Survivors Of Political Violence 'Will Make Sure There's Peace' In Zimbabwe's Election
On April 21, 2008, Florence Machinga lost everything. A mob of hundreds of people showed up at her house, demanded to see her — and, when she didn't materialize, burned it down.
"They destroyed everything," she says. "Cattle were slaughtered, the chickens were slaughtered."
She was hiding in the bush — she'd been expecting trouble. Machinga was running for parliament in Zimbabwe, in her rural district of Uzumba, with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party. The attackers were supporters of then-president Robert Mugabe's ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front or ZANU-PF. This attack was part of a wave of violence carried out against MDC supporters in 2008.
After the firebombing, Machinga and her family were left homeless, struggling to find food and
