Gukurahundi
Sign in to saveThe Gukurahundi was a series of mass killings and genocide in Zimbabwe which were committed from 1983 until the Unity Accord in 1987. The campaign targeted mainly the Ndebele ethnic group and supporters of opposition leader Joshua Nkomo. The name derives from a Shona language term which loosely translates to "the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains".
Key facts
- Civilian attack.title
- Gukurahundi
- Civilian attack.partof
- aftermath of the Zimbabwe War of Independence
- Civilian attack.location
- Zimbabwe
- Civilian attack.perpetrator
- 5th Brigade of the Zimbabwe National Army
- Civilian attack.target
- Ndebele and Kalanga peoples
- Civilian attack.date
- 3 January 1983 – 22 December 1987
- Civilian attack.type
- Genocide, pogrom, torture, indefinite detention, mass murder
- Civilian attack.fatalities
- 2,000–30,000
- Civilian attack.victims
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- Civilian attack.perps
- Fifth BrigadeCentral Intelligence Organisation
- Civilian attack.susperps
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- Civilian attack.numparts
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- Civilian attack.dfens
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- Civilian attack.motive
- Anti-Ndbele sentiment, Anti-Kalanga sentiment, Racism, Tribalism, Suppressing opposition to the ZANU
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
Show 3 more facts
- start time
- 1983-01-03
- end time
- 1987-12-22
- target
- Kalanga people
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~14 min read
Encyclopedic overview
14 sectionsContents
- Background
- Entumbane uprisings
- 1982
- Fifth Brigade
- Conflict and killings
- Death estimates
- Reactions
- Unity Accord of 1987
- Aftermath
- In popular culture
- References
- Citations
- Sources
- External links
The Gukurahundi was a series of mass killings and genocide in Zimbabwe which were committed from 1983 until the Unity Accord in 1987. The campaign targeted mainly the Ndebele ethnic group and supporters of opposition leader Joshua Nkomo. The name derives from a Shona language term which loosely translates to "the early rain which washes away the chaff before the spring rains".
During the Rhodesian Bush War, two rival nationalist parties, Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), had emerged to challenge Rhodesia's government. ZANU initially defined Gukurahundi as an ideological strategy aimed at carrying the war into major settlements and individual homesteads. Following Mugabe's ascension to power, his government remained threatened by "dissidents" – disgruntled former guerrillas and supporters of ZAPU.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Gukurahundi” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.