APCJ_1528_Win2010_00i_122_4 12/30/10 3:22 PM Page 109 How Tree of Life Is Taking Root in Zimbabwe 109 hold council. Tree of Life can thus be said to be a process that does not seek to contest or compete with traditional modes of interaction. This aspect of complementing traditional modes of communication is illustrated in an experience I had with local Shona and Ndebele Tree of Life members in relation to their totems. A child is always given his or her father’s totem, which usually refers to an animal emblematic of their clan and represents their bond with the family group. It is natural to inquire about a person’s totem; it helps people map possible family linkages and relative status to one another (as in being equivalent to a brother or a mother, for example) and thus what measure of respect or deference is appropriate. One important dimension of the totem tradition is that it constitutes a conflict management mechanism: it would be unthinkable for a son to challenge his father or someone who is the equivalent of his father; the prospect of damaging such a bond can deter people from resorting to violence or confrontation and encourage them instead to seek ways of resolving differences that will protect the relationship. One of the Tree of Life facilitators commented that discovering one another’s totems frequently plays a role in connecting participants in a workshop in unexpected ways. This has the positive effect of an icebreaker, linking people in a meaningful context that is distinct from their common experience of violence and trauma and validating the way in which the facilitators speak of the extended Tree of Life family. Indeed, when participants introduced themselves in the circle in a branch meeting, a number of people took note of each other’s totems and when their turn came expressed happiness at having discovered new relationships. They remarked, ‘I have a brother in the circle’, ‘I have a daughter’, and ‘I have a mother here today’. Communication to Manage Expectations In June 2010, I accompanied members of the Small Tree of Life to a sprawling highdensity suburb on the outskirts of Harare. Home to almost 400,000 people, the area’s infrastructure is notoriously poor: the roads are badly eroded and the provision of electricity, clean running water, and sanitation is almost non-existent. It is the sort of environment where one might want to arrive with an aid lorry, loaded with sacks of mealie meal, bottles of cooking oil, and drums of water or anything else that might ease the hardships faced by the families there. The Small Tree of Life arrived in a small pick-up truck crammed not with aid supplies, but with three facilitators and two curious researchers. It appeared as though we had arrived empty-handed. A member of the local branch of the Big Tree of Life greeted us and invited us into his home. There were twelve of us in all sitting in a circle in his living room. We passed around a smooth, stone talking piece for making introductions, and the local members outlined the complex issues weighing upon the suburb’s residents. They explained that recent election-related eruptions of organized violence and torture had occurred against a backdrop of historical tensions and rivalries within and between local communities and had further exploited and exacerbated these divisions. One major contested issue is that of ‘belonging’ in the area: waves of settlers had come to call the area home, ranging from the ‘originals’, who had established roots there in the early 1900s to various influxes of relative ‘newcomers’ in the 1970s and 1980s. Residents’ claim to housing and land is highly contested. In addition, most ‘local’ MPs do not even live in the area and do not understand or perhaps care about the community’s issues.