Theatre as grieving: a theatrical response to the Matabeleland and Midlands disturbances of the 1980s (A.K.A. Gukurahundi) in Zimbabwe.
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Date
2023
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Abstract
This research explores devised theatre, in the form of Popular Participatory Theatre (PPT) as a way of
encouraging the victims and survivors of the Gukurahundi and their community members to speak out
on this issue to create what I term a langalezo experience, which is a grieving experience as envisioned
in the Ndebele culture. As a strategy to dismantle the Patriotic Front – Zimbabwe African People’s Union
(PF ZAPU) and to address the dissident problem, the newly elected Zimbabwe African National Union–
Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) government deployed the 5 Brigade in the Midlands and Matabeleland
provinces, resulting in the massacre of about 20,000 unarmed civilians in what has become known as
the Gukurahundi. The atrocities started in 1983 and ended with the signing of the Unity Accord in 1987.
Following this violence, the government muted dialogue around the issue. The silencing of public
discussions on the Gukurahundi by the government has blocked the grieving process of the victims and
their children. To explore ways of speaking about this issue and of aiding the grieving process for the
second-generation sufferers (and by extension the first-generation sufferers), I worked with a group of
young people from Bulawayo to collectively devise and stage theatre on this emotive subject. Speak Out!
Phase one and two plays were created and performed in Bulawayo, followed by post-performance
discussions. Decolonial theory (Mignolo and Vazquez 2013; Mignolo 2018; Gaztambide-Fernández
2014; Quijano 2000, 2007; Ndlovu-Gatsheni 2013a, 2013b), Postcolonial Feminist theories (Mohanty
1988; 2003; hooks 1989; Spivak 1988), Popular Memory (Dawson 2015) and the concept of the
Generation of Postmemory (Hirsch 2008) were used to frame the research as part of a body of artistic
research that engages the African context in the era of so-called ‘liberation’. This qualitative research
deployed Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a methodology within the emancipatory paradigm
because of its emphasis on doing research with the people and not simply for the people. Since the study
was participatory and carried out with participants from my cultural and linguistic community, I also used
autoethnography (Cresswell 2013) and community autoethnography (Toyosaki et al. 2009) as part of the
methodology within the interpretive paradigm.
Findings of the research show that while the Gukurahundi ended in 1987, its effects have continued to
exist in the form of difficulties for victims to obtain identity documents, economic problems, fractured
families and trauma for the victims, and unhealed psychological wounds, among others. The study
reveals that victims of the atrocities are frustrated that their pain and suffering are not publicly
acknowledged and public discussions of the issue are being silenced. For closure and healing of
emotional and psychological wounds of the Gukurahundi to take place, people should be free to talk
about this issue and to grieve the way they want. I argue that PPT is rich with the potential to create
democratic spaces that can give a platform for telling stories of pain and suffering that have been
marginalised. I observe that techniques such as improvisation, storytelling, and the use of songs, when
deployed during the devising process, assisted in creating a social and aesthetic space to speak about
the Gukurahundi issues, creating a potential for helping those who are grieving. I conclude that
participating in the processes of this research (interviews, focus group discussions, devising and staging
theatre and post-performance discussions) encouraged the participants and audience members to speak
out on the Gukurahundi, a move that presents a potential for aiding grieving and also documenting and
archiving stories of the atrocities. The research shows that though fear is still present, survivors are willing
to speak up and desire to see the Gukurahundi issue being addressed. Closure is necessary for the sake
of the victims and the sake of unity, peace, and progress in Zimbabwe as a country.
Description
Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.