HEAL ZIMBABWE - BASELINE STUDY REPORT Protesters gathering behind an army cordon on the road leading to State House, 2017. Source: Ben Curtis a)Pre-Independence Violence (First and Second Chimurenga 1886 -1979) Zimbabwe’s pre-independence conflict has a narrative consisting of (a) Zimbabwean tribal wars involving Ndebele and Shona societies (b) the Zimbabwean natives facing colonial brutality and (c) the black liberation movements fighting the colonial liberation front, but also conflict among themselves. The pre-colonial tribal conflicts were never addressed such that the: The colonial regime, on the other hand, installed a brutal governance system that created systematic dispossession of land and wealth accumulation by the whites and, impoverishment among the blacks. The white minority exploited natural resources and governed the blacks as slaves until 1979. The locals resisted the colonial regime through various means, most discernibly, through the first and second Chimurenga leading to more than 30 000 lives being lost and many more unaccounted for. 4 Shona-speaking people continue to harbour a grievance against the descendants of the precolonial Ndebele-speaking people. Ndebele raids continue to be counted as a historic grievance. Even the Fifth Brigade atrocities were justified in some quarters as vengeance for what the Ndebele did in the 19th century. But such an approach to conflict resolution creates unending cycles of perpetrators and victims, and possesses the potential to seriously hinder every effort at nationbuilding.³ “The word Chimurenga refers to war or the struggle against any form of tyranny.”5 According to Dawson (2011) the first Chimurenga was predominantly a tribal conflict while the second Chimurenga was an anti-colonial struggle.6 Although the second Chimurenga was largely an anti-colonial struggle, the Gatsheni, S. N., & Benyera, E. (2015).Towards a framework for resolving the justice and reconciliation question in Zimbabwe. African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 15(2), 9-33. 4 Elkins, C., & Pedersen, S. (Eds.). (2005). Settler colonialism in the twentieth century: Projects, practices, legacies. Routledge, New York. 5 Vambe, M. T. (2004). Versions and sub-versions: Trends in Chimurenga musical discourses of post-independence Zimbabwe. African Study Monographs , 25(4): 167-193 6Dawson, S. (2011). The First Chimurenga: 1896-1897 Uprising in Matabeleland and Mashonaland and the Continued Conflicts in Academia. Constellations, 2(2), 144-153. 3 3