Summary

One night, Destiny wakes to find her mother weeping. To Destiny’s surprise, Simiso reveals that she once had siblings. She then tells Destiny about her experience during the Gukurahundi. Simiso grows up in Bulawayo, where her father (a veteran of the Liberation War) becomes an influential and charitable businessman. After Simiso gives birth to Destiny out of wedlock, her father “embraced [Destiny] with all his being” (221). Simiso’s father spends hours writing his memoirs to “make sure the truth remained true” (222). On April 18, 1983, Simiso sneaks out to meet her lover. As she returns, she sees Defenders murder a group of teachers. She arrives at her uncle’s house only to find several Defenders already detaining her extended family. The Defenders call her family “Dissidents” (227) and ridicule them for their Ndebele ethnicity. They eventually force Simiso’s cousin to kill his father with...