Representations of Matabeleland and Midlands disturbances through the documentary film Gukurahundi: A Moment of Madness (2007)

Abstract

In the post-independent Zimbabwe, to mention the word ‘Gukurahundi’ is to make a reference to a taboo subject matter. The word ‘Gukurahundi’ invokes profound and bitter memories, torture and murder of more than 20,000 people – mostly of Ndebele origin, in Matabeleland and parts of Midlands. The killings were carried out between 1982 and 1987 by North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade that operated under the auspices of the new government. Gukurahundi: A Moment of Madness (2007) produced by Zenzele Ndebele is a documentary film that memorialises and tells harrowing stories of torture and murder during the times of Gukurahundi. This documentary is also a counter-narrative to monolithic explanations to Gukurahundi atrocities. There is a species of writing that is so narrow that the writing collapses everything to do with the killings to a Shona versus Ndebele dichotomy. In its limitedness, the writing insinuates that all Shona people were involved, and therefore should be made to account...