Dr Philani L Ndlovu The real meaning of the Unity Day of Zimbabwe

Since 1988, 22 of December is celebrated as a national holiday known as the Unity Day in Zimbabwe, following the signing of a Unity Accord between PF-ZAPU and ZANU-PF on 22 December 1987. Recent years have been characterised by a divergent views regarding the memorialisation of the day, with some in Matabeleland commemorating it as a day to mourn more than twenty thousand Matabele people abducted and killed, as well as several tens of thousand raped and tortured by the government sponsored 5th Brigade operation under the code name Gukurahundi between 1982 & 1987. Undoubtedly, the unity day means different things to people across the political and ethno-linguistic divide in the country.