The veteran Zimbabwean liberation fighter Joshua Nkomo died yesterday aged 83, redrawing the political map amid warnings of new ethnic tension between his Ndebele people and President Robert Mugabe's ruling party.
Nkomo, who since 1987 had been one of Zimbabwe's two vice presidents, died of prostate cancer. He was in all senses a towering figure in Zimbabwean politics for over 50 years, earning the name Umdala Wethu, "Our Old Man".
Announcing Nkomo's death on state radio, President Mugabe poured out superlatives, describing him as a fine and great man and the founder of the nation who spend his life in struggle.
Nkomo was "a compatriot, a colleague, a comrade", he said.
"The giant has fallen and the nation mourns in grief . . . It is a loss so keenly felt by all of us, by all Zimbabweans who saw in the vice president a father figure, a founder of our nation."
"Father Zimbabwe", who at his peak weighed about 120 kg (265 lbs) and needed two airplane seats, spearheaded Zimbabwe's struggle for black majority rule from the 1950s onwards.
After independence from Britain in 1980 he shook the white minority with regular warnings of racial war over inequality.
But crucially, friend and foe say he was the glue that held his restless warrior Ndebele people of Matebeleland in a marriage with Mr Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF after a five-year armed rebellion in the 1980s.
"He won his place in history through war and peace, and lately he was the shield that protected Mugabe from those who believe the president presided over some kind of genocide," said analyst Masipula Sithole at the University of Zimbabwe.
As prime minister in 1982, Mr Mugabe expelled Nkomo from his cabinet on charges - which Nkomo denied - of plotting a military takeover.
Nkomo's former guerrillas rebelled, and rights groups say Mr Mugabe's army killed thousands of civilians in central and south-western Zimbabwe in the ensuing crackdown.
The insurrection ended in 1987 with a unity accord between ZANU-PF and Nkomo's PFZAPU. Mr Mugabe made Nkomo a vice president and gave a dozen of his top lieutenants senior government posts.
But some of Nkomo's followers have continued to demand that Mr Mugabe apologise and compensate war victims.
President Mugabe has refused, and without Nkomo to hold them in check, the demands of Ndebeles in Mr Mugabe's largely Shona-dominated ZANU-PF may grow and even lead to ethnic tension, analysts say.
Mr Mugabe is already under pressure from soaring inflation, interest rates and unemployment - all above 50 per cent - which have led to poverty and spawned labour and social unrest.
He denies he is responsible but many analysts say his ZANU-PF, riven by dissent, will face its stiffest challenge in 20 years in next year's general election.
Co-Vice President Simon Muzenda said earlier this year Mr Mugabe was keeping Nkomo in office despite his advanced age and ill health to avoid a bloody power struggle after his departure.
Although they deny this in public, Nkomo's lieutenants expect him to be replaced by another Ndebele leader, and say the ZAPU-ZANU marriage will break down if this does not happen.
The Home Affairs Minister, Mr Dumiso Dabengwa, and the Local Government Minister, Mr John Nkomo (not related) head the list of those tipped to succeed Nkomo.
Nkomo began fighting for black rule in the 1950s as a railway trade unionist, helping to set up successive nationalist parties including ZAPU.
The government of what was then Rhodesia jailed him for 10 years. In 1974 he went to neighbouring Zambia, where he led a guerrilla war against Ian Smith's white racist Harare regime.
After independence from Britain in 1980, Nkomo's PF-ZAPU lost an election to Mr Mugabe but was co-opted into a "national reconciliation" cabinet that included some of Smith's ministers.
In 1952 Nkomo was elected leader of the local African National Congress (ANC), and when that movement was banned he became president of the National Democratic Party (NDP) in 1960.
After the NDP was itself banned, he launched ZAPU, which went underground after being banned in 1962.
Mr Mugabe joined ZANU, a breakaway movement in 1963, which effectively split the country's nationalist movement along ethnic lines.
Most of the new party's followers were of the country's Shona majority, while Nkomo's supporters were largely drawn from the 20 per cent Ndebele minority.
With the end of the war negotiated at Lancaster House in Britain, the first all-race elections in 1980 were easily won by Mugabe and his party, confirming that Nkomo's support was largely confined to the Ndebele people of western Matabeleland.
Nkomo regularly argued that a "white mafia" had for years led a campaign to keep blacks out of commerce and industry and frustrated efforts to redistribute white-owned farmland.
But critics saw this as cover for the acquisition of private wealth, questioning how his Development Trust of Zimbabwe had acquired the Mwenezi Ranch covering 1.6 per cent of Zimbabwe.
Political analysts said Nkomo's death opens a new political chapter in Zimbabwe.
Lupi Mushayakara said Nkomo had "attempted to forge national unity but the whole issue was undermined and the tensions are still there."
Nkomo effectively tried to forge national unity but the ruling ZANU-PF of President Mugabe did not accord his efforts due recognition, he said.
"ZANU-PF has been trying to undermine the political stature of this man.
"His contribution to the national cake has been undermined and this is what might cause some problems," Mushayakarara said, calling Nkomo a "unique" figure who had left "an unfinished story which needed to be looked at."
In the meantime, the government has declared five days of mourning and the burial day on Monday has been declared a public holiday.
He is survived by his wife Joanna and three children.