Joice Mujuru and the Zanu-PF Women’s League 1973-2014: opportunities and limits of maternal dignity (musha mukadzi) and self-preservation
- Authors: Mataruse, Sisasenkosi
- Date: 2022-04-07
- Subjects: Mujuru, Amai Joice T R (Amai Joice Teurai Ropa) , ZANU Women's League , Women and democracy Zimbabwe , Women Political activity Zimbabwe , Political leadership Zimbabwe , Sexism in political culture Zimbabwe , Patriarchy Zimbabwe , Women Zimbabwe Social conditions , Maternal dignity (musha mukadzi)
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/292748 , vital:57012
- Description: The foundations of African feminisms are intertwined with the historical liberation of the African continent. Joice Mujuru’s five decades in Zimbabwean political parties are no different in showing the gendered nature of the fight against the intersectional oppressions of nation, race, class and gender. The research aimed to examine the political life of Joice Mujuru between 1973 and 2018 in various political roles and what this might mean for how women political leaders participate and make decisions as autonomous individuals within political parties in Zimbabwe. This study is a political biography of Joice Mujuru’s ideas and leadership in political parties in Zimbabwe since 1973, when she joined the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) as a guerilla of its military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). Mujuru was the only woman in the first ZANU-PF cabinet in 1980. She served the Zimbabwean government in different cabinet positions and became the first female vice-president in 2004, until her ousting in 2014. This study is based on an interview with Mujuru, and nine interviews with one Member of Parliament, two independent political party candidates, three academics, two CSO activists, the leader of LEAD political party in Zimbabwe and personal communication with a celebrated Zimbabwean writer. The study uses the concept of “patriarchal bargain” (Kandiyoti, 1988; Makhunga, 2016) and “femocracy” (Mama, 1995b) to show that Mujuru’s participation in political parties has been shaped by compromising and negotiating a complex web of patriarchal constraints for acceptance and respect. This study shows that wifehood and motherhood, the idea of musha mukadzi (‘woman as home’), stands out as a defining factor for Mujuru in her identity formation as a political party leader and how she views the roles of other women in Zimbabwean political parties and politics. I term this political identity maternal dignity, which is a collective set of ideas of maternal respect determining women’s participation in political parties. The study shows that Mujuru uses dominant ideas of maternal dignity as a tool of self-presentation and self-preservation to survive as a political leader. Mujuru’s expulsion from ZANU-PF and her subsequent leadership in other political parties demonstrates the ways in which maternal dignity limits women from shaping alternative ideas of leadership outside of respectable womanhood. Through a political biography of Mujuru, the study reaches the conclusion that post-independence Zimbabwe offers limited space for women’s leadership, whether those women have liberation history credentials or not. The strategy of maternal dignity that Mujuru has used to navigate her political career is a “patriarchal bargain” with limited possibilities for women’s meaningful participation, and the transformation of political parties and governance in Zimbabwe. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2022
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- Date Issued: 2022-04-07
A gender based analysis of the Amalima Programme in empowering married women within households in rural Gwanda, Zimbabwe
- Authors: Sibanda, Patience
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Non-governmental organizations Zimbabwe Matabeleland South Province , Power (Social sciences) Zimbabwe Matabeleland South Province , Women Zimbabwe Social conditions , Women's rights Zimbabwe , Patriarchy Zimbabwe Matabeleland South Province
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/63682 , vital:28470
- Description: Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have occupied a prominent role in the socio-economic development of rural areas of Zimbabwe since the time of the country’s independence in 1980, including a focus on improving the conditions and status of women in communal areas. These NGOs adopt a participatory methodology in their development programmes and projects, as they try to ensure that the active participation of women in rural development facilitates women’s access to resources and the realisation of their rights. These initiatives are important given the pronounced system of patriarchy which exists in communal areas. In the context of local patriarchies, NGOs also often claim that they empower women. This thesis focuses on the work of one particular NGO programme, namely the Amalima programme, with a particular focus on three wards in the communal areas in Gwanda, Zimbabwe. From a gendered perspective concerned with questions of women’s empowerment, the main objective of the thesis is to provide a critical analysis of the Amalima programme with particular reference to married women in Gwanda. Based on original fieldwork (including interviews with men, women and NGO practitioners), the thesis concludes that the outcomes of the Amalima programme in empowering married women in Gwanda are uneven and that, overall, the local system of patriarchy (including at household level) remains largely intact.
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- Date Issued: 2018