Healing Memories in Zimbabwe

Fr Michael Lapsley, SSM

Themba Lonzi and I travelled to Zimbabwe to conduct two healing of memories workshops during July 2002. It was Themba's first visit to another African country. I lived in Zimbabwe from 1983 until 1992 and since then I have visited every year. 

We were invited there by Women's Net a group of Christian women seeking to live out their Christian faith in a practical way and to contribute to national reconciliation. One of their members, Brenda Adamson, had experienced healing of memories as life changing at a workshop in Cape Town. 

Having first decided that it would not be appropriate to visit until after the Presidential election, the visit had already been postponed once because of the deteriorating political and economic situation.

I had asked myself whether it would be possible to deal with issues of the past whilst coping with the present was so overwhelming. Indeed a recurring underlying theme was how to keep hope alive. Without even speaking of the politics of fear and repression, continuously rocketing inflation, widespread shortages, looming famine and mass starvation, means that for most people their standard of living goes down every week.

Our first workshop took place in Mutare, about 4-5 hours drive from Harare. It was organised by the Revd Shirley De Wolf, a United Methodist Church pastor who had also been to a healing of memories workshop in Cape Town. The workshop had 25 participants including five facilitators. The group was intergenerational including first language speakers of Shona, Ndebele and English, mainly black and a few white people. Undoubtedly participants were able to speak about how events in the past of the country and their role had damaged them as well as more personal hurts so as to be able to begin to lay the past to rest. Another feature of the workshop was the presence of a number of people living with physical disabilities. 

On the Sunday morning, I had the opportunity to share with the congregation of St John's Anglican Cathedral I sought to bring a message of hope and encouragement to the congregation.

After the service, I met with an old friend I had not seen for many years. She immediately told me about the two members of her immediate family who had died of AIDS and the number of other young people, who had gone to Britain to survive. AIDS and people leaving the country were to be among the recurrent themes of our visit.

In the evening, now in Harare, Women's Net held a small reception to welcome us. We had the opportunity to meet a couple who had just been told that they would have to leave their farm as a consequence of the Government's latest plans to acquire more farms. The particular person had only owned the farm for 4 years and had not believed that he would become a target of forced land acquisition. As traumatic as it is for the farm owners, the much more painful issue is what happens to the farm workers many of whom have nowhere to go.

On Monday, 15 July, I was interviewed for a radio program called "Faith in Action". The person interviewing me asked me not to mention Zimbabwe!

We began our second healing of memories workshop at the Christian counselling centre in Harare. The workshop had 21 of us all in all including five facilitators. The number of facilitators meant that there was enough time to share at great depth. As in the first workshop, the challenge was to focus on how the past of the country had affected us and not just speak about the overwhelming realities of the present. As someone said, "We talk about the present every day and how we are feeling about what is happening in the country". I was very encouraged by the racial mix at the workshop. 

As usual the workshop culminated in the celebration of a liturgy. Three women each with different racial backgrounds took the opportunity to read out letters to their mothers that they had written in the light of what they had shared of their own journeys with one another. Another poignant moment came during the "Thank you speeches" when a white Zimbabwean man spoke of his own indifference and sense that I had got what I had deserved ("…if you play with fire, you will get fire.") when I was bombed in Harare in1990. He asked my forgiveness for his attitude.

A feature of the workshop was the number of people who felt that they did not really belong and were of less value because of race, or tribe, or gender, or things which had happened in the family. I had a sense that people left the workshop with a renewed sense of self worth and a willingness to contribute to the healing of others. 

The day after the Harare workshop ended I was invited to address a meeting of pastors coming from many different church backgrounds. I was asked whether I had forgiven those who had bombed me and if I thought that things would continue to get worse in Zimbabwe. Again there was the question of hope, how to endure, and what to do. What is God's will for us in the here and now. 

Roman Catholics and Anglicans in particular are deeply divided at leadership level along political lines. Many many Christians feel abandoned by God and agonise about what they can and should do. 

My last couple of days were spent in Bulawayo. For many people in Matabeleland the killings of the 1980's are still very fresh wounds compounded by recent events. My hosts were Delene Thomas, who had also been to a workshop in Cape Town, and Fr. Neil and Christine Pierce, whom I have been friends with for many years. Once more I had an opportunity to meet with clergy and those working with victims of violence. I was also grateful to meet Archbishop Pius Ncube of the Catholic Church who has been under attack because of the way he has championed all those who have been deeply hurt during recent times. I also had the opportunity to meet with Judith Todd and her father, former Prime minister, Sir Garfield Todd. Aged 94, Sir Garfield remains up to the minute with current events and they both have a lifetime of commitment to social justice. Both have been rendered stateless by the government. 

On the Sunday morning I preached at St Francis, Barham Green in Bulawayo before departing for South Africa.

Numerous Zimbabweans expressed great frustration about the failure of South Africa to take a stronger stance particularly in regard to the Presidential election. In my own tiny way, I tried as a South African to come with a loving embrace to show people that they are not forgotten and abandoned. I had a sense that those in power in Zimbabwe are committed to retaining political and economic power no matter what it costs. With frequent shortages of basic commodities, mass starvation looming one wonders how long it will be before there are food riots or other responses coming out of desperation and a frightening question is how the state will respond. There seems to be a lack of clarity from the opposition about a clear way forward out of the present impasse. 

Clearly it is true that healing of memories is not yet the most important agenda item for most Zimbabweans. It is a question of surviving and enduring.

However the day will come when healing and reconciliation will be the order of the day. It is important that some people are further down the track than others to point the way forward.

All going well, there will be subsequent visits to Zimbabwe to train local facilitators and offer further healing of memories workshops.

In my hour of need, after I was bombed in 1990, I felt embraced by the prayers and love of the Zimbabwean people. It was now time to return the compliment.

As painful as it was I was glad I went to Zimbabwe.

Friday, 26 July 2002