When will the long nightmare come to an end? Challenges to national healing and reconciliation in post-colonial Zimbabwe

• Published in: African security review Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. 145 - 159
• Main Authors: Muchemwa, Cyprian, Ngwerume, Emmaculate Tsitsi, Hove, Mediel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 01.09.2013; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: justice; national healing; peace; Postcolonialism; reconciliation; violence
• ISSN: 1024-6029; 2154-0128
• DOI: 10.1080/10246029.2013.803992

This article seeks to show that the emotive reconciliation project in Zimbabwe, which is currently spearheaded by the Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration, is not new in the Zimbabwe polity. Its incarnation under the Government of National Unity clearly indicates the inadequacies and ineffectiveness of the initial reconciliation project, which was enunciated immediately after independence in 1980. In this article we argue that while the notion of resuscitating reconciliation is an important step towards durable peace, this institutionalised, state-centric and state-propelled project is haunted by the very same challenges that undermined and shattered its predecessor. We further assert that the reconciliation and healing project, which is politically engineered and institutionally driven without being inclusive and community driven, is a mere token that comes at the expense of durable peace and the actual victims of violence and impunity.