The role of social workers in response to genocides and massacres: The case of Gukurahundi

Abstract

The term ‘Gukurahundi’ is a direct translation of a Zimbabwean Shona term that refers to “the first rain that washes away chaff before spring” (Eppel, 2008:1). In Zimbabwe, this term is specifically used in reference to the massacres of over 20 000 people in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces, as well as displacement and torture of innumerable others by the Mugabeled regime in the 1980’s (Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, 1997). This violence was never acknowledged nor comprehensively addressed at national level.