Healing Generational Trauma: Community-Based Pathways to Peace in Post-Conflict Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe continues to grapple with the enduring legacies of violent conflicts and gross human rights violations dating back to the pre-independence era. These unresolved wounds have been transmitted across generations, creating trauma as living sites of violence that perpetuate cycles of harm and normalize a culture of violence. Despite numerous government-led, top-down initiatives for peacebuilding and reconciliation, tangible outcomes remain elusive. This paper employs an intersectional lens to analyze prevailing forms of violence, drawing on two decades of monthly human rights monitoring reports from the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), a civil society organization documenting state-sanctioned violence. Building on Kirthi Jayakumar’s (2019) reconstruction of Galtung’s ABC triangle, the analysis integrates trauma as a critical dimension to deepen understanding of Zimbabwe’s entrenched culture of violence. Using this framework, I propose strategies to catalyze a generational shift toward a culture of peace through transitional justice and community-driven healing. I argue that acknowledging and addressing trauma at both individual and collective levels is essential for dismantling hegemonic masculinities and patriarchal structures that sustain political violence.