Cultural politics and cultural violence during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland

Abstract

This paper examines and analyses the various instances where ‘performances’ of cultural violence by the state and Fifth Brigade were experienced during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland. This paper contends that cultural violence was used to stereotype Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) veterans, as well as Ndebele people. Cultural violence is used here to refer to the purposeful weakening and ultimate destruction of cultural values and practices of the Ndebele people. This paper argues that ZANU-PF created an anti-Ndebele thought collective through the use of emotive language, stylized news in media, and ‘expert opinions’ to block the creation of accurate contextual knowledge for the Shona nonlocals and ZANU-PF members. This paper further submits that this thought collective sits at the base of the disposition, segregation, dehumanization, near annihilation and framing of ZAPU, ex-ZIPRA veterans and the Ndebele people as ‘dissidents’ and ‘cockroaches’, infecting Ndebele language, identity and cultural practices. This paper, thus, argues that the deployment of cultural violence created a fertile ground for direct and structural violence that further undermined ZAPU, ZIPRA and Ndebele resistance against Gukurahundi. In conclusion, this paper proposes public multi-cultural remembrances and cultural cleansing ceremonies (nationally and communally) as possible solutions to diffusing the continuous perpetration of cultures of violence in Zimbabwe.