A documentary on the 1980s Gukurahundi atrocities in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces which has been circulating in neighbouring countries since its launch last year will be finally introduced to local audiences at the end of next month, its producer said last week.
Gukurahundi: A Moment of Madness, produced by Zenzele Ndebele who is a human rights activist, was the highlight of a Gaborone film festival organised by the Botswana Centre for Human Rights (Ditshwanelo) in March.
The Botswana debut followed its launch in South Africa in November last year after Ndebele said he feared harassment by state security agents if he showcased it locally.
But Ndebele said the recent signing of a power-sharing agreement between the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) provided an opportunity to bring "the documentary home".
The agreement signed on September 15, paving the way for the formation of a government of national unity, calls for the parties to respect freedom of expression.
"We have received a lot of enquiries from Zimbabweans interested in the documentary but because of the political situation in the country at that time, we were not able to launch it here," he said. "Now that the protagonists in the political crisis have agreed to put aside their differences, we hope we can now be able to distribute it more openly and satisfy the demand."
"The film will now be officially launched in Bulawayo on October 31 and those who have been patiently waiting for its release can be assured of a much better product than the one launched in South Africa."
He said the documentary that was originally 25 minutes long had now been stretched to 45 minutes after he interviewed former "dissidents", some Gukurahundi victims and former PF Zapu officials.
"We had some interesting interviews with people like the infamous "dissident" Tennyson "Thambolenyoka" Ndlovu and survivors of the atrocities who gave chilling accounts of what took place," Ndebele said.
Gukurahundi is a Shona term that refers to the wet season’s first rains that wash away all the chaff, and was the name given to an army unit deployed in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces to fight an insurgency in the western part of the country soon after independence.
The soldiers were accused of committing atrocities against the then opposition PF Zapu supporters in the two provinces. Human rights groups estimate that over 20 000 people were killed during the campaign.
In 1999, President Robert Mugabe referred to the atrocities as a "moment of madness" but that was the closest he came to apologising. Debate on the atrocities has been stifled by pervasive fear among Zimbabweans who risk being hauled before the courts under draconian media and security laws.
"Everybody here knows someone who was affected by Gukurahundi," says Ndebele. "But it was very, very hard to find anyone who would open up. Of those who agreed to talk, several changed their minds afterwards — they would call and ask me not to include them in the footage.
However, the second shooting done after the June 27 presidential election run-off was less challenging because survivors were opening up, he said.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Be Our Guest
Be Our Guest
Our Chief Reporter (CR) talks to film producer Zenzele Ndebele (ZN), the producer of “Gukurahundi: A Moment of Madness,” a controversial movie on the 1980s army atrocities in Zimbabwe’s southern regions.
CR: What prompted you to produce this documentary?
ZN: I realized that its one issue that people have forgotten. If you are to have a society where there is social cohesion there is need to talk about that. There are a lot of people who still have scars, people who were arrested, beaten up, and handicapped. There is need to counsel them or compensate them for the loss.
CR: What problems did you come across while shooting the documentary?
ZN: Fear. People don’t want to talk about Gukurahundi. I have met people with one arm, with no lips, with one leg, paralysed, people with seven holes on their bodies made by bayonets. I met people with 10, 15 bullet wounds. And these people don’t want to talk about it.
CR: Why?
ZN: They think you have been sent by the State to investigate them, or interrogate them. There is also no documentation, no footage of soldiers beating up people, even in the archives. Some people have migrated, others have died. And former Zapu stalwarts have now joined Zanu. And they don’t want to talk about it. Yet, they were the people who were imprisoned, beaten up and they tell you, aah, its has passed and we resolved it.
CR: So how long did it take you to produce the documentary?
ZN: I started working on the documentary in January and...
CR: January 2007?
ZN: Yes January 2007. So it took me 10 months to complete the documentary.
CR: Was it a big budget movie?
ZN: No. I did the research, filming, directing and producing by myself with one or two people to help.
CR: I can also see there is soundtrack CD. Why?
ZN: The soundtrack is for those people without DVD players. The CD has some speeches that I thought people needed to know…
CR: Like President Mugabe calling the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo a “dissident father?”
ZN: Yes. The President saying Nkomo should be hanged. (Defence minister Sydney) Sekeremayi saying what’s the purpose of sending an army if people are not going to be killed. I want people to realize that the Zanu (PF) that was beating up (Morgan) Tsvangirai, harassing the opposition, is the same Zanu (PF) that harassed Nkomo in the same way or maybe worse, because at that time there was no media, no Internet.
CR: So will this movie ever be distributed in Zimbabwe?
ZN: I am definite and certain that one day the movie would be shown in Zimbabwe in the near future.
CR: Were you in any way affected by Gukurahundi?
ZN: There is no one in Matabeleland who was not affected by Gukurahundi. I have lots of relatives who were killed, burnt alive, others disappeared, others shot. I still remember the images vividly. I remember in 1985 I was in Grade 2 and soldiers would come to school…
CR: Where was this?
ZN: In Plumtree. So the soldiers would come to school and and ask us ukuthi ‘where are the dissidents?’ I still remember when I replied 'I don’t know' the soldier gave me a very good slap across my face.
CR: How callous!
ZN: Yes. And this was a six-year-old boy. The other soldiers would bring sweets or tinned beef. And during those days remember there was a curfew, people were starving. Enticed with a bit of food, some kids would spill the beans and tell the soldiers that the so-called dissidents slept at home last night, my father is a dissident, my brother is a dissident. And they would get information from a 5-year old, go to the home, pick up the father and kill him.
CR: Now 24 years after troops were deployed to Matabeleland, what do you think is the attitude here towards government?
ZN: The Ndebele people are angry, frustrated and they want justice. And there is no way this government is going to bury this thing or sweep it under the carpet. Remember the war vets were compensated, with some people claiming 99 percent disability. Why are people of Matabeleland not being compensated?
CR: So are you saying compensation would address this issue?
ZN: At least the compensation would help in showing that the government is concerned. But before the compensation, the truth has to be told somehow.
CR: But there has been no apology so far.
ZN: The only phrase we recall is Mugabe saying “it was a moment of madness.”
CR: Is this why you called the documentary “A Moment of Madness?”
ZN: Yes. But if a moment of madness can last for four years resulting in you killing 20,000 people, it can’t be a moment. People need to be told that we buried your relatives here. There are mine shafts where we know people were buried. Maybe some people were buried with their IDs and if they dig they would be able to identify them. And in our African culture, once someone has died we need to have what we call umbuyiso. But how do you buyisa someone when you don’t know where they are buried. This issue has to be solved because there are voices in the wilderness. There are cultural complications to this whole thing. You can’t just kill and stop there, it will affect you. So there is need of psychological healing.
CR: What’s your perception of the 1987 Unity Accord?
ZN: It was not an agreement between two parties at equal level. Nkomo was afraid the people would continue being killed. He had the likes of (Dumiso) Dabengwa and others in jail. And the conditions were that if you sign the Accord these guys would be out.
CR: But do you think the Accord has been successful in soothing tensions here?
ZN: For the Unity Accord to be successful there is need for Matabeleland to be compensated for loss of development. Remember when the soldiers were killing people here, in other parts of the country they were building boreholes, clinics, roads and schools. That's why you see students from Matabeleland can’t go to NUST. They don’t have science subjects because of a serious shortage of schools and laboratories here. We are 10 years behind in terms of development. Matabeleland is still poor. It is faced with problems of water shortages, unemployment and; generally, people feel they are marginalized and they have never voted for Zanu (PF). So the Unity Accord remains a joke.
First published bt the Zimbabwean newspaper
Our Chief Reporter (CR) talks to film producer Zenzele Ndebele (ZN), the producer of “Gukurahundi: A Moment of Madness,” a controversial movie on the 1980s army atrocities in Zimbabwe’s southern regions.
CR: What prompted you to produce this documentary?
ZN: I realized that its one issue that people have forgotten. If you are to have a society where there is social cohesion there is need to talk about that. There are a lot of people who still have scars, people who were arrested, beaten up, and handicapped. There is need to counsel them or compensate them for the loss.
CR: What problems did you come across while shooting the documentary?
ZN: Fear. People don’t want to talk about Gukurahundi. I have met people with one arm, with no lips, with one leg, paralysed, people with seven holes on their bodies made by bayonets. I met people with 10, 15 bullet wounds. And these people don’t want to talk about it.
CR: Why?
ZN: They think you have been sent by the State to investigate them, or interrogate them. There is also no documentation, no footage of soldiers beating up people, even in the archives. Some people have migrated, others have died. And former Zapu stalwarts have now joined Zanu. And they don’t want to talk about it. Yet, they were the people who were imprisoned, beaten up and they tell you, aah, its has passed and we resolved it.
CR: So how long did it take you to produce the documentary?
ZN: I started working on the documentary in January and...
CR: January 2007?
ZN: Yes January 2007. So it took me 10 months to complete the documentary.
CR: Was it a big budget movie?
ZN: No. I did the research, filming, directing and producing by myself with one or two people to help.
CR: I can also see there is soundtrack CD. Why?
ZN: The soundtrack is for those people without DVD players. The CD has some speeches that I thought people needed to know…
CR: Like President Mugabe calling the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo a “dissident father?”
ZN: Yes. The President saying Nkomo should be hanged. (Defence minister Sydney) Sekeremayi saying what’s the purpose of sending an army if people are not going to be killed. I want people to realize that the Zanu (PF) that was beating up (Morgan) Tsvangirai, harassing the opposition, is the same Zanu (PF) that harassed Nkomo in the same way or maybe worse, because at that time there was no media, no Internet.
CR: So will this movie ever be distributed in Zimbabwe?
ZN: I am definite and certain that one day the movie would be shown in Zimbabwe in the near future.
CR: Were you in any way affected by Gukurahundi?
ZN: There is no one in Matabeleland who was not affected by Gukurahundi. I have lots of relatives who were killed, burnt alive, others disappeared, others shot. I still remember the images vividly. I remember in 1985 I was in Grade 2 and soldiers would come to school…
CR: Where was this?
ZN: In Plumtree. So the soldiers would come to school and and ask us ukuthi ‘where are the dissidents?’ I still remember when I replied 'I don’t know' the soldier gave me a very good slap across my face.
CR: How callous!
ZN: Yes. And this was a six-year-old boy. The other soldiers would bring sweets or tinned beef. And during those days remember there was a curfew, people were starving. Enticed with a bit of food, some kids would spill the beans and tell the soldiers that the so-called dissidents slept at home last night, my father is a dissident, my brother is a dissident. And they would get information from a 5-year old, go to the home, pick up the father and kill him.
CR: Now 24 years after troops were deployed to Matabeleland, what do you think is the attitude here towards government?
ZN: The Ndebele people are angry, frustrated and they want justice. And there is no way this government is going to bury this thing or sweep it under the carpet. Remember the war vets were compensated, with some people claiming 99 percent disability. Why are people of Matabeleland not being compensated?
CR: So are you saying compensation would address this issue?
ZN: At least the compensation would help in showing that the government is concerned. But before the compensation, the truth has to be told somehow.
CR: But there has been no apology so far.
ZN: The only phrase we recall is Mugabe saying “it was a moment of madness.”
CR: Is this why you called the documentary “A Moment of Madness?”
ZN: Yes. But if a moment of madness can last for four years resulting in you killing 20,000 people, it can’t be a moment. People need to be told that we buried your relatives here. There are mine shafts where we know people were buried. Maybe some people were buried with their IDs and if they dig they would be able to identify them. And in our African culture, once someone has died we need to have what we call umbuyiso. But how do you buyisa someone when you don’t know where they are buried. This issue has to be solved because there are voices in the wilderness. There are cultural complications to this whole thing. You can’t just kill and stop there, it will affect you. So there is need of psychological healing.
CR: What’s your perception of the 1987 Unity Accord?
ZN: It was not an agreement between two parties at equal level. Nkomo was afraid the people would continue being killed. He had the likes of (Dumiso) Dabengwa and others in jail. And the conditions were that if you sign the Accord these guys would be out.
CR: But do you think the Accord has been successful in soothing tensions here?
ZN: For the Unity Accord to be successful there is need for Matabeleland to be compensated for loss of development. Remember when the soldiers were killing people here, in other parts of the country they were building boreholes, clinics, roads and schools. That's why you see students from Matabeleland can’t go to NUST. They don’t have science subjects because of a serious shortage of schools and laboratories here. We are 10 years behind in terms of development. Matabeleland is still poor. It is faced with problems of water shortages, unemployment and; generally, people feel they are marginalized and they have never voted for Zanu (PF). So the Unity Accord remains a joke.
First published bt the Zimbabwean newspaper
Gukurahundi a Moment of Madness
In January 1983 the ZANU PF government led by the then Primeminister of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe deployed the 5th brigade in Matebeleland known as Gukurahundi.They claimed that the 5th brigade was deployed to fight the dissidents. What followed from 1983-1986 were reports of innocent civillians being murded, raped, brutallised, burnt alive, detained without trial and their property destroyed. Villagers were left to starve to death after their crops were destroyed and curfew was imposed in most parts of Matebeland which restricted peolple fromleaving their homes.Despited overwhelming evidence that was produced by journalists, civic organisations and religious leaders the government of Robert Mugabe denied that solidiers were killing inocent cilivians. The government said it was the dissidents who were killing the civilians. The terror continued until the signing of the unity accord in 1987.It is estimated that over 20 000 people were killed and many more dissappeared.Property worth hudrends of thousands of dollars was destroyed and this included livestock which was shot dead by the soldiers.Hundrends of people were left disabled .The report of the commission which was set to investigate the actrocities was never made public.
The documentary
Gukurahundi a Moment of Madness is a 25 minute documentary which revisits this sad period and try to examnine why it happened.
The aim of the documentary is to break the taboo that no one should talk about gukurahundi and its effects on the people of Zimbabwe. Each time someone talks about gukurahundi, the person is labelled a tribalist by the government and is accussed of opening old wounds, but the fact is that the wounds are still fresh. The people still have a lot of unanswered questions.They wantto knowwahy a black government wanted to wipe them.There are a lot of people up to now who do not know happened to their relatives. In the African culture you can only be a peace when you have buried your relative and performed what we call Umbuyiso. (Bringing the spirit of the dead home)Many people in the affected areas can not perform these rituals because they do not know where their relatives are buried .The documentary also aims to prove that political violence in Zimbabwe did not start in 2000 but it dates back to the days of the liberation struggle. The argument in the documentary is that ZANU PF was always violent from its formation and what is happening now is just a continuation from where they left in 1987 after the unity accord and they have changed the strategy because now the world is a global village.
There is a lot of fear in Zimbabwe especially in Matebeleland and this can be attributed to gukurahundi. A lot of people no longer have confidence in the election system and there are afraid to support a candidate of their choice freely because they are afraid that they can be killed for that, like what happened in the early 80s.Many people were killed because theY supported PF ZAPU.The government is yet to apologised about what happened, and those who were affected are yet to be compansated for their loss.We need to know the whole truth of happened. The issue of tribalism in Zimbabwe can also be linked to gukurahundi.The Ndebele people do not trust the shona has peolple because they always see them as killers and they view the shona language as a language of oppression. There is need for people to be open about this issue so that there can be social cohesion and true nation buiding where the people of Zimbabwe see themselves as one nation.
The documentary questions why Mugabe created the 5th brigade and they are a number of issues that come up, first the fact that he wanted to create a one party state and Zapu was the stumbling block. Some people believe Mugabe wanted to revenge because the Ndebele used to raid the Shona people and take their cattle. There is another theory that Mugabe was bitter coz his father left them when they were young and went to Bulawayo to settle with Ndebele women. The theory also says Mugabe’s father is originally from Sudan. People interviwed in this documentary include Former minister Enos Nkala, Former Governor Welshman Mabhena, Historian Phathisa Nyathi, Sherry Appel of Amani Trust, Rtd Bishop Henry Karlen among other people. Wealso visited one of the mine shafts in Nkayi where it is alleged some of the victims were thrown in.
Resources permiting the documentary is going to be shown in film festivals in Sourthern Africa and beyond. We will also produce DVDs that will be distributed in the community as well as outside the country. A number of Uiversities in Africa have shown interst in the documentary beause they want to use it as resourse material in some of their courses.This can be another outlet for the DVD. Civic organisations who deal with human rights issues have also shown interest and some of them like the Botswana center of Human rights and a number of them in Kenya are already showing it in their communities.
The documentary
Gukurahundi a Moment of Madness is a 25 minute documentary which revisits this sad period and try to examnine why it happened.
The aim of the documentary is to break the taboo that no one should talk about gukurahundi and its effects on the people of Zimbabwe. Each time someone talks about gukurahundi, the person is labelled a tribalist by the government and is accussed of opening old wounds, but the fact is that the wounds are still fresh. The people still have a lot of unanswered questions.They wantto knowwahy a black government wanted to wipe them.There are a lot of people up to now who do not know happened to their relatives. In the African culture you can only be a peace when you have buried your relative and performed what we call Umbuyiso. (Bringing the spirit of the dead home)Many people in the affected areas can not perform these rituals because they do not know where their relatives are buried .The documentary also aims to prove that political violence in Zimbabwe did not start in 2000 but it dates back to the days of the liberation struggle. The argument in the documentary is that ZANU PF was always violent from its formation and what is happening now is just a continuation from where they left in 1987 after the unity accord and they have changed the strategy because now the world is a global village.
There is a lot of fear in Zimbabwe especially in Matebeleland and this can be attributed to gukurahundi. A lot of people no longer have confidence in the election system and there are afraid to support a candidate of their choice freely because they are afraid that they can be killed for that, like what happened in the early 80s.Many people were killed because theY supported PF ZAPU.The government is yet to apologised about what happened, and those who were affected are yet to be compansated for their loss.We need to know the whole truth of happened. The issue of tribalism in Zimbabwe can also be linked to gukurahundi.The Ndebele people do not trust the shona has peolple because they always see them as killers and they view the shona language as a language of oppression. There is need for people to be open about this issue so that there can be social cohesion and true nation buiding where the people of Zimbabwe see themselves as one nation.
The documentary questions why Mugabe created the 5th brigade and they are a number of issues that come up, first the fact that he wanted to create a one party state and Zapu was the stumbling block. Some people believe Mugabe wanted to revenge because the Ndebele used to raid the Shona people and take their cattle. There is another theory that Mugabe was bitter coz his father left them when they were young and went to Bulawayo to settle with Ndebele women. The theory also says Mugabe’s father is originally from Sudan. People interviwed in this documentary include Former minister Enos Nkala, Former Governor Welshman Mabhena, Historian Phathisa Nyathi, Sherry Appel of Amani Trust, Rtd Bishop Henry Karlen among other people. Wealso visited one of the mine shafts in Nkayi where it is alleged some of the victims were thrown in.
Resources permiting the documentary is going to be shown in film festivals in Sourthern Africa and beyond. We will also produce DVDs that will be distributed in the community as well as outside the country. A number of Uiversities in Africa have shown interst in the documentary beause they want to use it as resourse material in some of their courses.This can be another outlet for the DVD. Civic organisations who deal with human rights issues have also shown interest and some of them like the Botswana center of Human rights and a number of them in Kenya are already showing it in their communities.
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