A research report submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (History) February 2013 / This study examines the gendered histories of two black women who both narrated their personal testimonies in self-authored narrations for public consumption, and who both testified at the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It situates the politics of subjectivity, memory and historical consciousness within the social constructivist and hermeneutical theoretical frameworks of Butler and Ricoeur respectively; and through a generative process, working with their TRC testimonies and subsequent oral interviews, it examines self-narrativity, subject formation and the formation of female selfhood in the formation of gendered historical consciousness

This study is an exploration of transitional justice mechanisms available to post conflict communities. It is a context sensitive and sustained interrogation of the effectiveness of endogenous transitional justice mechanisms in post-colonial Zimbabwe. The study utilised Ruti Teitel’s (1997: 2009-2080) realist/idealist theory as its theoretical framework. Using the case of Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular, it analyses the application of imported idealist transitional justice mechanisms, mainly International Criminal Court (ICC) trials. It also debates the efficacy of realist transitional justice mechanisms, mainly the South African model of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).The study explores the application of what it terms broad realist transitional justice mechanisms used mostly in rural areas of Zimbabwe to achieve peace building and reconciliation. These modes of everyday healing and reconciliation include the traditional institutions of ngozi (avenging spirit), botso (self-shaming), chenura (cleansing ceremonies), nhimbe (community working groups) and nyaradzo (memorials). The key finding of this exploration is that local realist transitional justice mechanisms are more efficacious in fostering peace building and reconciliation than imported idealist mechanisms such as the ICC trials and imported realist mechanisms such as the TRC. More value can be realised when imported realist mechanisms and local realist transitional justice mechanisms complement each other. The study contributes to the literature on transitional justice in general and bottom-up, victim-centred reconciliation in particular. It offers a different approach to the study of transitional justice in post conflict Zimbabwe by recasting the debate away from the liberal peace paradigm which critiques state centric top-down approaches such as trials, clemencies, amnesties and institutional reform. The study considers the agency of ‘ordinary’ people in resolving the after effects of politically motivated harm. It also lays the foundation for further research into other traditional transitional justice mechanisms used for peace building and reconciliation elsewhere in Africa / Political Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Politics)

This study is a critical examination of the complex search for peace, reconciliation and unity in Zimbabwe between the years 1978 and 2008, with a view to identify factors that have been blocking sustainable peace, national unity, reconciliation and development. It is a qualitative study which draws data from document analysis and oral interviews. The specific focus of the study is an analysis of the four peace agreements signed in this period namely; the 1978 Internal Settlement, the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement, the 1987 Unity Accord and the 2008 Global Political Agreement. Its central thesis is that coloniality in its multifaceted invisible forms is largely responsible for conflicts that have engulfed Zimbabwe and for compromising the chances of success of the four peace agreements. Coloniality has produced a ‘postcolonial’ leadership that has continued to practice politics in a violent, repressive, corrupt and unaccountable manner because of interpellation by the very immanent logic of colonialism that reproduces such inimical practices as racism, tribalism, regionalism and patriarchy. Theoretically, the study deploys de-colonial epistemic perspective in its endeavour to unmask and explain challenges to peace, unity, reconciliation and development in Zimbabwe. Finally, the thesis makes a strong case for pursuit of decoloniality as the panacea to conflicts and as an approach to conflict resolution and peace building that privileges decolonization and deimperialization so that Zimbabwe’s development goals could be achieved. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)