Immortalizing “Buried Memories

Photographs of the Gukurahundi Online

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6196840
AutoresLungile A Tshuma (0000-0001-6654-0841, University of Johannesburg, autor de correspondencia), Mphathisi Ndlovu (0000-0002-9191-2106, Stellenbosch University)
Año2022
Volumen24
Número3
Páginas380-401
Fecha de publicación2022-07-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Genocide Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1462-3528 • E-ISSN: 1469-9494
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14623528.2020.1850393
OpenAlexW3111217551
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11

This article examines how photographs displayed online preserve, mediate, and circulate memories of the Gukurahundi “genocide.” The Gukurahundi denotes mass killings of more than 20,000 predominantly Ndebele-speaking people in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces orchestrated by the Zimbabwean government between 1983 and 1987. Many of the victims consider this to be a genocide, but their memories are subject to repression under the current regime. In this context, online news sites serve as alternative spaces in which knowledge of this traumatic past is transmitted through photographs. Anchored in an understanding that photographs constitute a “mirror with a memory,” this article uses critical discourse analysis to analyse selected images from Bulawayo24.com news website. It finds that Bulawayo24.com serves as an arena for preserving and circulating Gukurahundi memories by enabling audiences to bear witness to their experience-as-genocide. The images reinforce human rights discourses, contributing to the growing calls for justice, commemoration, and memorialization of Gukurahundi victims

Archaeology · Criminology · Economic Justice · Genocide · Human rights · Linguistics · Media studies · Memorialization · Political science · Sociology · Witness · World Wide Web · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Computer Science · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration