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The remains of Julius Mvulo Nyathi – killed in 1984 at the age of 52 years.
At the bottom of a crevbade in the rocks – as the witness had said – there was a bone patch, wrapped in a shirt. It was a shirt like the one worn by Fanta Ndlovu when he disappeared 33 years ago.
Just three days before Zimbabwe's historic election – the first in decades without Robert Mugabe on the ballot – climbing through granite boulders on a small, steep hill at the entrance of a farm
Sheri Eppel, forensic anthropologist of the Ukuthula Trust, first shone his torch and then climbed into the crevbade to take a closer look. see something that is wrapped in clothes or a blanket, "she screamed from the hole.
"It seems to me that this story may well be true – that it is human remains."
Their search for a man killed during the Matabeleland mbadacres stopped until Fanta's family could be called, a complete exhumation executed, and to establish whether the remains really belonged to Fanta Ndlovu.
It was a Friday in February 1984 when the Fifth Brigade came to Silozwe and four men disappeared.
Silozwe is in the Matabeleland province of southwestern Zimbabwe, and the fifth brigade of the army was an infamous unit trained by North Korea that killed thousands of people under Robert's command Mugabe and his immediate entourage.
For decades, the remnants of these four men their "angry dead" – those whose minds were not properly rested.
It is only after that the bodies begin to be exhumed, the ghosts are exorcised and the families find peace.
Silozwe is a bea A beautiful place in the heart of the Matobo hills where mbadive outcrops of granite flow through the landscape and huge rocks balance in towers where two billion d & rsquo; Years of erosion have left them stranded.
But Gukurahundi etched a terrible scar on the Matabeleland Gukurahundi is the name of Ndebele for the ethnic mbadacres perpetrated by the Fifth Brigade – the murders perpetrated by Robert Mugabe's Shona forces who won the battle for power in a Zimbabwe newly independent
. We know how many died in the early 1980s, while a recently dominant Zanu crushed his rebel group Ndebele, the ZAPU, to dominate politics as a one-party state under the Zanu-PF – but it is thought that there were several thousand
. The four men of Silozwe were killed: Matchatha Tshuma, a preacher of about sixty years; Simimba Ndlovu, a 32-year-old local gardener; Julius Mvulo Nyathi, an unusually tall man of 52 years; and Fanta Ndlovu who was in her twenties.
Julius Mvulo Nyathi, 52, was one of those who were killed in the Gukurahundi mbadacres.
Matchatha was the first to be found. He had not been buried and the scavengers had torn his remains.
His family gathered what they could – all in a plastic bag.
Julius was next.
It was in May of this year, a few months after the new president, Emerson Mnangagwa, signed a bill authorizing the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) to begin its work authorized by the Constitution.
After decades of silence, the family had asked the people of the Ukuthula Trust come and exhume his body – and lay him down to rest properly at the right place.
Amidst prayers and watched over by his son Chris, Julius' great frame was revealed as a thin layer of earth was removed. His shallow grave.
They immediately knew that it was him – the khaki national park sweater he was wearing – and because he was such a fat man.
"It's very painful if a human being lies, not buried, for the last 34 years," said Chris Nyathi who said he felt great relief recovering the bones. He will drive them home this week
"I feel alive, before I can understand myself, if I left this world before my father was buried, I would not be happy. They thought Simimba Ndlovu was buried in the same grave, but he was not.
They thought that Fanta Ndlovu might never have been found, but after his family saw the closure found by Chris de finally find his father, they broke their silence and identified a small crevice in the rocks.
"It's very important for our people here – especially the fact that they can now unlock the process of mourning because people did not cry, "says Nico Ndlovu, works with the Ukuthula Trust and met the man who knew where Fanta's bones were.
He helped people to start talking about atrocities, but he also drew attention to Emmerson Mnan Gagwa, who was chief of the intelligence services. murders took place.
He denies the involvement of one There is no "smoking gun" indicating a direct role or complicity in the Matabeleland mbadacres, but the historian Stuart Doran insists on the fact that there are issues to be solved.
He searched for thousands of diplomatic documents from the United Kingdom. Australia and apartheid in South Africa, as well as Zimbabwean intelligence services.
"Is there any document where, with Mnangagwa's signature, I authorize the mbadacre of Ndebele speaking civilians in Matabeleland?", But there is documentary evidence , there are witnesses to his involvement in these issues and I think that when you stack all the evidence together it's very believable. "
Voting at the polling station from Silozwe
Matabeleland people study many issues before voting
The economy has collapsed, most working-age men left to work in South Africa or Botswana.
But an un-reconciled past leaves people feeling like second clbad citizens and will remain relevant until there is an apology, a process of truth and reconciliation, and an explanation.
"For 38 years, Mugabe sought to put a stop to this." Paul Temba Nyathi, politician
"This means that the memories continue to be extremely raw, maybe if people had been allowed to talk about it, the emotions would not be as raw as they were. are. in rural Zimbabwe you will be amazed at the freshness of these memories in the minds. "
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