acrimony and government has usually intervened forcing the victims’ family to bury the dead relative. 7(v) Botso (Self shaming) Botso is an institution that is used in intra-family wrongdoings, usually when a child abuses a parent. There are a number of cases where young men and women rebuked their parents or abused their parents when they tried to stop them from engaging in politically motivated violence or being conscripted into political gangs. As a transitional justice mechanism, botso works in that it allows the whole community to know the truth as the process involves the perpetrator wandering around the community telling every person he or she meets the wrongs that they committed. In the process of roaming the villages the perpetrator collects an assortment of grains to be used for brewing beer for his/her cleansing ceremony. This practice is not widespread as cases of intra- family violence are usually solved at the family level without escalating the matter to the spiritual or ‘living dead’ level18. 7(vi) Chenura (Cleansing Ceremonies) This is a set of cleansing ceremonies undertaken to appease the land after the commission of a crime such as murder. Zimbabwean people believe that such crimes defile the land, angers ancestors and lead them to withdraw blessings, chief among them rain and peace. Only after the land would have been cleansed would peace, rain and other blessings return to the land. Once the family and community-based rituals of nyaradzo and kurova guva have been performed, the healing process in rural areas usually takes on a grander dimension in which the land is cleansed of spilt blood, made holy and ready to receive the blessings of rain and bumper harvests. The traditional leaders preside over the cleansing ceremonies. The offender provides 18 Ibid Benyera 13

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