Towards peace, healing and reconciliation in Zimbabwe:Theatricalising political violence through Rituals (201 I)

Abstract

This paper explores the reconciliator/ possibilities of the theatrical piece Rituals (201 I) penned by Stephen Chifunyise and directed and produced by Daves Guzha. The Rituals’ theatrical piece memorialises as well as condemns a culture of violence demonstrated during the 2008 harmonised elections in Zimbabwe. Through “ritualized” performance, a community embarks on a metaphysical journey focused on exorcising the ghosts of political violence still haunting individuals, communities, politicians, and the nation as a whole.These day-to-day modes of healing and reconciliation, dramatised through Rituals, suggest that communities can create platforms for peace, cultivate tolerance and permit dialogue to prevail if victims are brought face-to-face with perpetrators of violence with the hope of ironing out political differences. It is going to be argued in this paper that although the political drama in Rituals, centralises politicians as major culprits that fomented violence, its failure to go beyond political meta-narratives constricts its capacity to explore the complexities of violence in Zimbabwe.These complexities are informed by factors such as lack of voter education, existence of age-old grudges, and fragmentation of community values, among others. Another critical strand to be explored in this article is one that interrogates Rituals’ potential to reach out to the wider audiences at grassroots levels, since the political drama in Rituals speaks to the “upper class” and intellectual circles, thereby foreclosing critical debate and “voices” that should emerge from “below” which are communities many of whom were directly involved. By adopting a down-top methodological approach, the article seeks to place communities at the forefront in confronting questions of violence, peace-building and reconciliation in Zimbabwe.