In a world scarred by cycles of atrocities, a weighty question looms large: how do these devastating events shape political behaviors decades later? Political scientists have engaged in this debate, and conventional wisdom holds that victims who were once subjected to crimes against humanity rarely support a political party that attempted to exterminate them. This study seeks to investigate why, despite a legacy of brutal repression, including the deaths of over 20,000 civilians, many survivors and their descendants in the Matabeleland Regions (MMR) now support ZANU PF, the political party responsible for the atrocities of the 1980s. Guided by Vamik Volkan’s Chosen Trauma and Lazarsfeld’s Michigan theory, the study aims to interrogate the roles of candidate perception, party identification, and policy preferences, and how they intertwine with collective and individual memory during elections. Anchored in interpretivist and social constructivist paradigms, the multi-case study will be restricted to four districts, Matobo, Tsholotsho, Lupane, and Nkayi, which are purposively selected due to their deep historical exposure to Gukurahundi and notable patterns of electoral volatility. The anticipated contributions for this research are twofold. First, the study seeks to explain voting behavior in MMR and to expand the limited literature on electoral behavior in post-conflict countries. It will challenge sweeping generalizations in existing studies by showing how localized dynamics, beyond trauma, ethnicity, clientelism, performance legitimacy, patronage or violence, shape electoral preferences. Second, it will examine collective and individual memory, with the aim of clarifying contradictions on whether psychological scars from violence permanently influence political allegiance. By focusing on MMR’s unique context, the study intends to advance understanding of how shifting loyalties emerge in post-conflict settings.

Oxford Southern Africa Discussion Group, Michaelmas term 2025