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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Healing the Wounds of War: Memories of Violence and the Making of History in Zimbabwe's Most Recent Past
Author:Schmidt, Heike
Year:1997
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:23
Issue:2
Period:June
Pages:301-310
Language:English
Geographic term:Zimbabwe
Subjects:African religions
faith healing
national liberation struggles
History and Exploration
nationalism
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Religion and Witchcraft
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637623
Abstract:In the early 1990s healing became a critical discourse in Zimbabwe's border areas with Mozambique. Many of the healing cases which arose in 1992 and 1993 were related to experiences of violence during the Second Chimurenga, Zimbabwe's war of liberation (1972-1980). How does a society less than two decades after a liberation war which involved large sections of the population come to terms with the memories of violence and war? Since its independence Zimbabwe has been a prime example of successful reconciliation. Terence Ranger has argued that spiritual healing has contributed importantly in coming to terms with the trauma of war through turning violence into history. The present paper argues that an analysis of the intersections between memories of violence, healing, and history reveals a twofold process. Social healing is made possible by a shift from conviction and compensation to revealing without convicting. At the same time healing provides an arena for communities in which competing memories of violence are renegotiated. Through these processes sense is being made of the past; history is being made. The paper is based on a case study of a valley situated on the Zimbabwean side of the border with Mozambique in Mutasa District, Manicaland Province. Notes, ref., sum.
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