The Centre for Innovation and Technology (CITE) has announced dates for the annual healing and reconciliation film festival, the Asakhe Film Festival.
This year’s festival will run from 24 to 28 October under the theme: “Truth and Memory.”
The festival which has been running for the past two years seeks to contribute to national healing and reconciliation efforts in the country.
Zimbabwe has in the past gone through violent conflicts including the early 1980s Gukurahundi massacres which despite the existence of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC), have not been resolved.
CITE director, Zenzele Ndebele said preparations for the festival were on course.
“Asakhe Film festival intends to highlight the importance of transitional justice using film and testimonies from some of the survivors,” he said.
“The aim is to contribute to national healing and reconciliation efforts in Zimbabwe. The festival focuses on truth-telling as a way of finding closure for victims and also promoting reconciliation within communities. Truth-telling helps in community healing and preventing the recurrence of past abuses. It also helps identify the necessary reforms that can prevent such violations from happening again.”
Ndebele said it was regrettable that more than 30 years since Gukurahundi occurred victims are yet to receive their healing.
“The Matabeleland and Midlands regions suffered government genocide between 1982 and 1985 which left an estimated 20 000 people dead and many others with physical and physiological injuries,” he said.
“More than three decades later, the legacy of the conflict continues to impact their daily life.”
CITE, Ndebele said, also uses alternative media platforms to promote dialogue on transitional justice in Zimbabwe with a focus on the historical injustices that occurred in Matabeleland and Midlands in the 1980s.
“This year’s activities include a documentary launch, film screening, Twitter Spaces discussion on the topic, Whose Truth? whose Justice? and the launch of a book titled, Memory and Erasure: Gukurahundi and the Culture of Violence in Zimbabwe.”
