60 years after the UN Convention - Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

The making and meanings of the
massacres in Matabeleland
Ian Phimister
Something too serious for silence has been happening in Matabeleland.
Moto has heard from sources too varied and reliable to be discounted,
tales of brutality, atrocities and killings which, under any circumstances,
are unjustifi able. (Anon. 1983)
Between early 1983 and late 1986, approximately 20,000 people lost
their lives in Matabeleland, that is, the western part of Zimbabwe occupied
mostly by Ndebele speakers. The murders were carried out by
the Fifth Brigade of the Zimbabwe National Army. Although widely
reported at the time, the massacres were largely ignored by the international
community. Neither the former colonial power, Britain, nor
the United States of America was prepared to lift a fi nger. Described
by Zimbabwe’s ruler, Robert Mugabe, as Gukurahundi (the rain that
washes away the chaff before the summer rains), these events constituted
a defi ning moment for his regime. In attempting to explain
them, this chapter is divided into three sections, the fi rst of which
briefl y outlines the origins and course of the mass violence unleashed
on Matabeleland. Section II examines in more detail contemporary
reactions. When surveying the possible meanings of the massacres,
the fi nal section engages with elements of the recent literature on
mass violence and genocide. In doing so, this contribution builds on
Katri Yap’s many insights (2001), even as it takes as its starting point
Mahmood Mamdani’s (2007) injunction to foreground the specifi city
of history and politics whenever atrocities are chronicled.
I
Towards the end of August 1981, Robert Mugabe, still only prime minister
and not yet president for life, announced at a ruling party rally in
north-east Mashonaland that North Korea had recently given Zimbabwe
us$ 12 million to establish and train a fi fth brigade of the National
Army. Declaring that he was suspicious of people who did not wish to
join ZANU-PF, or attend its meetings, the prime minister closed by
saying that he could not ‘understand the intentions of people who refuse