Rereading the Politics of Reconciliation and Nation Building: Zimbabwe: The Zimbabwean Peace Architecture

Abstract

 Reconciliation is the restoration of trust in a relationship, where trust had been violated, sometimes repeatedly. It involves not just forgiveness but many other ways of promoting peace and justice. As both a process and goal, its power must be cultivated and nurtured. In the most fragile of circumstances, reconciliation calls adversaries to create common ground in the midst of bitter memory and ongoing conflict. Zimbabwe is a nation whose last one hundred years of history and policy stands as an example of how to ensure that truth and peace do not prevail. It has been a chronically violent state before colonialism, during colonialism and after Independence in 1980. It is a nation with a poor tolerance of political diversity and a leadership that is committed to never leaving power voluntarily. Political repression has been compounded throughout the decades by a pattern of unjust laws and impunity for perpetrators. Due to politics of repression, a culture of impunity, silence and deep sense of fear and lack of trust among citizens, the government has not been committed to initiate mechanisms to deal with histories of gross violations of human rights. The new government has set up a commission for national peace and reconciliation but citizens are sceptical about its composition and legitimacy. The conclusion of this paper is that there is need to reinstitute a broad-based body led by the church and through consultations develop a reconciliation framework taking into account the various transitional justice mechanisms.