The Making and Meanings of the Massacres in Matabeleland
Author(s)
Phimister, Ian
Abstract
The paper attempts to explain the deaths of approximately 20,000 mostly Ndebele speakers who lived in Matabeleland between early 1983 and late 1986. The origins and course of the violence is outlined, contemporary reactions are examined, and, in search of the meaning of the massacres, recent literature on mass violence and genocide is introduced. The paper builds on work by Katri Yap, as well as Mahmood Mamdani’s, who emphasized the importance of setting atrocities into the specific historic and political foreground.
