Theorising reconciliation and national healing in Zimbabwe

This chapter argues that people act on the basis of how they conceive of a situation. It also argues that alongside reconciliation and healing must be a democratization process because the two safeguard the existence of the other. In transitional power-sharing governments, as was the case in Zimbabwe from 2009 to 2013, the former power holder remains in government, as did the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front government. In 1985 a Zimbabwe commission of inquiry known as the Chihambakwe Commission was set up to investigate governmental repression of “dissidents” in Matabeleland and Midlands Provinces. In Zimbabwe the dominant view of reconciliation has been based on forgiveness and until this conception is reformed or reconstituted, reconciliation and healing will remain shallow and elusive. In Zimbabwe reconciliation should be seen as a process aimed at restoring social and political trust through attitudinal and institutional reform. The social dimension addresses broken relationships between individuals and communities