Women in the Zimbabwean Liberation Struggle - Essay Example

Women in the Zimbabwean Liberation Struggle: A brief history of Zimbabwe, status of women in pre-colonialism in Zimbabwe, nature of colonialism in Zimbabwe A history of Zimbabwe History of this country formerly known as 'Rhodesia' has three phases namely pre-colonial, post-colonial, and post-independence. Pre-Colonial First major civilization was 'The Mwene Mutapa or Monomatapas". Stones structures at Khami, Great Zimbabwe and Dhlo-Dhlo indicate that that there had been many civilization earlier to The Mwene Mutapa. King Mutota had gained control over the whole of Rhodesian Plateau and other major area of present day Mozambique by the mid 1440's. The empire was prospering with agriculture besides industries associated with gold, copper, textiles, and iron smelting Until 15th Century Arab and Swahili merchants had been frequenting the towns of country for regular trade. Later in the early 16th century Portuguese waged wars against the empire and destroyed the trades it had with the Arabs and others which resulted in the decline of the empire until the turn of 17th century. The Portuguese were then overpowered by the consolidation of several states called Shona that led to emergence of Rozwi empire covering most of the present Zimbabwe. This state of peaceful coexistence of native kingdoms lasted for the next two centuries. By the middle of 19th century Rozwi empire fell due to the entry of British South Africa company to whom rights for mining of gold were given by the Ndebele rulers in 1888 by way of treaty. The treaty later paved way for aggressors from Europe mostly British who fought with the Ndebele kingdom and established colonies there. (Zimbabwe History) Post-Colonial Colonization was started in 1890 by the English settlers led by founder Cecil John Rhodes. Thus Rhodesia was named after its founder. The English thought they were the first race in the world and hence assumed wherever they settled, it was for the benefit of the human race. (Nyangoni) With this feeling of supremacy over the rest of the human race, English started colonies in other parts of the world and dominated the local race. Thus native Africans in Rhodesia were not allowed to participate in an all-white Government. The whites alone assumed right to vote and the land laws they passed prevented native Africans' presence in many public places reserved exclusively for the whites. The ordinances they passed left native Africans with lands just for sustenance. About 6000 whites occupied half of the fertile and otherwise potential lands, leaving the worst lands for 600,000 native African farmers.(Chung P 211) This state of affairs lasted till 1979 characterized by domination of white minority over the native population who were denied rights to their own lands. Ever since the colony started, there had been civil unrest among the natives of Rhodesia who first initiated revolution demanding changes in the imperial constitution which would facilitate equal job opportunities and participation in Government. But by 1960, situation radically changed with nationalism gaining momentum requiring to overthrow the minority white rule. In the process, National Democratic Party (NDP) was started by native Africans with the ultimate aim of Pan African rule in due course. The party activists evoked violence against the minority rulers to attract the attention of England for its intervention and help handing over of power to the locals. (Gann, p 42) The minority rulers retaliated by banning the NDP in 1961. Then came a newly formed party in 1962 led by Joshua Nkomo under the name of Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) through reconstitution of the NDP. The ZAPU wanted to bring one-man-one vote rule, unite all Africans against imperialism and colonialism, eliminate all forms of oppression of its local Africans, and to establish a new order of African tradition. ZAPU members also believed force by violence and bloodshed was the only solution. Hence looking at ZAPU's objectives, the minority Government banned it also. ZAPU members went underground and a new party by name Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) came into being due to a split among them. While ZAPU believed in mobilizing international opinion, ZANU wanted to take direct action by open conflict with the minority rulers. Due to inner politics, the groups failed to unite against the white minority rule in spite of their employing guerilla warfare techniques. By late 1960 the warfare began to decline and both the groups started insisting on political dialogue and settlement. At this juncture, Zimbabwean women entered fighting arena by helping their men with guerilla fights and also by preparing food and providing clothing for them in the warfront. (Gann p101) In 1976 a party by name Patriotic Front Party was formed under the leadership of Joshua Nkoma of ZAPU and Robert Mugabe of ZANU marking joining together of both the parties to unitedly fight against the white. In a Geneva conference in 1976, Rhodesians resisted the pressure of native African movements which wanted total independence by December 1977. Even though both the native groups realized force was unavoidable and continued guerilla attacks, neither side could claim victory over the other. Finally England took the initiative and had the both the parties come to terms at the Lancaster House in England in 1979. In that Lancaster House Conference, an agreement was reached at to hold free elections by participation of all parties and voting by all the people. After the elections, Robert Mugabe was elected President of the free nation called Zimbabwe. Post Independence This period of nearly 26 years leaves much to be desired with the miserable failure of Robert Mugabe 's solo governance all these years. The only act of his very much evident has been the grabbing of lands from the White settlers by force. The status of native women in his regime also can be easily inferred from the total failure of economy, incidence of famine and HIV disease in the Zimbabwean population. Zimbabwean Women's contribution to the liberation struggle. Although women had to face lot of barriers imposed on them by their own traditional African Societies and also by the colonial powers, they have emerged as powerful political force in the independent Zimbabwe. The oppression from the colonial powers motivated them to join the liberation struggle which resulted in acceptance of women as equals in all walks of life by the men of Zimbabwe. Sally Mugabe, the first lady of Zimbabwe noted in her address to Copenhagen World conference as "The protracted struggle for liberation forced some realities upon our own tradition. It became very necessary that every human resource be used, so about one third of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) liberation forces were women. We had men and women fighting side by side to liberate their own country. We observed that it is through a joint effort that makes possible societal aspirations. When men and women hold hands as equals we benefit from our environments."(Sally Mugabe) Status of pre-colonial and colonial women of Zimbabwe In pre-colonial times, the women were subordinate to men. Robert Mugabe admitted in a conference thus" The general principle governing relationships between men and women has, in our traditional society, always been that of superiors and inferiors. Our society has consistently stood on the principle of masculine dominance--the principle that the man is the ruler and the woman his dependent and subject. . . . Before the forcible occupation of our country by the British . . . in 1890, tradition and customs recognized a patriarchal society" (Robert Muagbe) Even though Zimbawean women were treated by their men with dignity in pre-colonial periods, the white settlers regime in Southern Rhodesia presently Zimbabwe made women's position worse by their racist and class policies. They suffered hardships as encountered by their sisters in South Africa and Namibia. Women were forced to work in trust lands by the white settlers and they earned though their agricultural work just to survive. The trust lands became dunping grounds for women. These women while separated form men who were working elsewhere had to sacrifice relationships with men resulting in dissolution of their family lives. They were therefore forced to move to towns to joins their husbands to rebuild their familes. .But they were not tolerated by the white men as their skills did not match their expectations for their capitalist sector. "Therefore, sufficient housing for African families was never built in urban areas and living conditions there were very poor. In a study carried out in the small town of Mucheke, for example, it was found that women were living with their husbands in overcrowded tin huts officially provided for two or three men, with just enough room for two or three beds. In reality, these huts are occupied by two or three couples with their children" (A.K.H.Weinrich) The women of colonial Zimbabwe had to take up the liberation struggle though gradually, having already faced with the prospect of their endangered survival and their familes. The prospect of women taking political and even military roles had gained recognition as early as in 1896. "Nehanda Nyakasikana was a spirit medium whose call to her people to fight the British invaders sparked the 1896-1897 war, now called Chimurenga I. Nehanda took up arms herself, acted as a commander and helped lead the men in the battle to throw out the British. She was hung by the British and thus became Zimbabwe's "first war heroine and martyr" (Robert Mugabe) Brtish settlers realised the power of spirit mediums had on their Zimbabwean people and literally hunted them. Many such mediums were harassed and suppressed and sent underground by the white settlers. "This cruel episode stands as an early testament to the British realization of the key role Zimbabwean women could play in any future resistance movements against British domination. With Nehanda as an example, the women of Zimbabwe played an increasingly important historical role in their people's fight for freedom" (Urdang 104) A member of ZAPU testified this women's phenomenon that ever since 1896 Zimbawean women took an active role in liberation struggles in all phases effectively leading strikes, protests and demonstrations. They had undergo arrests and imprisonment along with men and remained in jails without trail. They were even raped and murdered by the white settlers. In 1948, women organized general and nation wide strike staying out of work if they had been employed or encouraging their husbands to stay out of work if they had been housewives. In 1959 when State Emergency was declared , ANC was banned and many women were also arrested. Two of them namely Ms. Mai Mushrambi and Ms.Mushonga died in prison. Another one Ms Jane Ngwenya who survived is now a leading personality of Zimbabwe. She had become the commander National Democratic Party in 1960. In 1961 women of Zimbabwe led a mass demonstration when the white regime announced allocation of 50 of 65 seats to the whites in parliament. "the demonstrations drew more than ten thousand women to the center of Salisbury where the women, many carrying children on their backs, registered the party's protest at the prime minister's office. Many women were injured when police and their dogs attacked the crowd. Two thousand women were arrested and sent to Salisbury prison. The women were convicted but refused to pay their fines" (Robert Mugabe) The revolutionary armed struggle proved to be an opportunity for women of Zimbabwe resulting in thousands of women getting arrested in Mrewa, Mtoko, and Danda areas. In 1973 women were trained as men fighters for the first time. General Tonogara, a late ZANALA commander and advocate for equality for women, spoke highly of women commanders. By April 17, 1980 just before independence, ZAPU trained 2150 women in military warfare. Thus during the course of white regime, Zibabwaen women have come full cycle from Nehanda in 1896 to many such women in1970, . Did the participation of women in the liberation struggle transform gender relations in both colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe In a study conducted in a context which the authors call " The Paradox of women in Zimbabwe : Emancipation, liberation, and traditional values. (Reisch, Turner, Sarratea) , following are the findings. Zimbabwe is caught in bundle of contradictions. Twenty years ago when Zimbabwe attained independence, Robert Mugabe testified that liberation of Zimbabwe was for restoring the lost traditional African values and emancipation of women. The present day situation tells that he must have meant emancipation of women from the burden of freedom struggle and return to their traditional roles consistent with African values. The author Deborah during her visit to Harare witnessed people commenting adversely at two Zimbabwean women magistrates whom she accompanied , for wearing Jeans. When asked Deborah was told a woman was stripped naked and beaten for wearing mini skirt. Another instance is "Over the weekend of 28-30 October 1983, soldiers and police swarmed through the major city centres of Zimbabwe arbitrarily arresting women. The purpose of this operation was to round up single women who had the temerity to be out alone, and charge them with being prostitutes" (Essof 2003) ".What is clear is that the linking of emancipation, liberation, and traditional African values has contributed to the construction of conflicting views of how women and men are to experience the liberation of Zimbabwe. As Traditionalists attempt to retain gender relations established under British rule and to reestablish traditional controls over women, they have moved beyond labeling to the physical assault of women who display western forms of dress, a circumstance that has been "noted with concern" by the U.N. Human Rights Committee (Deng, 1998). Until the paradoxes surrounding emancipation and traditional African values are reconciled, it will be possible for women to be both magistrates and beaten." (Deborah) This paradoxical situation obtaining in Zimbabwe shows that women have not been really emancipated even to the extent of freedom in their dressing alone. The same society has allowed them to become magistrates. It is really a paradox but it does show that women are prized possession of men and want them to conduct themselves in a dignified manner. This should not give an indication that women have not got their freedom. They are not put to starvation , nor prevented from going to Schools and colleges and seek jobs. The only incident about the dressing habit not tolerated in the society should not be seen in a bad light that the entire women folk in Zimbabwe is endangered. It is only because men are so much possessive about their women. It may be concluded that the present day situation of women in Zimbabwe tells us that Zimbabwean men who had only used women for the liberation struggle as a source of strength to meet the emergency and no more. The men have still not shed their inhibitions towards women. However Campbell's analysis suggests "that after a brief spell of lip-service to gender equality, patriarchy reconfigured itself in the post-independence context, and the political will to meaningfully address gender inequality in Zimbabwe diminished rapidly, being replaced instead by the age-old desire to regulate and control women in both the private and public sphere. Women's political engagement in the new state was systematically eroded not only by the espousal of the development discourse (which often blunted the radical edge of the women's movement), but also through the very sophisticated and powerful invocation of counter-revolutionary nationalist and cultural discourses that tended to interpolate any women's organizing as feminist - and feminism as being anti-nationalist pro-imperialism." (Essof 2003) It is further observed that women were granted majority status at the age 18 by enacting LAMA( Legal Age of Majority Act) soon after independence which could pave way for their political and economic development. Few more enactments for women were the Matrimonial Causes act , The Maintenance Amendment Act, and Equal Pay Regulations act. ( Ziyambi) Men's hypocracy is exposed by their repeated attempts tp repeal LAMA. " Although Operation Clean Up] was perhaps the most blatant example of this discursive move, it was by no means the only one. Further examples include the repeated attempts to repeal LAMA, and the denial of property and inheritance rights to women under customary law. Yet another example involved the public stripping of women who wore mini-skirts. All these maneuvers were met by concerted and direct action from women activists, but as Zimbabwe plunged into socio-economic and political upheaval in the late 1990s, the conditions under which women were organizing had become increasingly challenging. By this time, the state's unvarnished hostility to gendered discourses meant that women activists became the target of state-sponsored violence. Meanwhile, what feminist analysts refer to as "the deeply uncivil nature of civil society" with regards to gender meant that alliances across sites of struggle in order to further women's rights-based agendas were tenuous, and had to be carefully negotiated" (Essof 2003) It will not be also out of place to add that Robert Mugabe who was credited with leading the freedom struggle in the end is now criticised for not running the country efficiently even after 26 years of freedom and in his sole Governance throughout the 26 years. One instance of his miserable failure is evident from an article which appeared in The Independent U.K. in 2006 about the women in Zimbabwe dying young.(see Annexure A) Conclusion It will not be odd to agree with Campbel who states "African women, especially those connected to the various organised movements for democracy and women's rights, have emerged as the force with the strongest claim for a new liberation process in Zimbabwe" In his conclusion, Campbell recalls Walter Rodney's assertion that we need to "have confidence in the capacity of our people; if they could have breached the gates of colonialism through their own effort, then it seems to me that they have brought into the neo-colonial period a capacity to breach the walls of imperialism" To this, one must add, the capacity to resist new forms of domination and exploitation( Essof 2003). References A.K.H.Weinrich, Muchke: Race, Status and Politics in a Rhodeisan Community (Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cuultural Organisation, 1976, p.100 Chung, Fay. "Education with production before and after independence." pp. 211-224. Turmoil and Tenacity. ed. Banana, Canaan S. Harare: The College Press, Ltd., 1989. Essof Shereen African [Women] a-Liberate Zimbabwe"1 [1] : Review of Reclaiming Zimbabwe: The Exhaustion of the Patriarchal Model of Liberation by Horace Campbell, David Philip Publishers, Cape Town, South Africa, 2003 Gann, Lewis. The Struggle for Zimbabwe. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1981. Nyangoni, Wellington. African Nationalism in Zimbabwe. Washington D.C.: University Press of America, 1978. Reisch-Ballard S Deborah, Turner K Paaige, Sarratea Marcia The paradox of Women in Zimbawe: Emancipation, liberation, and traditional African values. Robert Mugabe, speech delivered at the ZANU Women's Seminar, Maputo, May 1979, reproduced in Zimbabwe News January-June 1979. Sally Mugabe, speech delivered to the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women, Copenhagen, July 1980. Urdang Stephanie Oppression and Resistance: The Struggle of Women in Southern Africa. Contributors: Richard E. Lapchick - author, Stephanie Urdang - author. Publisher: Greenwood Press. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 1982. Page Number: 104. Zimbabwe History accessed 07 March 2007 < http://www.africanet.com/home.htm> Ziyambi M Naume Historical Overview of Women's Groups in Zimbabwe Annexure A Zimbabwean women left to die a silent death This is the front page of The Independent (UK) today. The image of grave after grave after grave accompanies a harrowing article about life expectancy in Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans are dying like flies - Zimbabwean women, in particular, are dying at a younger age than women anywhere else in the world. I was gratified to see the article use a particular word to describe the horror - a CULL - responsibility for their early deaths set full square at the feet of Robert Mugabe and his government. This cull is not an act of God. It is a catastrophe aggravated by the ruthless, kleptocratic reign of Robert Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980. The Mugabe regime has succeeded in turning a country once fted as the breadbasket of Africa into a famished and demoralised land deserted by its men of working age, with its women left to die a silent death. A world used to associating language like that with weapons of mass distruction and bloody warfare played out in the streets of war torn nations might find the use of a word like 'cull' misplaced in an article like this. But David Coltart, in his most recent emailed letter, reminded us of a horrifying quote from one of Robert Mugabe's most senior ministers - Didymus Mutasa, the current Minister of State Security - who in August 2002 said: "We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle; we don't want all these extra people." You don't need chemical weapons to kill people in their thousands, nor do you need nuclear bombs or ruthless soldiers rousting people from their homes in the dead of night in order to dispatch hundreds of people to an early grave. All you need to do is ensure people can't eat, that they can't access the vital medication that they need to survive, and that they don't have shelter over their heads. Disease, starvation, and brutal environmental elements are a deadly combination in a despot's arsenal, and are as certain to kill as the most sophisticated military weapon. They are even more certain to kill if the nation you preside over has the worst HIV/AIDs statistics in the world. Don't be fooled into thinking that the crumbling economy is the root cause of all these problems: Mugabe has set out to achieve all of these things DELIBERATELY. We've written about it all on this blog as it happened - Operation Murumbatsvina is vicious and has deprived thousands people of shelter; food has been withheld and politically manipulated to meet Mugabe's own objectives; and ARV drugs are a low priority for Mugabe's government, despite the fact they know they preside over a population suffering from the worst HIV/AIDs statistics in the world. Funding is calculatedly steered away from the principle of caring for Zimbabweans, and directed instead to the CIO whose primary purpose is to control, intimidate, terrify, torture and repress Zimbabweans. And who controls the CIO None other than Didymus Mutasa, the man who would like to reduce the population to only those who supported the liberation strggle (i.e., support Zanu PF and Robert Mugabe). I think the word cull is fair and entirely appropiate in this context. The average Zimbabwean woman can only expect to live to the age of 34. This is an age where women in stable democracies are thinking about careers, starting families, or buying homes. While they look towards their bright futures, Zimbabwean women face a painful cruel death. There isn't a person in Zimbabwe who doesn't know several people who have died of AIDs, and I am no exception. Last year two women I knew very well, both work colleagues, died. One was a women in her fifties. She was infected with the virus by her husband who had left Zimbabwe to try and earn an income in South Africa so he could do more for his children. Long absences from home turned into a string of encounters with ladies of the night. And these in turn resulted in Jessie's death from the AIDs virus when he brought the disease back home to her. I don't know what happened to Jessie's husband, but I expect he's dead too now. And that means their children, the very reason he left the country in the first place, have joined the country's swelling AIDs orphan statistics. The other women was Tenjiwe. Tenjiwe was a lovely person, a woman who laughed loud and often and had flaring feuds with work colleagues that lasted five minutes and then were instantly forgotten. We all liked her -we liked laughing with her and we even enjoyed the shouting matches. Whenever it was her birthday she'd say, 'I'm one year closer to forty now I'm going to be forty soon'. I asked her why this was such a big deal after all, forty is a much talked about age which signals an end to child-bearing years and a transitional period to the next stage of life. But to Tenjiwe it simply meant that surviving to forty meant she'd have outlived many of the other women she knew, and it meant her son would have reached an age where he was less dependent on her. And she nearly made it too. Tenjiwe lived to 36. But we watched her fading before our eyes for several years before that - her battle with HIV extended by the support our employers gave her - vitamins, food supplements, extra food to take home. But without retrivirols, which her employers struggled to find for her, she stood no chance. The last time I saw her she was in hospital, thin and frail, her mouth too swollen with sores to be able to eat the liquid supplements we'd clubbed together to buy for her, and her body to frail to cope with any nutrition at all. She didn't expect to have work colleagues visit her, and when we walked into the room she turned towards us and cried silently. We said nothing the whole time we were there, we all cried, and then we said goodbye knowing we'd never see her again. Her family took her back to her rural home and she died less than a week later, leaving behind a son - another AIDS ophan. Tenjiwe survived to 36 becase she had people who tried to do all they could to help her live as long as she possibly could. She is also one of the very few (20% of the population) who had a full time job. But even her income, higher than the lowest paid levels in Zimbabwe, was so ravaged by inflation that she couldn't begin to meet the financial demands she faced as a single mother trying to raise a child. So Tenjiwe turned to 'friendships' with older men - sugar daddies - who paid the school fees and helped to keep her child clothed, fed and educated. They showered her with gifts, cell phones and cheap jewellery from the markets, and they also gave her a disease which eventually destroyed her. Tenjiwe had a job; most in Zimbabwe do not. She had one child while most Zimbabwean women have more than one. She had a support network of people who cared for her; most Zimbabwean women have to fight to survive alone. As unlucky as Tenjiwe was, she was still, in a Zimbabwean context, far luckier than a lot of other women. And how terrible is that. The anger and despair I felt when I saw Tenjiwe for the last time is indescribable. We cried at her bed because there was nothing more we could do - we had all tried everything. I felt as if she was on death row - an innocent victim sentenced to a cruel death overseen by dispassionate wardens - and we and her family were the helpless bystanders wracked with emotion, standing on the other side of the glass and watching her die. My anger, my frustration, my sense of helplessness left me feeling out of control and beside myself with rage at the senseless futility of her death. My feelings are NOTHING compared to those her family must have experienced. Mugabe and his government are those cruel wardens. They are responsible for the decisions and choices they make, and they are accountable for the effect it has on the lives of all Zimbabweans. The women who are dying before the age of 34, silently and forgotten, are all innocent victims of his ghastly policies and his ruthless deliberate attempts to keep himself and his government in power no matter the costs. His crimes are immense. As far as I am concerned, his failure to do the right thing leaves him accountable for the deaths of thousands and thousands. It is a cull. Please read this (also here on ZWNews) and this for more about the women in Zimbabwe who are dying so young. Technorati Tags: Mugabe, women, Didymus Mutasa, HIV/AIDs, Murumbatsvina, ARV, Zimbabwe, AIDs, orphan, HIV, Zanu PF, life expectancy This entry was written by Hope on Friday, November 17th, 2006 at 4:38 pm. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site. 4 Responses to "Zimbabwean women left to die a silent death" 1. Global Voices Online Blog Archive Zimbabwe: silent death November 19th, 2006 19:14 1 [] Zimbabwean women left to die a silent death, writes This is Zimbabwe. This quote from a government minister might explain something: "We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle; we don't want all these extra people." Ndesanjo Macha [] 2. wiser November 28th, 2006 08:12 2 Sad situation indeed.And Similar situation to other Sub-sahara Afican countries. The biggest problem with Afican AIDS activists and NGO'S is that they have not addressed the origin of HIV/AIDS.They still believe AID's originated from monkeys.Maybe they know the truth but they are too afraid to speak out. You can not uproot a tree without digging out its roots. We have also failed to accept and Identify slavery and colonialism as the source of African poverty today.Hence healing and forgiveness has not occured. Even deliverance of a person from an evil force requires knowledge of the demonic spirits causing it. 3. ELWYN DHLIWAYO February 19th, 2007 11:21 3 It is really a great blog. pliz assist me. i really need to get my site listed in the google search engine just like your blog. how do i do it 4. Indawo February 20th, 2007 23:41 4 "We would be better off with only six million people, with our own people who support the liberation struggle; we don't want all these extra people." What a typically stupid comment for a government minister to make. This idiot should wake up,the so called liberation struggle ended in 1980 and who is he anyway to state that "we" do not want all these extra people How will investigating the origin of aids, it is here and a cure must be investigated. When you buy a car do you investigate where the metal came from, the issue is does it work. Slavery and Colonialism are not the causes of African poverty. These are simply excuses for failure, mismanagement, stupidity, corruption and greed. Make the potential donor feel guilty and perhaps he will give you more. This is the 21st century, lets move forward and leave behind these notions of demonic spirits which tie the people to the world of ignorance and superstition. This is Zimbabwe is proudly powered by WordPress Our blog design is based on 3 Column Relaxation Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS). 52 queries. 1.379 seconds. Read More