Remembering a Traumatic Past

Abstract

This article analyses the narratives of Gukurahundi , how they are perceived as forms of collective memory culture, how they help to explain personal experiences shared by victims of the 1980s genocide in Zimbabwe, and how these experiences become memory. The Gukurahundi genocide shows that not only do individuals remember, but that remembering can be a collective endeavour. While individual memory is usually bound to the short time span of a human life and disappears with the death of a particular individual, intergenerational and collective cultural memory, on the other hand, is of longer term and is supported by institutions, monuments and rites. This article acknowledges different types of memories and dwells not only on the collective and cultural memory that honours and praises the heroic deeds of Zimbabwe, but also on the painful collective memories of perpetration or guilt. It highlights the importance of documenting events that happened during Gukurahundi. In Zimbabwe, there is state owned documentation and other documentation, which, in this paper, would be referred to as counter archives. The types of documentation can be regarded as a way that Zimbabweans, especially the Ndebele ethnic group, remember or memorialise the past.