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IN a country emerging from a conflict situation there is need to address the situation through a process of transitional justice. According to the International Centre for Transitional Justice, “Transitional justice is a response to systematic or widespread violations of human rights.
It seeks recognition for victims and to promote possibilities for peace, reconciliation and democracy. Transitional justice is not a special form of justice but justice adapted to societies transforming themselves after a period of pervasive human rights abuse.”
The following factors may be a few prerequisites to the national healing process.
The process must be taken with utmost respect, seriousness and sincerity it deserves.
Those in the leadership must be women and men of very high social standing. Preferably drawn from faith-based organisations or other traditionally respected institutions, but definitely not politicians. This is because the issue of forgiveness, national healing, and ultimate transitioning in such a situation touches the core of humanity; ie, the SOUL. It is my contention that the essence of forgiveness as a ‘faith and belief’ related process is religious in its nature. It touches the essence of being and is linked to the very fact that the major scar that requires healing is not a physical one, but that of the soul and heart which affects the national psyche.
It must always be noted that this is a very delicate process whereby different groups in society negotiate and engage in conversations with history to cause; forgiveness, healing, transitioning and progress. Please note, that in this process, current generations are engaged in negotiations on historical differences of similarities, with deeper experience of time. Time here is the narrative construction of temporality which underlies and accompanies different historical events necessitating the process of transitional justice.
Those spearheading it must first conduct a deep-seated research on the general exercise they are embarked on. Further, the commission dealing with it must be people from Matebeleland, mostly, with a few people from Mashonaland, as you would know that generally the Gukurahundi genocide is considered to have been an ethnically orchestrated process.
There must be no denial of Gukurahundi genocide in the process, and no attempt must be made by anyone, whether in the media or civil society to try and reconceptualise it in a manner that may injure the feelings of victims and survivors because that can easily render the process useless.
There is need to have a pool of advisors from different backgrounds; it is here that the role of social scientists and various opinion makers becomes necessary.
There is need for a conference that will seek to cause an interlock of both the conceptual engagement of the process, its genesis and envisioned outcomes. The latter must not be tinkered with by politicians, it must only be prepared to serve as the compass for use when the process is underway. It is here that history gains centre stage. History, as a philosophy of verifications requires deep-seated engagement, and must not be distorted as we have often seen in Zimbabwe, whereby the history of the Ndebele, for example, continues to be distorted over the years by some Zanu PF historians; the likes of Nhandara, Chigwedere, etc, and is even taught in schools. Of late, the same Zanu PF created history about the Ndebele seems to have found a buyer in the person of Mrs Sekai Holland, one of the ministers entrusted with the duty to cause national healing and integration.
Since we have agreed that transitional justice is an endless process, there is need for a revision of the school curriculum with a view to help new generations and posterity in their quest to converse with history.
Given that after Gukurahundi genocide, its physical form, the people of Matebeleland have continued to be marginalised, there is a need for a new order in which various systems will be put in place to ensure that years of neglect are paid for by the state.
nDr Brilliant Mhlanga is an academic and human rights activist. He is currently based at the University of Westminster in London, UK.
BRILLIANT MHLANGA
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