What Has Culture Got to Do With It?: Girl-Women Marginalisation and Human Rights Violations – The Case of Zimbabwean Women as Depicted in Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region (2003)

Abstract

The article takes an African-centred approach in its examination of women’s plight and strategies propagated by African women in pre- and post-independence Zimbabwe to create safe space and empower women with a view to building more stable families and sustainable social transformation for society’s greater good. Bringing indigenous Zimbabwean African ideals and values to the centre of analyses, against the backdrop of lived socio-historical experiences, the article interrogates selected short stories contributed by some Zimbabwean authors in Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region (2003). It focuses on pertinent issues raised concerning problematic existential conditions particularly affecting women, including their ripple effects on the socio-cultural, economic and material conditions of the respective female protagonists’ lives, families and communities. Because the contributors are themselves women, the assumption is that they know best where it pinches worst, including how best they envision strategies that can usher in sustainable transformation in their respective environments. The article argues that it is important that these issues be examined holistically within the women’s respective socio-cultural and material contexts in order to validate pragmatic approaches that would enable women to wade with ingenuity in their respective community waters. Placed within their familiar cultural environments, women can ingeniously wrestle for meaningful and sustainable transformative change where it is necessary. Yet, women alone cannot usher in sustainable social transformation outside their existential and material conditions, begs the article.

Opsomming

Hierdie artikel volg 'n Afrosentriese benadering tot sy ondersoek na vroue se benarde posisie en die strategieë wat Afrikavroue vóór en ná onafhanklikwording in Zimbabwe gepropageer het om 'n veilige ruimte te skep en om vroue te bemagtig om meer stabiele gesinne te vestig en volhoubare sosiale transformasie te bewerkstellig wat die hele samelewing tot voordeel strek. Inheemse Zimbabwiese Afrika-ideale en -waardes vorm die middelpunt van die ontleding teen die agtergrond van deurleefde sosiohistoriese ervarings, en die artikel ontleed uitgesoekte kortverhale deur Zimbabwiese outeurs wat in Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region (2003) gepubliseer is. Dit fokus op tersaaklike vraagstukke wat verband hou met bestaanstoestande, veral toestande wat vroue raak, en die uitkringeffek daarvan op die sosiokulturele, ekonomiese en materiële toestande van die onderskeie vroueprotagoniste se lewens, gesinne en gemeenskappe. Die medewerkers is self ook vroue, dus word daar aanvaar dat hulle die beste kan aandui waar hulle die swaarste kry; hulle weet wat hulle as die beste strategieë beskou om volhoubare transformasie in hulle onderskeie gemeenskappe in te lei. Die artikel voer aan dat dit belangrik is dat hierdie vraagstukke op 'n holistiese wyse ondersoek moet word binne die vroue se onderskeie sosiokulturele en materiële kontekste sodat dit die pragmatiese benaderings wat vroue in staat stel om hulle gemeenskappe met vindingrykheid te betree, kan valideer. Binne hulle bekende kultuuromgewings kan vroue vernuftig veg vir betekenisvolle en volhoubare transformerende verandering indien dit nodig is. Die artikel voer egter aan dat vroue nie op hulle eie volhoubare sosiale transformasie buite hulle bestaans- en materiële toestande kan inlei nie.