory camp - Refugee camp in Zambia
White City - High density suburb in Bulawayo
Acronyms
ORGANISATIONS IDENTIFIED IN IMAGES
AAPSO Afro Asian Peoples’ Solidarity Organisation
ANC African National Congress (South Africa)
GDR German Democratic Republic
ZAPU Zimbabwe African People Union
SWAPO South West Africa People’s Organisation
ZANLA Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (armed wing of ZANU)
ZANU Zimbabwe African National Union
ZIPRA Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (armed wing of ZAPU)
