Media and Development: The Politics of Framing Gender Struggles in the Postcolonial Zimbabwean Shona Films

Abstract

To frame gender struggles is to set an agenda on what people should think about it in respect of the contradictory roles that men and women play in society and culture. In this article, three films in the Shona language -Mwanasikana (1995), Kapfupi (2009) and Nhasi lave nehama (1993) have been sampled out to explore gender struggles inherent in the Zimbabwean society. The premise of this article is rooted in the ideological doubleness of the word framing as both restrictive as well as an instrument for liberation. Framing gender in the discourses of these three films calls attention to perceiving gender struggles in certain ways and in the process mani­festing as far as possible the buried narratives that are otherwise obscured in mani­pulated forms of representing life. It is the duty of film critics to retrieve these silenced and "other" readings because of their potential to suggest to the audiences some alternative opinions and reactions. I advance in this article that while a frame can impose what should be thought about, it does not necessarily dictate how audiences interpret its text(s). This dialectical relation of framing implied in the restriction-liberating dimension of a frame, that emerges as it were from the struggle of verbal and visual images inside a frame's boundaries, actually can predispose audiences to want to delve for alternative images of how men and women are depicted in the Shona film.

Opsomming
Om die genderstryd in 'n raamwerk te plaas, is om 'n agenda te he vir wat mense moet dink oor die teenstrydige rolle van mans en vroue in die gemeenskap en kultuur. In hierdie artikel word daar na drie films in Shona (Wanasikana (1995), Kapfupi (2009) en Nhasi tave nehama (1993)) gekyk om genderstryde wat inherent is aan die Zimbabwiese samelewing te verken. Die veronderstelling in hierdie artikel is ingewortel in die ideologiese dubbelsinnigheid van die woord "raamwerk" as beide beperkend en 'n bevrydingsinstrument. Om gender in die raamwerk van die dis­koerse van hierdie drie films te plaas, vestig die aandag daarop dat genderstryde op sekere maniere verstaan word en word die verborge narratiewe (wat andersins in gemanipuleerde vorms om die !ewe uit te beeld, verberg word) so ver as moontlik blootgele. As gevolg van die potensiaal van hierdie gesmoorde en "ander" interpretasies om 'n paar alternatiewe opinies en reaksies aan die kykers te suggereer, is dit die plig van filmkritici om hierdie gedempte interpretasies terug te bring. In hierdie artikel voer ek aan dat alhoewel 'n raamwerk mag voorskryf waaroor daar gedink moet word, dit nie noodwendig dikteer hoe kykers die teks(te) daarvan moet interpreteer nie. Hierdie dialektiese verband van omraming wat deur die beperking-bevryding-dimensie van 'n raamwerk ge"impliseer word, wat as't ware uit die stryd van verbale en visuele beelde binne die grense van die raamwerk voort­vloei. kan kykers in werklikheid vatbaar maak om te wil delf vir alternatiewe beelde van hoe mans en vroue in die Shonafilm uitgebeeld word.