Site Visits: Memory and Community Healing (hosted by Ukuthula Trust and Ibhetshu LikaZulu) Day 2 of the NTJWG Conference being in Bulawayo began with participants visiting different historical sites and heritage centres which depict Zimbabwe’s conflict history and community healing practices. Visited places include; the Entumbane Reintegration Camps sites, the Queen of Peace Roman Catholic Church and Amagugu International Heritage Centre. In order to fully appreciate the experiences of the victims and survivors of conflict, witness stories by victims and survivors of the Gukurahundi atrocities were narrated. Reflections were also shared by different practitioners who are working with communities to overcome their lived trauma and while implementing different community level transitional justice mechanisms. Site Visits: From Sites of Atrocities to springs of Healing Entumbane Reintegration Camps Participants visited Entumbane community, a site where uprisings between the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) and Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) forces started fighting while they were in reintegration camps (known as assembly points). A former ZIPRA War Veteran (name withheld) took the participants through the reintegration camps spaces and narrated their experiences. It was learnt that Enos Nkala’s address to ZANU PF supporters at a rally held at White City Stadium could have prompted the uprisings. Mistrust and political tempers had been flaring between ZAPU and ZANU forces in the camps, but on the day in question Nkala allegedly told rally participants that they should establish vigilante groups to defend themselves against possible ZAPU mutinies. The following day after his address is when gunfire started in the camps. It was also noted that; • • There were 4 reintegration camps in Entumbane; Camp 1 and 3 were occupied by ZIPRA forces, Camp 2 was occupied by ZANLA forces while Camp 4 was hosting the Rhodesian Front forces. The reintegration camps are, however, not easily identifiable as the residential places have been upgraded and marks of the gun shootings are no longer visible. The participants also visited The Queen of Peace Roma Catholic Church. The church was built at the height of the Gukurahundi conflict. The church’s uniqueness is that it houses memories of the Gukurahundi and pictures showing R.G Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo agreeing to turn their weapons into ploughshares with the help of the late Archbishop Karlel and Pop John Paul II. Unfortunately, the picture, which has been visible to visitors since 1985, has since been concealed from the public using a curtain. The current Archbishop supposedly covered it from the public because the people of Matabeleland are not happy with the Unity Accord because it did not address their grievances. The Unity Accord is the agreement signed by ZANU PF and ZAPU to end the Gukurahundi atrocities. Telling Painful Stories: Memories never die (Amagugu Heritage Site) Numerous experiences of violence during the Gukurahundi were narrated with reflections on the future of healing and reconciliation processes. Phathisa Nyathi began by welcoming participants at Amagugu International Heritage Site followed by an eyewitness story of a mother who lost his siblings during the Gukurahundi atrocities. She recounted that her sibling was killed on February 18, 1984 when soldiers came to their home area ad mobilised men and school kids to a site where they would be victimised. The soldiers’ vehicle carrying her sibling and other school kids, however, crushed before reaching the site and several kids died. Her family was later forced to bury the body 2

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