The people of Siwale village in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, were still celebrating independence from Britain when Robert Mugabe’s government, unhappy that they had voted for a rival political party, sent soldiers to crack down on them. The government claimed that it was dealing with dissidents. More than 20 000 unarmed civilians, including women and children, were killed. Thousands more were displaced. The operation is widely known as gukurahundi. The killings only ended in December 1987 when a Unity Accord was signed between the ruling party, ZANU and the opposition party, ZAPU. Years later, in 1997, Mugabe would characterise the killings as a ‘moment of madness’. But how were ordinary people in the villages affected? This is the account of one man.