Wazir Mohamed and Esau Mavindidze report on a recent symposium aimed at creating a space for Zimbabweans to discuss the present and future of the country. Bringing together representatives of government, civil society, human rights groups, scholars and Zimbabweans in the diaspora, the symposium – hosted by Syracuse University’s Africa Initiative and the Newhouse School of Public Communications – provided ‘a rare avenue’ to ‘assess the progress, status, challenges and opportunities for lasting peace, healing and reconstruction for the people of Zimbabwe’.