A tale of three dinner plates: Truth and the challenges of human rights research in Zimbabwe

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 4, 2009, Pages 967-976

  Eppel, Shari ^a  

^a Solidarity Peace Trust   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

HUMAN RIGHTS; RURAL AREA; RURAL SOCIETY; VILLAGE; VIOLENCE;

ZIMBABWE;

EID: 75849131122     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070903314234     Document Type: Article

References (19)

1. G. Grandon and T.M. Klubock, 'Editor's Introduction', 'Truth Commissions: State Terror, History and Memory', Special Issue, Radical History Review, 97 (Winter 2007), pp. 1-10.
2. Grandon and Klubock, 'Editor's Introduction'.
3. Solidarity Peace Trust (SPT), Punishing Dissent, Silencing Citizens (2008) and Desperately Seeking Sanity (2008) show comparative levels of violence by various perpetrators last year, as do most previous reports. Available from: http://www.solidaritypeacetrust.org
4. See S. Eppel, D. Ndlela, B. Raftopoulos and M. Rupiya, Developing a Transformational Agenda for Zimbabwe, (IDASA and Zimbabwe Institute, Cape Town, 2009), for a discussion of the current transitional space and its possibilities and problems.
5. On state violence during these elections, see SPT, Punishing Dissent, Silencing Citizens (May 2008).
6. SPT, Desperately Seeking Sanity (July 2008). Available from http://www.solidaritypeacetrust.org
7. There were no political murders in Matabeleland during 2008, in sharp contrast to most of the rest of Zimbabwe. While several thousand civilians were hospitalised in rural Mashonaland during 2008 for torture and assault injuries, a few score experienced similar violence in Matabeleland. However, hundreds of injured people from other provinces sought refuge in Matabeleland during the height of the violence, and were treated in Bulawayo.
8. In terms of the Unity Accord of 1987, Zapu ceased to exist and became incorporated into ZANU-PF, but the uneasiness of this coalition became very apparent in 2008, when Zapu announced its breakaway followed by its re-establishment as a separate political entity.
9. SPT, Desperately Seeking Sanity (July 2008) details the year's violence, which resulted in several thousand torture and assault cases and over 200 deaths, predominantly in rural Mashonaland, and with ZANU-PF and JOC (Joint Operational Command) implicated in over 90 per cent of these. By comparison, in Matabeleland there have been a few serious assaults and no political deaths.
10. Conversation with an ex-ZIPRA cadre involved in the resurrection of Zapu, November 2008, Bulawayo.
11. JOC consists of the army generals that head the National Army, Air Force, Police, CIO and Prisons: they masterminded the violence of 2008, and remain opposed to the GPA. So far they have failed to salute the new Prime Minister or to accept that JOC has been disbanded in terms of the GPA.
12. See SPT, Punishing Dissent, Silencing Citizens (May 2008) for a detailed account of the process by which the rural strategy of violence was set up.
13. Numerous interviews July to October 2008 with both ZANU-PF and MDC victims and perpetrators.
14. The 'dinner plate' is not the only route in to the very complex conflicts in Gomoza. For example, Peter is also dealing with the case of a man whose worst humiliation was being forced to put on a length of fabric covered with Mugabe's portrait, and then to shout ZANU-PF slogans and dance while people laughed at him. He has sought help from a traditional healer to deal with the resulting insomnia and anxiety, at great expense, and he wants these bills to be paid in compensation - but that is another long story.
15. See J. Alexander, J. McGregor and T. Ranger, Violence and Memory: A Hundred Years in the 'Dark Forests' of Matabeleland (Oxford, James Currey, 2000).
16. The Grain Marketing Board is the parastatal that has a monopoly on sales of maize throughout Zimbabwe.
17. During the 2002 Presidential election campaign, Mugabe famously announced that he has 'degrees in violence'.
18. There have been three internal commissions of inquiry into MDC violence, in 2001, 2004 and 2005.
19. These are all cases that the SPT network have dealt with over the years, and each provides fascinating insight into rural belief systems, personal perceptions of violence and self, and styles of local story telling. Each of these cases is a long story in its own right.