The Church, national healing and reconciliation in Zimbabwe : a womanist perspective on Churches in Manicaland (CiM)

Abstract

Given that women are the major victims of any conflict, their lived experiences should be the starting point of any post-reconstruction process. Proceeding from this premise, this study looked at the role of the church in national healing and reconciliation in Zimbabwe from a gendered perspective focusing specifically on Churches in Manicaland (CiM), a forum of churches operating in Manicaland province. While academic scholars have written about the activities of the church and church organisations in Zimbabwe (in the national healing and reconciliation process), there have been limited attempts at examining the intersections of gender and post-reconstruction processes such as national healing and reconciliation especially in as far as the church’s participation in the process is concerned. This study comes in to fill this gap in the existing scholarly literature by proposing a new model for national healing and reconciliation on which the church can lean. The aim of this study is to provide a womanist perspective to CiM’s activities in the national healing and reconciliation process in Zimbabwe by finding out if the Forum prioritises women’s experiences of political violence. The study is qualitative in nature and it utilised documents and interviews as tools for data collection from CiM officials. Input from women survivors of political violence as well as some men and women who witnessed political violence in the communities in Mutare Urban and Mutare Rural provided the raw data from which an analysis was drawn. The study found out that though CiM has been active in trying to bring healing and reconciliation to communities in Manicaland, it has not focused on women’s experiences of political violence as requiring special attention. From the responses of study participants, the study probed the possible reasons behind this neglect. Drawing from the experiences of women in Manicaland of political violence, the study proposed the adoption of a womanist model for national healing and reconciliation. The study argued that from this model, the church in Zimbabwe can come up with an all-inclusive African Womanist Theology of national healing and reconciliation, a theology which pays particular attention to how women experience conflict.