Can spirits play a role in peace and reconciliation projects? Perspectives on traditional reconciliation in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

There is a long history of spirit-oriented systems of reconciliation and healing in Zimbabwe. However, under white rule, this work was marginalised and driven underground. In Zimbabwe today, diverse views on reconciliation, reparation, justice and national healing are producing rich but frequently conflicted initiatives around ‘traditional’ and ‘community’ reconciliation. The article considers contradictions and pressures facing the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission and different approaches to ‘spirit-led’ trauma healing work from three grassroots organisations: Heal Zimbabwe; Tree of Life; and the Centre for Conflict Management and Transformation. It indicates how religious, cultural and political affiliations influence participants’ openness to traditional and spirit-led forms of reconciliation; and how this, in turn, constrains how perpetrators, victims and reparation are defined by those working in this field. Rather than identifying specific practices as ‘authentic’ traditions, the article suggests that a continuity of community/cultural approaches can inform contemporary national healing initiatives in Zimbabwe.

KEYWORDS:

• Zimbabwe
• peace-making
• spirit beliefs
• reconciliation
• intangible cultural heritage

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Note on contributor

Diana Jeater is an historian, Emeritus Professor of African History at University of the West of England, Bristol and Associate Dean Education in the School of Histories, Languages and Cultures at the University of Liverpool, UK. She has published extensively on Zimbabwean history over the past thirty years and is currently working on a project entitled ‘Spirits of Peace: Recovering Zimbabwe's Heritage of Traditional Reconciliation Systems for Today's Peacemakers’, funded by the British Academy's GCRF programme, ‘Heritage, Dignity & Violence’. She can be contacted at: [email protected]

Notes

1 All archival reference numbers are to the National Archives of Zimbabwe.

2 Native Commissioner (NC) Gutu to Superintendent of Natives (SN) Victoria, 20 March 1915, N3/14/5.

3 Rex v Ndiriwenyu, 26 June 1900, D3/1/1.

4 7 April 1881. Diaries of the Jesuit Missionaries at Bulawayo, 1879–1881, Publication no. 4 of the Rhodesiana Society, Salisbury, 1959.

5 With the caveat that sometimes witches could harness the power of ngozi for their own ends.

6 Of course, there were many divisions within the white community regarding what they actually meant by ‘civilisation’ (See Jeater 1993, 35–63).

7 NC Melsetter to Chief Native Commissioner (CNC), 31 August 1897. NUE2/1/1: 6.

8 R v Nguta, case 31/1896, 8 December 1896, D3/3/1.

9 R v Munrirwa, case 85/1900, 23 November 1900, D3/1/1.

10 Matanudzi v Tshimata, 12 July 1909, NVC 3/1/1. Cases with similarly-worded caveats from Melsetter include Ngochini v Makoso, 26th January 1911, S1069: 203; Bowerimwe v Chikukwa, 20 October 1911, S1069: 304.

11 For example, NC Melsetter Monthly Report, 31 December 1900, NUE 2/1/3: 499; Complaint of Tshitekero, 13 August 1907, NVC 3/1/1: 189; Complaint of Mungukwai, 19th January 1910, NVC 3/1/1: 372; M’tewa v Magwekana, 16 April 1914, S1069/2: 83

12 R v Chiyanyu, PE194/51, 30 July 1951 with R v Dzingai, PE333/51, 26 June 1951, both in S2006; R v Kisi, PE 231/51, 31 August 1951, S2006; R v Zaba, case 113/1956, 5 April 1956, S3216/17, with R v Arthur Lantern aka Nkosana, 14 February 1956 and R v Joe, Kapenda & Marakana, 8th February 1956, S3216/10 and 9.

13 Try putting ‘Peacebuilding Tools’ into your favourite search engine.

14 Chipinge is a district in the far south east of Zimbabwe, associated with high concentrations of traditional healers (partly a legacy of a charismatic chiefship linked to a powerful tree shrine there, and partly a legacy of its sharing a border with Mozambique, where traditional healers could live beyond the Southern Rhodesian criminal law but not lose touch with their client base within the territory). Domboshawa is the closest rural communal area to Harare. Belgravia is a district of Harare where many of the embassies, international NGOs and think-tanks are based. The sharing of the name with a district in London associated with extreme wealth, foreign expats and conspicuous consumption is not inappropriate.

15 https://medium.com/undpzimbabwe/building-lasting-peace-one-block-at-a-time-4c307d401f80, accessed 7 Aug 2019.