THE Centre for Innovation and Technology (CITE) is set to host its inaugural healing and reconciliation festival, Asakhe Film Festival under the theme In Search of Peace and Justice, from tomorrow to October 30.
BY SHARON SIBINDI
Festival director Zenzele Ndebele said the film fête intended to highlight the importance of transitional justice using film and testimonies from some of the survivors.
“The aim of Asakhe Film Festival is to contribute to national healing and reconciliation efforts in Zimbabwe. This is part of our three-year project dubbed Confronting the Past: National Healing, Reconciliation and Transitional Justice in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Ndebele said the project focused 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 abuses. It also helps identify the necessary reforms that can prevent such violations from happening again. CITE 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,” he said.
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“The Matabeleland and Midlands regions suffered government-sanctioned mass killings between 1982 and 1985 which left an estimated 20 000 people dead and many others with physical and physiological injuries. More than three decades later, the legacy of the conflict continues to impact their daily life.”
Ndebele said on October 30, they will launch the Gukurahundi Memorial Library, an online resource that will help curate information and testimonies on Gukurahundi, adding that on the same day, they will also launch the latest Gukurahundi documentary titled The Bones Will Speak.
He said due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s activities would be restricted to a small group of invited guests and that major activities would be done online (https://www.facebook.com/CITEZW).