When a State Turns Against its Citizens: Institutionalised Violence and Political Culture, a book by Lloyd Sachikonye, made its appearance on the shelves during a launch at Lobby Books, on Thursday 31 March 2011.
Clever Bere, the MC of the event, addressed the audience. He provided an educational background of the author and other discussants that were present at the launch. He said the timing of the book’s arrival was good, as Zimbabweans are still dealing with matters of runaway violence in their country.
Lloyd Sachikonye opened his statement by depicting Zimbabwe as a “country of contradictions.” He said it is a country with a high magnitude of well educated, skilled professionals, given the impression of its great potential. That was over the course of the past 20 years, and now, the country sees a bleaker future due to the harsh realities of political violence and ethical crisis.
“Roots of violence go a long way,” he said in his speech, highlighting beatings and violent acts against those who fought for freedom.
“People were shot in the townships. Stones, sticks and petrol bombs were thrown at those who were involved in the struggle,” he said.
Consequences of political violence includes fear and stress and now Zimbabwean society is under trauma. Horst Kleinschmidt of the Amani Trust took a stand, saying that this history takes us back to 1960. “History matters, we need to study our history if we are to deal with type of society we aspired to; not to fear those elements of the past year.”
There is hope among Zimbabweans to resolve struggle in non-violent way. Horst pointed to high rates of violence in 27 June 2008, where hospitals had to accommodate 200 people a day with cracked arms, legs and small bones. Though it was a deafening sight, people joined together as a community, offering basic services and encourage people to vote to protect democracy.
It was a powerful event as the author and several audience members shared stories of the injustice in Zimbabwe. As our neighbouring country, we must continue to look for ways to advocate on their behalf and put pressure on their government to support innocent civilians.
Photo by Jacana Media
