How artists have preserved the memory of Zimbabwe’s 1980s massacres
GIBSON NCUBE, Associate Professor, University of Zimbabwe “LET people vent,” lamented performing artist and television personality Kudzai Sevenzo in a tweet as Zimbabweans on social media reacted to the death of Perence Shiri. Shiri was the Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement. Zenzele Ndebele, an investigative journalist, also spoke out in a tweet: “Shiri gets to be buried like a hero. We never got a chance to mourn our relatives who were killed by the 5th Brigade.” Shiri was a military man who commandeered a praetorian army that killed over 20,000 civilians in the provinces of Matabeleland and the…