A marching brass band, a troupe of skydivers and colorful mass displays set a celebratory tone for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s independence address to the people of Zimbabwe. For the first time since independence in 1980, the celebrations were held outside the capital, Harare, in a bid to be inclusive. But Monday’s venue was in an area where a bloodied past stalks the dry landscape and dilapidated industries are the remnants of a once-thriving industrial hub.
Under the theme, “no one and no place shall be left behind,” Zimbabwe marked 42 years of liberation from colonial rule, but for some sovereignty is overshadowed by more than four decades of political strife and economic hardship. Memories of these linger on in Silobela, a rural district in the nearby Midlands province, only 180km away from the fanfare at Barbourfields Stadium in the second southern city of Bulawayo. A pile of brick rubble, chipped cement and a missing plaque reminded Lizwe Mnkandla, now 45, of the disappearance of his grandfather on the night of 31 January 1985.
Mbulali Mnkandla was 76 the night he disappeared from his home, accused of being part of armed dissidents trying to overthrow the newly independent state then led by the late Robert Mugabe. The younger Mnkandla, said his grandfather, a rural farmer, was “just an ordinary man,” but he and 11 other men were rounded up and taken to a secret military base. Their fate remains unknown. The Silobela 12, as they are known, were one group among thousands of civilians abducted and disappeared between 1983 and 1987 in a killing spree targeting the Ndebele minority group in the southern Matabeleland and central Midlands provinces.
Up to 20,000 people are estimated to have died during the crackdown. The late Mugabe described the bloodletting, known locally as “Gukurahundi,” or “a moment of madness.”
Mnangagwa, who was in charge of state security during Gukurahundi, has acknowledged the atrocities by appointing commissioners to the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission to deal with past violations.
However, his efforts have often been criticized. As the man in charge of intelligence and security services during Gukurahundi, he has been viewed as responsible.
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