Country: Zimbabwe

Group: Ndebele

Date Finalized: 10/05/2022

Team 3: Zaida Yancy Arellano Reyes (lead), Jhanz Garcia, Samuel Kniery, Hajer Rahee, and Gabby Staker.

Content Warning: Ethnocide, genocide, psychological torture

 Approximate Time Period: 1983-2022

The government grants the Ndebele people rights to practice their culture, they receive instruction in their native language, and they are allowed to form political associations. However, the civil war of 1983-1987 contributed to denial of social and economic benefits for the Ndebele people (Minority Rights Group, 2018; Campbell, 2017). Disguised as a method to pacify confrontations between political parties, the government used the civil war as an argument fo ethnic cleansing against the Ndebele people. The Gukurahundi genocide killed around 20,000 people (Stone, 2022; York, 2022; Campbell, 2017; Doran, 2015). The Zimbabwe government perpetuated anti-Ndebele sentiment among the Shona people through  emotive language. For example, their slogan Mandevere muchakaura, translated reads: Ndebeles, you will suffer. Moreover, the Shona people segregate and dehumanize the Ndebele people by calling them dissidents and cockroaches. (Sibanda, 2021; Minority Rights Group, 2018; Murambadoro, 2015). Between 2000 and 2002, the Zimbabwe government continued to persecute the Ndebele people. Allegedly in 2002, the government planned to exterminate and threatened to starve the Ndebele  (Minority Rights Group, 2018). Matabeleland representatives were neither native nor speak Ndebele. In 2005, a Shona representative was elected to represent the Ndebele, thus politically marginalizing the Ndebele. Recently, the government restricted the Ndebele population right’s by limiting their right to manifest; the Ndebele people feel marginalized and their rights violated. The Nbedele have a true fear of assimilation, their character defamed, their language belittled, their ethnic identity denigrated, and their culture desecrated (Sibanda, 2021; Murambadoro, 2015; Moyo, 2011). In 2017, Emmerson Mnangagwa came to power. Mnangagwa is presumptively  responsible for the Gukurahundi genocide and   turning Zimbabwe into an authoritarian, Shona-supremacist nation. Currently, in Zimbabwe, the government is closely monitoring commemorations of Gukurahundi. Also, there are reports of desecration of mass graves, or torn down memorials. (Stone, 2022; York, 2022). Despite these pressures, the Ndebele people remain a powerful political and social force within Zimbabwe (Moyo, 2021).

Data Quality: Data quality is rated a 3/3. There is vast information from reputable sources with a documented case of ethnocide against the Ndebele people in Zimbabwe.

Sources

  1. Cowell, A. (1983). Split by victory in Zimbabwe, ex-allies wage a bitter war. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/18/world/split-by-victory-in-zimbabwe-ex-allies-wage-a-bitter-war.html
  2. Campbell, J. (2017). The Matabeleland massacre and contemporary Zimbabwe. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.cfr.org/blog/matabeleland-massacre-and-contemporary-zimbabwe
  3. Doran, S. 2015. New documents claim to prove Mugabe ordered Gukurahundi killings. The Guardian. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/19/mugabe-zimbabwe-gukurahundi-massacre-matabeleland
  4. Minority Rights Group. (2018). Ndebele. World Directory of Minorities.Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/ndebele/ 
  5. Moyo, J. (2021). Anger resides decades after 1980s genocide in Zimbabwe. Anadolu Agency. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/anger-resides-decades-after-1980s-genocide-in-zimbabwe/2320958
  6. Moyo, K. (2011). Minorities in postcolonial transitions: The Ndebele in Zimbabwe. African Journal of Legal Studies. 4, 149-185. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1163/170873811X577311
  7. Murambadoro, R. (2015). ‘We cannot reconcile until the past has been acknowledged’: Perspectives on Gukurahundi from Matabeleland, Zimbabwe. African Journal on Conflict Resolution. 15(1), 33-57.
  8. Sibanda, N. (2021). Cultural politics and cultural violence during Gukurahundi in Matabeleland. Critical African Studies. 14(2), 138-152. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/21681392.2022.2074487
  9. Stone, J.-P. (2022). Tears after the rain: The legacy of the Gukurahundi genocide in Zimbabwe. The Organization for World Peace. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://theowp.org/reports/tears-after-the-rain-the-legacy-of-the-gukurahundi-genocide-in-zimbabwe/ 
  10. York, G (2022). Why Zimbabwe’s simple plaque with a not-so-simple history keeps getting destroyed and rebuilt. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-why-zimbabwes-simple-plaque-with-a-not-so-simple-history-keeps-getting/