Anthony Reeler lethal. The ‘pungwes’ that brought the people together in solidarity of purpose and action were also the courts of the liberation movements. Rightly or wrongly, you might be accused of being a ‘sell-out’ and sentenced to punishment. You might be given a ‘thorough beating’, which might make you unconscious, break your bones, cause enormous pain, and possibly leave you handicapped for life: there were no easily available medical facilities for anyone during the latter years of the war. You might also have seen someone executed, sometimes by beating but also by cutting, burning, hanging and even stoning. These public executions have left many with the most horrible memories of the Liberation War. In fact, torture was such a common event that, nearly two decades later, you could see the victims with relative ease in every rural clinic and outpatient department in Zimbabwe. Epidemiological studies have shown that about one in ten adults over thirty years of age in a Mashonaland clinic had been tortured or experienced organized violence.9 They generally had chronic depression or other such disorders, often had accompanying physical disability – bad back pains were frequent – and were poorer than their neighbours, with a range of accompanying other socio-economic handicaps.10 It didn’t really make much difference who got you: the prognosis for you was not wonderful, and the past decades have probably not been wonderful either. You might now be a bit philosophical about your life, and even proud that you contributed to the freedom struggle. You will not be philosophical about your ‘undead’ relatives and friends: all those buried in mass graves in foreign countries – but also all those that ‘disappeared’. Families remain deeply traumatized by these disappeared relatives, and many are dealing with the ghosts that haunt their families and cause continued problems and illnesses. Certainly, you know about the heroism of all your ordinary relatives, friends and neighbours. Many survivors are accepting and empowered in themselves but nonetheless handicapped in some way. For many current survivors, the economic liberalization programme of the Zimbabwe government and the later economic collapse brought exceptional challenges to their coping. At this point, it is pertinent to note that you might have just had your second experience with organized violence and torture. 9  A. P. Reeler, P. Mbape, J. Matshona, J. Mhetura and E. Hlatywayo, ‘The prevalence and nature of disorders due to torture in Mashonaland Central province, Zimbabwe’, Torture (1998), 11, 4–9. 10  See A. P. Reeler and J. Mhetura, ‘The psychosocial effects of organised violence and torture: A pilot study comparing survivors and their neighbours in Zimbabwe’, Journal of Social Development in Africa (2000), 15: 137–69. 34 International Conference on Transitional Justice, Zimbabwe