Gukurahundi in Zimbabwe: An Epistemicide and Genocide

Abstract

Summary That in political conflict and war the truth becomes a casualty that is sacrificed on the altar of expediency is an observation that is traceable to the ancient Greek tragedian, Aeschylus. It is no accident that it had to be a student of tragedy and the workings of evil who noted how truth and knowledge are the first to be murdered before individuals and populations of human beings are slaughtered in armed operations by those that seek to conquer, dominate and rule others by hook or by crook. The Gukurahundi Genocide of 1983 to 1987 in Zimbabwe began with the desire by Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) political party for oneparty state rule under a life presidency. For that dark goal to be achieved the political opposition in shape of the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) had to be eliminated. All manner of political constructions, naming and labelling were conducted to create the conditions for and justification of an armed operation against ZAPU and its leader, Joshua Nkomo. The political and human identities of those that had to be eliminated were changed to enemies, dissidents, snakes and chaff itself. On the Gukurahundi Genocide, scholars have prevalently dwelt on controversies surrounding the numbers of the dead and the enduring effects of the killings. This article is a consideration of the assassinations of the truth and knowledge, the epistemicide, which preceded, accompanied and followed the Gukurahundi Genocide. Truth and knowledge die before, during and after genocide.